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What is Champorado?

Are there signs of cacao being taken to other places in the world? There are some remnants of the Native cultures from Mesoamerica in places such as the Philippines where we have the breakfast dish and dessert- champorado. To not be mistaken to be for the warm and thick Mexican beverage, champurrado, that is prepared with either masa (lime-treated corn dough), masa harina (dried corn dough), or corn flour, piloncillo (unrefined cane sugar), water or milk, and occasionally contained cinnamon, anise seeds, or vanilla to which is specific per region. Like the different region-specific variations of Champurrado, Champorado, is from the Philippines, traditionally prepared with boiled sticky rice and tablea, traditional tablets of pure ground roasted cacao beans. The Filipinos eat this either for breakfast or merienda with milk or coconut milk and sugar to taste. The Filipino side of my family says, “You can eat Champorado with whatever you have, if it may be milk, coconut milk, evaporated milk, or condensed milk. We mostly had condensed milk in the house since it was canned rather than milk which was delivered daily in the morning fresh by an old man carrying those metal bottles you see milk normally carried in.” In other areas of the Philippines, some people eat and say it should be eaten with dried salted fish called tuyo or even bread. In one of the pictures above, you can see Champorado being served with small salted dried fish and eaten almost like a snack.

How did Champorado come across the Pacific in the Philippines from the Americas? There is no exact date of when champorado was created since the Filipino culture has not really been recorded until the Spanish came. It was all just passed down from word of mouth and no one really took the time to write it down, but just taught each other anything learned as a child and by their ancestors. There have been exceedingly rare mentions of the Philippines and cacao in the same context either, but the Europeans as well as the Americans saw the Philippines as very primitive people who lived off the land as they saw the Natives as well. However, we can assume with the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century that champorado may have been introduced during that same era as well. It’s of course to think of the Spanish, but there are not a lot of history records that suggest that other than the Spanish also colonizing the Philippines later after the Americas. As seen previously, to expand the Spanish’s lucrative trade on cacao, they exported seedlings to many other areas such as Fernando Po in Africa. With this knowledge, “Pedro de Laguna transported cacao seedlings from Acapulco to Manila on a Spanish Galleon in 1663, chocolate has been a traditional food throughout the Philippines.” (Foster) Contemporary Filipinos prepared cacao “virtually identical” to those of the Spanish used in sixteenth-century Mexico. The chocolate created by the Filipinos are made into disks and are usually kept at home to make hot chocolate or champorado, but if not, they may be found in the local markets being sold to make such dishes.

In the Philippines, cacao is prepared using a kawali or what could be seen as a wok with a short handle. This could come to show that there was some Chinese influence as well other than the Spanish influence from colonizing the Philippines. The cacao beans are roasted until the shells can be easily removed. Then the beans are rolled and crushed lightly with a wooden roller or glass bottle then winnowed on a rattan tray to separate the shells from the bean fragments or nibs. The leftover shells are then fed to chickens, the leftover pods are fed to the pigs or goats. The nibs are then ground in a corn mill or meat grinder to be made into a warm paste that is punched into disks with a metal cutter and placed on a banana leaf to cool. These pure chocolate disks are what people call “tablea.”

People may ask why was Champorado made so differently from the dish found in Mesoamerica? This goes back to how my family thinks, “that you can make it with whatever you have,” therefore, since the Philippines did not have maize, the Filipinos replaced it with sticky rice as well as what kind of milk was used. However, Filipinos may not see this as an adaptation of Mexican culture on their own, but in a way you could see the culture of the Natives live on in many places other than Europe and Africa. This shows the Spanish have spread the Mesoamerican culture almost everywhere even as much as the island country of the Philippines.

As mentioned already, various ingredients can be used based on what you may have. But the basic ingredients can be known as water, glutinous rice, tablea chocolate or pure chocolate disks, sugar, and milk. Almost only the milk is substituted most of the time, but some people choose to replace the tablea with chocolate nibs that are readily available especially with those in the supermarkets now.

The recipe is from a website called Kawaling Pinoy is where most people who don’t know how to make Filipino food can find recipes on them and are actually surprisingly good as well.

Recipe:

Ingredients

5 Cups of Water

1 cup of Glutinous Rice

4 Pieces of Tablea Chocolate

½ Cup of Sugar

½ Cup of Evaporated Milk

Instructions

In a deep pot over medium heat, add water and bring to a boil.

Add rice and stir to distribute. Lower heat and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until rice begin to expand.

Add tablea and cook, stirring regularly, until chocolate has melted. Continue to cook until rice is translucent, and liquid is reduced to desired consistency.

Add sugar and continue to cook, stirring regularly, until dissolved.

Ladle onto bowls, drizzle with evaporated milk and serve hot.

Recipe Notes:

The recipe notes mention that you may replace the glutinous rice with regular long-grain rice and mimic the thick and creamy texture by adding rice flour. For this adjustment, you would need to “Stir some rice flour with water until smooth, whisk into the cooked champorado, and simmer for a few minutes to desired consistency.”

Bibliography:

Foster, Nelson, and Linda S. Cordell, eds. Chilies to Chocolate: Food the Americas Gave the World. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1992, 108-110.

Manalo, Lalaine. “Champorado.” Kawaling Pinoy, January 25, 2023. https://kawalingpinoy.com/champorado/.

[chocolateytruth]

Future of Chocolate

Is chocolate still a guilt-free pleasure? Some people would disagree with this question due to the fact there were children working on the cacao plantations and did not know about this fact until the media got their hands on this terrible news of children being sold into this just so the world may partake in their supposed guilt-free pleasure. Throughout the history of chocolate since the encounter of the Spanish with the Aztecs, we have seen the separation between consumer and corporate. Through the connections between consumers and producers, we can see how the foundation of the industry affects the present and the potential shape of the industry in the future.

With the great separation of consumers and producers, people have failed in being aware of how their chocolate has become so accessible and affordable. There is a growing emphasis on sustainable and ethical practices in the chocolate industry. Consumers are increasingly concerned about the environmental and social impact of cocoa production. This trend may lead to increased demand for products that adhere to fair trade standards, support farmers, and promote environmentally friendly practices. All this stems off the thinking that people who are aware are ones that research what's going on, know of the topic, and actively do something to advocate for those who cannot. Consumers are increasingly interested in the transparency of the supply chain. Companies that provide information about the origin of cocoa, ethical sourcing practices, and fair-trade certifications may gain a competitive edge. This goes back to the idea of corporations showing that they get their products from a place that does not partake in child labor as well as fairly treat their workers and not exploit them.

There are some things consumers cannot change such as the trend toward premium and artisanal chocolate is likely to continue. Consumers are seeking unique and high-quality chocolate experiences, and there is a growing market for craft chocolate made from high-quality, single-origin cacao beans. There is a great amount of people wanting to support the smaller businesses that source their cacao beans from one place that is a fair-trade plantation that does not participate in unethical and immoral practices. There is some talk that some chocolate makers are exploring innovative flavors and ingredients to cater to diverse consumer tastes. This includes the use of alternative sweeteners, functional ingredients, and creative flavor combinations. Experimentation with exotic and unique flavors may become more prevalent. This gives us that foundational allure the Spanish got when they were first introduced of the old world.

As consumers become more health-conscious, there is a potential for the development of chocolate products that align with health and wellness trends. This could include the incorporation of functional ingredients, reduced sugar options, and the promotion of chocolate's potential health benefits. Frequently, people are looking for ways to have a healthy lifestyle and wish to share that with people. Especially with social media, health and wellness trends are becoming something a lot of people are being shown especially with companies that look into what we type and shop for. And so, for a product to be healthier, sustainable, and practice fair trade would be a bigger hit than a cheaper product and I feel the chocolate industry can change for the good. Along the talk affordability, advances in technology may impact the production process, from cocoa farming to chocolate manufacturing. Precision farming, sustainable practices, and improved processing techniques could enhance efficiency and reduce environmental impact. Technological transformation does mean that prices could be cheaper, but with transparency, corporations would have to think of diverse ways to lower costs with newer machinery since people would want to know where the cacao beans come from.

In conclusion, the future is full of possibilities that could be for the greater good, but when thinking about big business, it would have to satisfy themselves first. The future of chocolate will likely be shaped by a combination of consumer preferences, industry innovation, and responses to global challenges such as climate change and social responsibility. Sustainable and ethical practices, along with a focus on quality and innovation, are expected to be key drivers in the evolving chocolate landscape and hopefully not repeat history in certain cases.

Bibliography:

Lecture

Kristy, Leissle. Cocoa, (Poury, 2018)

[chocolateytruth]

New World Consumption

Without looking too much into the details of advertisements we see daily, we don’t think of the deeper issues that come with them. Especially through the perspective of chocolate, we see the ads are rather harmless and show us what may happen when we eat chocolate or what happens when we give other chocolate, but that is not the thought when you think about how advertisements are reinforcers for systematic issues. Through the perspective of chocolate, we can observe that advertisements cause stereotypes for people, lack of awareness, and promote excessiveness.

There are many stereotypes in the world and sometimes we fail to see them even among the simplest of images such as advertisements. Advertisements sometimes perpetuate cultural appropriation and reinforce stereotypes such as chocolate ads might use imagery or narratives that exoticize or stereotype certain cultures, particularly those associated with the origins of chocolate production. This can contribute to a lack of understanding or appreciation for the diverse cultures involved in the chocolate industry. We are not aware of such ideas when they come up until we really look into them. Another case would be the exceptionally long debatable stereotype on gender. Some chocolate ads follow the way of how that era thinks on gender, especially on the image of women. Such depictions include women being supportive of their male counterparts, being a stay-at-home spouse, taking care of the children, and in a family setting. Some chocolate advertisements perpetuate harmful body image ideals and reinforce gender stereotypes. Ads often depict unrealistic beauty standards and may link the consumption of chocolate with emotional comfort, potentially contributing to unhealthy relationships with food and reinforcing gender norms around indulgence. The biggest misunderstanding through the work of social media and ads are the depiction of how people should look like and to look this way people should follow a certain lifestyle and if not, they are considered ugly. This places pressure on every gender, no matter if they’re women or men, and that pressure creates stress upon the people consuming the product especially if it’s a food product that helps people feel better. Certain chocolate brands are positioned as premium or luxury products, reinforcing social class distinctions. Advertisements for high-end chocolates may emphasize exclusivity, reinforcing the idea that certain products are meant for a wealthier or more elite consumer base. These social class depictions include adding stress amongst the masses that lead to people to excessively consume products such as chocolate to relieve themselves of the feeling of being lesser than others. Both stereotypes of the body, gender, and cultural stereotypes and appropriations cause unwarranted stress amongst the consumers as well as those that are not in the position of those that the ads are depicting.

Advertisements also have a way of hiding facts even if they may seem full of facts on the products. Almost as if all the hidden information is on fine print for the consumer to not be able to be aware of. Many chocolate products are sourced from regions with a history of labor exploitation and supply chain challenges. Advertisements often focus on the end product, neglecting to address the systemic issues within the cocoa supply chain, such as child labor, poor working conditions, and unequal distribution of profits. This can contribute to a lack of awareness among consumers about the ethical concerns related to chocolate production. This goes back to the world not being aware of who is taking care of picking and producing the cacao that plays a significant role in the creation of chocolate. The lack of awareness can be seen as the corporations not wanting people to know of the atrocities that happen in the background for them to just make money like the politicians who choose to look the other way when people come to be aware of the child labor of cacao and they don’t do anything since that is not their country to be policing. Even though the United States tends to be the biggest police force of the world advocating democracy when they do not listen to what their own people are wanting and needing. Another important subject of ads may not always address the environmental impact of chocolate production. Unsustainable farming practices, deforestation, and other ecological issues associated with cocoa cultivation may be overlooked in favor of marketing the product. Especially during these times when the health of the planet is on a lot of people’s minds, corporations who choose to look the other way, so they may make the most money without it affecting them directly, they will do the most. In their eyes deforestation and child labor is not something they care about even though they are allowing the world to die, but also not improving in other countries no matter how much people talk about wanting a better planet.

The final idea is that chocolate advertisements often promote excessive consumption, contributing to a culture of overindulgence. This can be linked to broader systemic issues related to consumerism and its environmental and health implications. This comes back to the ideas of people back when chocolate was first introduced in Spain, that they thought chocolate had a negative impact on society, but people chose to look away from that. Especially during this day and age where there are a lot of mental illnesses that could be the cause of excessive eating such as binge eating that one doesn’t notice that they are excessively eating something in front of them until they actually pay attention to that product. A box of chocolate can be a prime example of the product someone may get lost in since there would be many delicious choices to choose from, but with a movie and the box on their lap, they may not notice all the contents of the box end up in their stomach by the time the movie ends. In a way, excessive eating is the meaning of gluttony which is one of the sins in any religion.

In conclusion, advertisements reinforce the systematic issues in the world that could be changed with more awareness towards exploitive labor, environmental impact, and mental illnesses as well as equality amongst genders. To address these concerns, there has been a growing movement toward ethical and sustainable practices in the chocolate industry. This includes efforts to eliminate child labor, promote fair trade, and support environmentally friendly farming practices. However, the impact of such initiatives can be limited without broader systemic changes and increased consumer awareness. Advertisements that prioritize transparency, ethical sourcing, and social responsibility can play a role in challenging and changing systemic issues within the chocolate industry.

Bibliography:

Lecture

[chocolateytruth]

New World Production

Do you think with modern production practices that the industrial revolution created corporations would prove to choose ethical labor? The world has seen that big business will always be big business and will cut corners wherever it can. The chocolate industry is no different from any industry there is. As we saw during the industrial revolution, companies did not shy away from using child labor in such terrible conditions in both Europe as well as the United States much later. Through the corporate market and cacao production challenges we can observe how technological modernization expansion did not democratize chocolate.

While technological advances in chocolate production led to increased efficiency and lower costs, chocolate remained a commodity subject to market forces. Economic inequalities and disparities in wealth distribution meant that, despite lower production costs, high-quality chocolate and premium chocolate products often remained more expensive and were accessible primarily to wealthier individuals. This meant that there was still even though chocolate can be produced at a cheaper price, which does not mean the cheaper products are up to par with what the wealthier people are getting. Even if we want to think that the industrial revolution brought chocolate to the masses, it did not bring a quality product to the masses, but just a mass-produced product that was possibly produced with lower grade materials. But how did corporations acquire cheaper materials? They achieved this by using child labor in West Africa where cacao was being sold very cheaply due to the sheer number of cacao plantations there as well as how little they can pay these children. These atrocities follow suit with how corporations cut corners by paying for products that exploit people in less fortunate areas such as West Africa where they can capitalize on families who are less fortunate than people in Europe and the United States. Chocolate became an industry dominated by large multinational corporations with significant marketing budgets. These companies often focused on premium brands and marketing strategies that associated chocolate with luxury, indulgence, and exclusivity. This branding contributed to the perception that certain chocolates were meant for a more affluent market, reinforcing social and economic distinctions. Such depictions in ads show more of the suburban living where families that were fortunate enough to live outside of the city and just commute in rather than those who are less fortunate than those who have to live in the impacted city limits because they cannot afford such luxuries. Such aggressive marketing practices also showed a racist outlook upon the world that mostly the whites are seen as the ones who are higher and could be eating such luxurious goods rather than those of color. Corporations used this to show the many inequalities there are in the world by removing what the consumer sees in the product.

As mentioned before, cacao is produced in tropical regions, but those regions are also known to be countries that are still developing. Issues such as unequal distribution of land, labor exploitation, and economic challenges in cocoa-producing regions contribute to disparities in the chocolate supply chain. The benefits of the chocolate industry have not always been equitably distributed among all stakeholders, from cocoa farmers to consumers. These disparities are not seen by most as well not thought of since people don’t know where cacao beans come from and who actually picks the cacao. One of the developing countries that is very well mentioned for exploiting the fact that their people are not fortunate enough to have stable jobs or stable living is West Africa where corporations have ravaged the area violently for an extraordinarily long time. From the exploitation of people for guns in the seventeenth century and to now we see the use of child labor to be the ones who do the labor of picking the cacao pods off the trees for those pods to be sent off to a factory where more children are working long intensive and extensive hours for pennies. In some ways, you know they are doing it with the thought of helping their families out with their money problems, but this is very unethical and morally wrong to know that children are having to work and not be children. The complex global supply chain for chocolate involves various intermediaries, from farmers to processors to manufacturers. Each step in the supply chain can contribute to the final cost of the product. Factors such as fair-trade practices and ethical sourcing have gained attention, but challenges persist in ensuring that economic benefits reach those involved in the earlier stages of production. All the costs start to rack up in the eyes of the corporations in the name of affordability and the ability to sell more than they can buy the materials.

In conclusion, societal perceptions of chocolate, shaped by historical and cultural factors, also influence its democratization. Chocolate is often associated with celebrations, gifts, and special occasions, reinforcing the idea that certain types of chocolate are meant for specific contexts or social classes.

[chocolateytruth]

Evolution Revolution

During the industrial revolution, how different do you think the cacao industry changed? From how the Natives used to produce chocolate, the system described in the industrial revolution is vastly different than what anyone would have thought. It is even bigger than what most conquistadors and Spanish colonizers have thought about the commodity. Cacao has very much proven to be especially important in life because it has undergone such a vast transformation. Through the industrial revolution, we can observe in chocolate production the separation of consumer and producer.

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the industrial revolution took place that changed the world in a grand way, basically bringing urbanization as well as the creation of machinery. During this time chocolate was the improvement of how chocolate is made and how chocolate was prepared. With how labor-intensive chocolate making was, the need for machinery was necessary. The old methods though included a social aspect that included the consumer being a part of the manufacturing methods with Sephardic Jews who went from home to home to offer their services carrying matates that they used to grind the chocolate. In most countries, they used small chocolate mills that were powered by animal force or by steam at later points in history and produced only small batches of chocolate. These archaic methods severely limited the amount and the quality of cacao and chocolate that was available. They produced around ten kilograms per day in the early eighteenth century. Due to the small amount of chocolate available, people think of new methods that improve upon the methods having the result in about five-hundred kilograms of chocolate made per day. The mechanization in Europe also created social changes as well as new consumption patterns. During the industrial revolutions, chocolate became more available to those of lower classes since there was so much more that the cost of chocolate went down due to the increased amount. This means that instead of just the influential and affluent people, regular people of the working class could also afford the “exotic and luxurious” indulgence. Even though the industrial revolution may have solved some problems they saw in the production of chocolate, they have removed the social aspect that was included in the production of chocolate.

Such machinery included the cacao press in 1828 created by a Dutchman, Van Houten, who solved the problem with the high fat content in cacao. The cacao press extracted the fatty butter from the cacao bean to reduce the fat by twenty-seven percent leaving a cake that could be easily powdered. The result of the cacao press also included a chocolate paste.

Another machinery that improved the production of chocolate would be the melangeur in 1830 by Philipe Suchard that helped create a smoother chocolate that eliminated the grainy texture of chocolate when sugar was added to the concoction. This also helped chocolate be able to be mixed with other ingredients.

One of the most important creations during the industrial revolution would be the chocolate bar in 1848 by Joseph Fry. The chocolate bar utilized the excess cacao butter that was created from when people skimmed off the froth off chocolate beverages. With the mixture of cocoa powder, sugar, and the excess cocoa butter you get a smoother paste that could be cast molded into any shape you please such as a bar of chocolate. It could not only be molded but also became a portable chocolate rather than a beverage that could only be eaten in certain places.

In the 1870s, Daniel Peter solved the problem of the chocolate being not smooth due to the high-water content of chocolate beverages and so with the optimization and creation of dehydrated condensed milk from Henri Nestle, Daniel Peter was able to create milk chocolate. This resulted in a sweeter chocolate bar, but also had an extended shelf life. This milk chocolate can also be seen to be the foundation of which chocolate bars are created after.

Finally in 1879, Rudolph Lindt created the conching machine that solved the problem of grainy chocolate. This machine kneaded chocolate with the process of rolling chocolate liqueur and using frictional heat to achieve a desired taste and smoothness. This smoothness and better, deeper taste in chocolate became what we know as chocolate now.

In conclusion, without the industrial revolution, we could not have seen these foundations of the modern chocolate till later in history and possibly would not have enjoyed the fruits of these people’s labor till later. But with all these machines that removed the human aspect in the creation and intensity of labor, we saw the separation between consumer and producer. The machinery resulted in great feats in efficiency and taste but started to fully move away from the foundations the Natives had left the people. The loss of the foundation of the Natives proves that the world is changing toward something dark.

Bibliography:

Lecture

[chocolateytruth]

Transformation Production

How did the cacao production contribute to the expansion of capitalism? With the increased popularity and allure towards chocolate, the Europeans are in need of the chocolatey goodness even more than they could have believed when they were first introduced to the product. The transformation due to the consumption of chocolate brings a new age of production that Americans saw with tobacco and later cotton. You can find cacao being produced in areas twenty-three degrees above and below the equator which you can observe to be in tropical climates. Through the shift in elements of production, land labor, and capital, we could observe that cacao production contributes to the expansion of capitalism.

In Latin America, there were a number of systems for labor that took place in their agricultural systems such as encomiendas, the system of rewarding conquistadors tracts of land including the right to tax and extract labor from the Native People and in the seventeenth century, haciendas were introduced. This is where we can observe the implementation of the colonial plantation system where European powers such as Spain and later on other colonial nations established large scale cacao plantations in their overseas colonies in particular regions like Mesoamerica, Soconusco (Chiapas, Mexico), Tabasco (Mexico), Oaxaca (Mexico), the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) as well as Guatemala and Honduras. In these areas, we could see them being either oversaw on plantations like mentioned or as well as Haciendas. Haciendas, similar to Latifundio, are a result of the decline of the native population. With the decline of the native population, the economic value of encomiendas lost its importance as a source of economic revenue. Haciendas were categorized for being large estates normally owned by Spaniards and criollos or rarely by wealthy mixed-race individuals. With this kind of agricultural system in place we saw an increase in the production of cacao, but the most notable moment is when the landowners switched from native labor to enslaved labor. Enslaved labor was required when the native populations started to diminish, and the landowners needed people that could survive the harsh and strenuous working conditions of cacao productions. Enslaved African people transported through the Middle Passage were the key for the Spanish to rapidly increase the expansion of capitalism. Capitalism increased the most with the movement of enslaved people due to the vast amount of people they were able to exploit. They exploited these people just so they could become rich off their hard labor since they could not believe a Spaniards doing the same job “as those people.” As Americans, they treated the enslaved as well as the natives without any respect for their lives and livelihood.

Land and labor were not just the key points in the contribution of the expansion of capitalism for cacao production. Capital was the last major part. Capital can be a number of things, but in the perspective of cacao, the Spaniards are looking for more ways they can get their hands on it. And so, with the bringing of seedlings to other places outside of the Americas that could possibly grow these plants and so, we can see why there is a vast amount of cacao trees on the West African soil. The Spanish not only had to exploit their people on the Native Mesoamerican soil, but also on the West African soil where they are able to have a lot of hectares of cacao plantations. And there, they continue to exploit the people even to this day, but we’ll go over this in another category. The need for capital greatly contributed to the expansion of capitalism because the Spanish not only required a stupendous amount of cacao, but also wanted absolute control over the cash crop since they planned to take over the industry entirely. This control was so they can show that they have passed the Dutch and the Portuguese in their trading businesses and come out on top.

In conclusion, the cacao production contributed to the expansion of capitalism because of it becoming a cash crop that led to the need for more land and capital, and the need to use forced and exploited labor. Without these factors nor the vast interest in chocolate we may not have seen such a rapid expansion in capitalism that much. Capitalism needed cash crops such as cacao, sugar, tobacco, and cotton to rapidly force the market to need them and justify the need to exploit the people and the land those people live on.

Bibliography:

Lecture

The cacao economy of the eighteenth century Providence of Caracas and the Spanish cacao Market, Eugenio Pinero

[chocolateytruth]

Transformation Consumption

What happens to societies when they adopt cultural practices from other groups of people? Going back to the idea of the colonized and the colonizer, Mexica, and the Spanish respectively, we observed that their cultural beliefs started to intermingle with each other even though, the Spanish thought the Native people were savage, lesser people than them because they judged what their civilization had in comparison to their own. However, through the perspective of cacao, we have observed that the Spanish consumption adopted cultural practices of the natives such as the creation of chocolate and the symbolism of chocolate.

“After Hernan Cortes first tasted chocolate, the course of its pre-Hispanic history would forever be changed.” (Orellana) When cultures are adopted into societies, certain details are changed, but some of the meanings and symbolisms are kept. As for chocolate, “cacao lost its value as a currency,” (Orellana) but it gained popularity keeping the exotic and luxurious feel it brought to those that came into contact with it. For the Mexicas, we saw that the people higher in society used chocolate as a way to show off their wealth by hosting gatherings that shared the chocolate drink with the people who came along with people of the lower classes that did not have as much cacao as the host. However, for the Spanish, we saw that the higher class hoarded the cacao for themselves or people who could afford it since bringing cacao from the Americas took a lot of labor, the price for cacao was fairly high that not everyone was able to indulge in the chocolatey commodity. (Lecture) The creation of chocolate had to be managed by people who knew how to create such dishes using cacao and since most of the Spanish soldiers married Native women, they had an effortless way of getting people to create such delicacies. But, with the migration of people, they bring their cultures and values to wherever they come to reside. But, what changed about the chocolate drink was the Spaniards added sugar and honey to make the warm, bitter chocolate drink more palpable for the Europeans. The Spaniards also did not have maize, so they used almonds, eggs, or even milk. For the Spaniards, the chocolate drink has been changed from what the Natives had, but the roots of the drink have not been changed at this point. It was still a warm chocolate drink that was from the Natives. You can change the result of the product, but you cannot change the roots. This follows with cultures of societies, you could change the result of the culture, but there would always be a foundation where something has started from.

Along with the exotic and luxurious precedence of chocolate, it brings us to see the assimilation of the Native culture in Spanish culture and not the other way around. Some people could possibly feel offended by this since they think that the Natives were lower and could not bring anything to other societies, but they did. The Catholic church sought out to rid the Europeans of chocolate due to it being from people they thought to be heathens and demons, but the people sought to bring positive views of chocolate, so they may partake in this indulgence without any backlash. The Catholic church believed chocolate made people inhabit sinful kingdoms such as gluttony, greed, and lust. While the people who loved to indulge in chocolate said it was medicine that aided in digestion, internal circulation, had some nutritional value, elevated the mood. People believed these ideas to the point that cacao was used in such “potions” called aphrodisiacs to which people believed they were to be love potions since they had mood boosting properties that boosted one’s mood making them feel full of pleasure and happy. However, people such as Leon Pinelo believed that chocolate was the reason for such unpleasant ailments like weight gain, bloating of the stomach, indigestion, places unwanted weight on one’s heart and causes people to feel dreary just by drinking the froth of the drink. With these different thinking we can observe there being some disagreement about what chocolate was in a moral and ethical object, but with the rising popularity amongst the influential and the affluent, the Catholic church did not prioritize the fall of chocolate. Leon Pinelo stated that chocolate should be indulged in a certain way for certain people. That certain ingredients should be used for people that have different moods than everyone else or have different health conditions for “maximum use of chocolate that would cause pleasure.” This shows us that the Europeans are becoming more accepting of the Native culture even though what they think of the people that are from that civilization even some accepting the people that come from there even if it is on the bases of wanting the chocolate they create.

With the several reasons to why chocolate is so good even if being thought as food of the devil and lead to unpleasurable health conditions, the line between colonizer and the colonized roles can be seen to be very ambiguous due to the fact that the Spanish adopted most of the beliefs of chocolate from the Mayans and Mexicas. No matter if societies call one another lower than the other, their cultures can be seen to mix and assimilate together fairly nicely. The adoption of cultures into societies has caused a transformation in the people due to consumption of such products in the world and would prove to forever change the course of history.

Bibliography

Lecture

Diabolical Fertility, A Sinful Pleasure by: Jose Luis Trueba Lara

Fertile Temptations, Chocolate: Tasty Treat or Grievous Moral Offense? by: Sonia Corcuera Mancera

[chocolateytruth]

Dark Encounter

Did you think food was a point of intersection when it came between the colonized and the colonizer? I would not have thought of food in such a way, and thought food was more like a peace offering between two groups of people. Even the idea of Thanksgiving was the supposed union between Native Americans and the colonial people of the United States. As we have seen from the Mayans in the previous post, we could see that Native civilization, even though they may have not been in direct contact with each other, we could possibly observe an indirect contact through people who learned of their teachings through trade and the mixing Native tribes and people. Trade brought people together and with that brought the mixing of cultures. From human thinking, we are meant to trade amongst each other using trade routes, but we are also wired to expand to unfamiliar places where we haven’t been before, but in other ways, money and power has driven people to do things differently. Due to Columbus’ mistake, the Americas may have been untouched, but with him came the start of people wanting to explore the New world and possibly exploit it for their business ventures. Using the perspective of chocolate, we could observe it being a point of intersection between the colonized, the Aztecs, and the colonizer, the Spanish, through the significance of cacao to the Aztecs and the arrival of the Spanish to Mesoamerica.

To the Aztecs, cacao held a significant place in their cultural, social, and spiritual teachings that historians, linguists, and archeologists have observed through the pottery that has been found in burial places and historical sites. The cultural significance of cacao was the consideration of the cacao being a luxurious item that held more value than even gold which the Spanish and the European countries valued to collect more than anything. In Mesoamerica, cacao was used as currency for goods that were traded amongst the Aztecs as well as surrounding native groups that were able to come to Tenochtitlan for food. With this luxurious significance to cacao, it can be seen as a social significance because the more cacao beans you have shown how much wealth you have, but also what status you hold in society. Unlike what we will see with the Europeans, the Aztecs shared their wealth with people lower than them and we can witness the depiction of cacao related imagery through Aztec art, hieroglyphs, codices, and sculptures that showed how important cacao was in their society. Cacao was also associated with the gods as we have seen from the Mayans. We could figure there was some indirect influence from Mesoamerican cultures that have preceded the Mayans and those groups told them of cacao being the food of the gods. The Aztecs were particularly interested in preserving and integrating the knowledge of these civilizations into their own culture, often adopting elements of art, architecture, and religious practices from earlier Mesoamerican cultures.

As for the Spanish who made their arrival to Mesoamerica in the sixteenth century, with historical figures such as Hernan Cortes, they encountered the Aztec civilization and were informally introduced to chocolate as a warm, bitter chocolate drink. With the warm, bitter chocolate drink, the Spanish found it unappealing. Cortés and his men were initially unfamiliar with cacao and the chocolate drink, but they quickly recognized its value. They observed that cacao was highly esteemed in Aztec society, associated with luxury, religious rituals, and elite consumption. Recognizing the potential economic value of cacao, Cortés brought both cacao beans and the knowledge of how to prepare chocolate back to Spain after the fall of the Aztec Empire. The Spanish affluent, influential, and royalty took interest in cacao which grew to become exceedingly popular in Spain. This introduction to the Spanish as the food of people lesser than them, as them taking it and making it part of their culture, but this can be seen as a point of intersection in the two groups of people’s culture.

In conclusion, chocolate can be seen as a point of intersection due to the introduction of cultures of the colonized and the colonizers- the Aztecs and the Spanish, respectively. Plainly thinking you could see that the Spanish brought the Native culture to the Spanish, but it was chocolate that brought the extensive interest into the Natives more than the gold the Spanish conquistadors could bring on their ships back home from the New world. Food has the power to bring cultures together. This cultural mixing laid the foundation for the development of the chocolate industry in Europe and as we will see spread globally.

Bibliography:

Lecture

Norton, Tasting Empire

[chocolateytruth]

Chocolatey Beginnnings

Do you think an object such as food could shape a whole group of people around it or do the people shape the food into what it needs to be? Figuratively, yes, people shape food into what they want it to become, but in a way for chocolate it was different in Mesoamerica. Chocolate is made from the seeds of the Theobroma cacao tree, named by a botanist in the 1750s, Carl Linnaeus, who created the modern system of naming living organisms- binomial nomenclature. Theobroma in Latin means “the foods of the gods” while the word cacao was taken from the native peoples in Mesoamerica, but linguists have issues tracing which group and where the word originated from in Mesoamerica. Amongst historical linguists they are in between two groups of native people: the Olmec language, mixe-zoquean, calling cacao, “kakaw(a)” and the Aztec or Mexica language related to contemporary Nahuatl calling cacao, “kakawa-ti.” These variations in the words from quite different Native civilizations from different time periods show that cacao had definitely originated from Mesoamerica, but that cacao had a long history that could have been passed throughout Mesoamerica through trade and the meeting and mixing of many people. Through the Olmecs and the Mayans, we could observe the symbolism of cacao held in the two distinct cultures and how the symbolism of cacao had transformed when it came into contact with the Mayans.

The major similarity between the Olmecs and the Mayans is how cacao was held to be a particularly important part in spiritual thought. The Olmecs included cacao in their burial rituals and Archeologists found pottery that has traces of cacao on the plate that were found in a supposed Olmec burial site. The Mayans as well as believe that their people should be buried with cacao so, their spirits may have some cacao to offer to gods. With the meaning came a deep belief that cacao is the food of the gods and that if you had cacao with you when you died, you would have an offering to give to the gods and move on to your eternal resting place. With these beliefs, many people wanted to have cacao with them. Another belief that showed to be fairly similar between these civilizations would be telling stories onto pottery. Most of the accounts we are able to retrieve are through the pottery that have been uncovered in archeological searches of the areas where Natives people have resided. Some of the other accounts are through Codexis, but the best way to know that the pottery found is for chocolate is the glyph that could be seen on numerous amounts of pottery. It said that the earliest evidence of cacao for the Mayan dates back from pottery that belongs to the preclassic period, 2000 BCE-250 CE, located in Belize. Archaeologists believe the pot found in an elite’s burial site could possibly be from 600 BCE, which depicted the cacao glyph, ka-ka-w. The cacao glyph consists of three signs: a fish preceded by a comb-like sign that represents the fin of a fish followed by a last sign that refers to the sign of corn. You can see this glyph of cacao shown on all the pottery placed in the image grouping above. Other pottery like the Popul Vuh, depicts the gods they believe to have significance in their lives such as maize god. The pottery reveals that cacao is used to create humankind which reveals the connection between cacao as an important sustenance in this society as well as the connection to the gods. This is especially important because the Natives placed cacao as an important food commodity that is used in a lot dealing in their daily lives.

The materialistic side where the origins of cacao are seen from the Mayans in the societal classes and where cacao was held in the class system. In the Mayan civilization cacao is held by those who were fortunate enough to have a lot of it in stock in their homes. With this very obvious interest in cacao that is being shown off by the Mayans through pottery to tell their story, we can even see scenes of gatherings that are possibly by the elites who could afford such events as well depicts the elites sharing their wealth with the people that are serving them or lower in their societies standards. This depiction of cacao to be able to share with their people shows how the people can be seen as almost equals and that they are human in comparison to what we will see soon by the Europeans to show that they treat others differently.

The transformation of chocolate can be seen mostly through the depictions of cacao onto pottery, telling the stories of their daily lives, but also why cacao was important in their daily lives. In a way, spiritual ideologies played a key reason cacao was held at such a high importance to the civilizations. The transformation of the bringing together of cultures marks how chocolate transformed Mesoamerica. Spiritual ideologies brought chocolate to a higher standard than that of other goods such as gold. To the Europeans, they sought gold to be the most important commodity, but cacao was the most important ingredient that would have brought the most riches more than gold would have ever.

Bibliography

Lecture

Edgar, Blake. The Power of Chocolate. Archaeology, Vol. 63, No. 6. pp. 20-25.