Wednesday's Word -- Chocolate

I'm supposed to give the welcoming remarks at a networking event for women executives tomorrow night. This is an annual event centered around chocolate tasting (what could be better?).  So, with my mind on chocolate, here are a few morsels of information that may be news to you.

Chocolate

As you can see above, the description of chocolate is somewhat circular.  I suppose it's difficult to describe the taste of chocolate without saying it's chocolate-y.  (Something like trying to describe salt.  Very difficult to do.)  

The word "chocolate" is thought to come from Aztec and Mayan words meaning something like hot bitter water.  Sounds yummy, doesn't it?  

Chocolate goes way back, but not in the form of Hershey's kisses.  Chocolate is prepared from the seeds of the cacao (kah KOW) tree, a small evergreen tree native to the deep tropical region of the Americas.  The Mayan people loved cacao so much that they took the tree from the rainforest and grew it in their own backyards, where they harvested, fermented, roasted, and ground the seeds into a paste.  They would mix the paste with water, chile peppers, cornmeal, pepper and other ingredients to make a frothy, spicy drink.  (As my 7-year-old put it, "eeeewwww!")

Cacao seeds were so valuable that they were used by the Aztecs as a form of money, and citizens could pay their taxes in cacao seeds.  According to one Aztec legend, the god Quetzalcoatl brought heavenly cacao to Earth.  Eventually, he was cast out of paradise for the blasphemous act of giving this sacred drink to humans, because mere mortals should not be allowed to drink it.

When the Spanish arrived in the Americas as conquerors, they discovered the chocolate drink, but didn't like the bitter taste.  So they began adding ingredients like sugar and cinnamon.  As chocolate spread throughout Europe, people (as they always do with anything valuable) tried to control who could have access to it.  Some countries, like France, decreed that only aristocracy could drink it.  In England, anyone with money could drink it, although many chocolate houses admitted only men.

The Mayans and Aztecs used chocolate in religious ceremonies.  The Europeans also thought chocolate had special powers.  Many believed it could induce sleep, aid digestion, purify the blood, and more.  Many also believed it was an aphrodisiac.  

Chocolate drinks became popular in the U.S. too, but it really took off in the early 1900s when advertisers started targeting women and children in particular.  Breakfast chocolate became a part of many people's diets.  Eating chocolate was encouraged as a way to sustain energy, cure lethargy, and improve all sorts of medical conditions.  

Some things don't change all that much over time, I suppose.  I've been amused but somehow pleased to see the recent Nutella commercials that tout that heavenly concoction as an essential part of a nutritious and balanced breakfast.  I love Nutella, but there's nothing balanced about it -- at least the way I smear it on.

Now, the word is that chocolate contains flavonoids and antioxidants that prevent or delay certain damage to the body's cells and tissues.  Although I suspect that eating Easter bunnies and chocolate Santas will have no such effect.  Perhaps if we removed the sugar and added some cornmeal and pepper to the mix?  Can't you just see the children's faces on Christmas morning?

Today, Americans consume 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate each year, or over 11 pounds per person.  But here's the really interesting part.  The U.S. is not the largest consumer of chocolate, or even close.  The largest consumer of chocolate is Ireland (go figure).  Others in the top 5 are Switzerland, the UK, Belgium and Norway (in that order).  The U.S. ranks number 12.  

The way I see it, we've got some breathing room.  So go pour yourself a steaming mug of cornmeal/pepper/cacao paste yumminess!