If you can’t imagine life without chocolate, you’re lucky you weren’t born before the 16th century. Until then, chocolate only existed as a bitter, foamy drink in Mesoamerica. So how did we get from a bitter beverage to the chocolate bars of today? Deanna Pucciarelli traces the fascinating and often cruel history of chocolate.

1. FILE 1 A FOOD AND COOKING
The history of chocolate - Deanna Pucciarelli
If you can’t imagine life without chocolate, you’re lucky you weren’t born before the
16th century. Until then, chocolate only existed as a bitter, foamy drink in
Mesoamerica. So how did we get from a bitter beverage to the chocolate bars of
today? Deanna Pucciarelli traces the fascinating and often cruel history of chocolate.
https://youtu.be/ibjUpk9Iagk
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1.- The first transatlantic chocolate encounter occurred in:
A1509
B1513
C1519
D1527
2.- Chocolate has a long history of being linked to love. ______ drank cocoa before
visiting with his wives.
AKing Henry VIII
BMontezuma
CZeus
DKing Louis VIII
3.- Which European country explored the seas and encountered chocolate first?
AFrance
BItaly
CSpain

2. DGreece
4.- Conrad Van Houten invented the ______. This allowed the separation of cocoa
solids from cocoa butter.
ACocoa press
BCocoa filter
CCocoa iron
DCocoa roller
5.- The Aztec people use cacao beans for:
ACurrency and rituals
BCelebrations at royal feasts
CRewards for soldiers
DAll of the above
6.- Cocoa has been consumed as a medicine for hundreds of years and is now thought
to be heart healthy. Why is that so? (Hint: search the web for chocolate and
medicine to read about the vasodilation of arteries)
7.- Cocoa beans are primarily grown in West African countries and linked with human
rights abuses. What are some solutions to solving this problem?
8.- Chocolate is made into cakes, cookies, candy and ice creams. What are the
chemical properties of chocolate that enables the product to be transformed into so
many other items?
Cocoa grows only 20° north and south of the equator. Click here to see the major
growing regions. There are many chocolate timelines, here is a brief sequencing of
innovations and discoveries listed on a commercial chocolate of the month club.
Etymologists trace the origin of the word "chocolate" to the Aztec word "xocoatl,"
which referred to a bitter drink brewed from cacao beans. The late Sophie Coe and
her husband Michael Coe posit in their book the True History of Chocolate that the
earliest linguistic evidence of chocolate consumption stretches back three

3. thousand years, to pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica such as the Olmec. Why
would a very bitter substance, cacao beans, encased in a shell be chosen as the
consumable while the white, sweet pulp surrounding the cocoa beans not be eaten as
a fruit nectar, or fermented into an alcoholic beverage? Perhaps both occurred at
the same time, but we do not have evidence to suggest that the pulp was desired
above the cacao beans; whereas, pottery remains, codices and other writings record
the long use of cacao bean consumption.
Today farmers and scientists understand how crucial the pulp’s role is to
fermenting cacao beans. In fact, without the contact of the cacao beans to the pulp
mixture while held at a steady temperature you end up with an inferior tasting
chocolate product. There are at least 12 steps in the processing of cacao beans: (1)
harvest the pods; (2) ferment the beans; (3) dry the beans in the sun and rake so
that they do not get sunburn; (4) sort according to size; (5) Roast; (6) Winnow
(crack outer shell covering and discard); (7) Grind nibs into a paste; (8) Press cocoa
mass to separate butter from chocolate liquor; (9) Add ingredients (sugar, milk- for
milk chocolate); (10) Conch (refine the particle size to 10-15 microns); Temper
(changes sugar crystals’ chemical structure); (11) Mold; and (12) package for
distribution. Chocolate is a highly processed food. Learn more at this link: The
Science of Chocolate.
Chocolate production comes with environmental and societal concerns. Most of the
world’s cacao pre-manufacturing production (steps 1-4 above) takes place in West
Africa. Within the top producing countries, Ivory Coast and Ghana, there are high
rates of poverty and low levels of education. Many families living in poverty resort
to hiring out their children to the cacao plantations at harvest times. Some children
are enlisted to work the plantations without consent. There are two harvests per
year, and both take place during the school year. Leaders from cacao producing
regions acknowledge this problem and are working to eliminate the worst abuses.
This Smithsonian Magazine article, The Economics of Chocolate, has more
information.
DISCUSS
People residing in the industrial west are the greatest consumer of chocolate. Since it
is known that child and slave labor makes up a proportion of chocolate production,
what role should the consumer play in eliminating this problem?