Page 200 - Ei 2018-2019 Catalog

History of Chocolate
Chocolate is one of the major categories at European Imports, as we carry an extensive variety of chocolate couvertures and coatings from well-known brands such as Valrhona, Cacao Barry, Callebaut, Carma, Belcolade and Van Leer.
The story of chocolate began 4,000 years ago in the jungles of Mexico and Central America with the chocolate tree, Theobroma Cacao, and the complex processes necessary to transform its bitter & sour seeds into what is now known as chocolate. This discovery was made centuries before chocolate was even consumed. Originally, cacao was served as an unsweetened beverage.
The Maya people were the first to leave some evidence in writing about cacao, which detailed their belief that gods shed their blood on the cacao pods as part of its production. They gathered once a year to give thanks to the Cacao god.
When the Aztecs conquered much of Mesoamerica, they required all cacao producing areas to pay them in cacao beans as a tribute, making the bean become a form of currency and a sign of wealth.
After the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, chocolate was imported to Europe where it was sweetened with cane sugar and cinnamon and became the drink of kings and aristocrats. Chocolate became a delectable symbol of luxury, wealth and power.
Chocolate remained an aristocratic nectar until the Industrial Revolution introduced new processes that sped up the production of chocolate.
In 1828, Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten invented the cocoa press, which was used to squeeze the fatty cocoa butter from the roasted cocoa beans, leaving behind a dry cake that could be pulverized into a fine powder. The cocoa powder could then be mixed with liquids and other ingredients,
poured into molds, and solidified into edible, easily digestible chocolate. This innovation by van Houten ushered in the modern era of chocolate by reducing the cost of production and making chocolate more consistent in quality.
Then, in 1847, British chocolate company J.S. Fry & Sons discovered that by adding cocoa butter back
to cocoa powder, and adding sugar to sweeten, they were able to create the first solid edible chocolate bar.
Rodolphe Lindt’s 1879 invention of the conching machine – which produced chocolate with a velvety texture and superior taste – allowed for the mass production of smooth, creamy milk chocolate on factory assembly lines. Industrialization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries made chocolate available to all.
198
PASTRY • PASTRY