The history of chocolate dates back over 5,000 years, when the cacao tree was first domesticated in present-day southeast Ecuador. Soon introduced to Mesoamerica, it gained cultural significance as an elite drink among different cultures, including the Mayans and Aztecs. Cacao was extremely important; considered a gift from the gods, it was used as a currency as well as medicinally and ceremonially. Chocolate was often associated with the heart, and was believed to be psychedelic. It is unclear when chocolate was first drunk, and there is evidence of Mesoamerican groups drinking an alcoholic drink made by fermenting the pulp around cacao seeds.
Spanish conquistadors encountered chocolate in 1519, and brought it to Spain as a medicine. From Spain, it gained popularity among the European elite over the following three centuries, and was debated for its medicinal and religious merits, and understood as an aphrodisiac. In the 19th century, technology innovations completely changed chocolate, from a drink for the elite, to solid, milky block increasingly eaten by the public. It saw the rise of Swiss and British chocolate makers, and a move to industrialism.
Since WWI, chocolate has undergone further developments, creating couverture.
Chocolate is a Spanish loanword, first recorded in English in 1604,[1] and in Spanish in 1579. However, the words origins beyond this are contentious. While it is popularly believed that chocolate derives from the Nahuatl word chocolatl (the language of the Aztecs), early texts documenting the Nahuatl word for chocolate drink use a different term, cacahuatl, meaning "cacao water". Several alternatives have therefore been proposed. In one, chocolate is derived from the hypothetical Nahuatl word xocoatl, meaning "bitter drink". This is considered unlikely as there is no clear reason why the 'sh' sound represented by 'x' would change to 'ch', or why an 'l' would be added. Another theory suggests that 'chocolate' comes from chocolatl, meaning 'hot water' in a Mayan language. However, there is no evidence of the form 'chocol' being used in a Mayan language to mean hot.
Despite the uncertainty about its Nahuatl origin, there is some agreement that chocolate likely derives from chicolatl. However, whether chicolatl means 'cacao beater' (referring to whisking cacao to create foam), is contested, as the meaning of chico is unknown.
The cacao tree is native to the Amazon rainforest. Evidence of cacao domestication exists as early as 5300BP in the Amazon in southeast Ecuador by the Mayo-Chinchipe culture, before it was introduced to Mesoamerica. This emerged from research into residue in ceramics, which revealed starch grains specific to the cacao tree, residue of theobromine (a compound found in high levels in cacao), and fragments of ancient DNA with sequences unique to the cacao tree. The domesticated cacao tree was then spread along the Pacific coast of South America. It is unclear when a drink that could be considered chocolate was first consumed, as opposed to other cacao beverages, given that there is evidence the Olmec fermented the sweet pulp surrounding the seeds into an alcoholic beverage.
Cultivation, consumption, and cultural use of cacao were extensive in Mesoamerica. The earliest evidence of cacao drink consumption in the region dates to the Early Formative Period (1900–900BC). On the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico the Mokayan people consumed cacao drinks as early as 1900BC. Archaeological evidence from the Gulf Coast of Veracruz, Mexico demonstrates cacao preparation by pre-Olmec peoples as early as 1750BC. Traces of cacao have been found in bowls and jars dated between 1800 and 1000BC in the city of Puerto Escondido, Mexico. The decorations on these high-quality ceramics suggest that cocoa was a centerpiece to social gatherings among people of high social status.
Although there is evidence that the Olmec consumed cacao as a beverage, little evidence remains on how it was processed. Some evidence evidence suggests cacao consumption in the Olmec regions of San Lorenzo, Tenochtitlan. Large vases found suggest that the Olmec used cacao for mass gathering events such as sacrificial rituals. Linguists Kaufman and Justeson have identified kakaw(a), the root of the word cacao to the Olmec civilization in 1000BC.
Early evidence for chocolate consumption is found among the Mayans, in 600BC. Chocolate was used in official ceremonies and religious rituals, at feasts, weddings and festivals, as funerary offerings and for medicinal purposes. Both cocoa itself and vessels and instruments used for the preparation and serving of chocolate were used for important gifts and tributes. It is unknown how or if commoners consumed cacao. Consumption was limited to adult men, as the stimulating effects were considered unsuitable for women and children. Cacao beans were also used as a currency by at least 400BC. Difficulties growing cacao in Yucatán were overcome due to social and religious significance by rich hobbyist gardeners, although the majority of cocoa consumed was imported.
To make chocolate, the beans were fermented, dried and roasted. The Maya removed the husks, and pounded the nibs with manos (stones) against a metate (stone surface) built over a fire into a paste. This paste was hardened into solid chunks, which were broken up and mixed with water and ingredients. When this liquid was heated, a fat, called cocoa butter, rose to the surface, and was skimmed off. The basic process of fermenting, roasting and milling with metates was followed all the way to the 19th century.
Cacao paste was flavored with additives like the flowers of the earflower and vanilla. Before serving, chocolate was poured between vessels from a height to generate brown foam, an effect believed to be highly desirable. Some cocoa butter, added back in, was emulsified by this process. To determine if a drink was high-quality, the darkness of the foam, the colour of bubbles and aroma were observed, along with the origin of beans, as well as flavour. Chocolate was only one of several drinks made at this time out of cacao, including a drink including maize and sapote seeds called tzune and a gruel called saca. There is uncertainty over how fresh cacao and their pulp were used in drinks.
The Mayans produced writings about cacao that identified chocolate with the gods, with Ek Chuah the patron god of cacao. There is controversy among historians whether the mythological figure Hunahpu was believed to have invented cacao processing. Across eras, cacao was considered a gift from the gods. In the late Mayan and the Aztec periods, there was a strong symbolic connection between cacao and blood.
Following the collapse of the Mayan Empire, control over cocoa-producing regions was a source of fighting between the Toltec and rival tribes. Chocolate was consumed as far north as the southern US by the elite of the Anasazi. Cocoa was imported as part of a cacao-turquoise exchange in a Toltec-run trade network in the 9th–12th centuries. The Mayan people introduced chocolate to the Aztecs.
Chocolate was one of the two most important drinks to the Aztecs. It was particularly important considering the other most important drink, octli, was alcoholic, and drunkenness was stigmatized. Chocolate was considered a luxurious, sensual product, to be celebrated, but also at odds with an imagined austere ideal past, being overly decadent and weakening consumers. It was incorrectly believed to be hallucinogenic. The Aztecs believed cacao was a gift from the god Quetzalcōātl. The bean was used as a symbol for the human heart removed in human sacrifice, possibly because they were both repositories of precious liquids (blood and chocolate). The association with blood was furthered by adding annatto, a food coloring, to turn the drink red.
The Aztecs used chocolate in tributes to rulers and offerings to the gods. Chocolate was drunk exclusively by the Aztec elites, such as the royal house, lords, nobility, and long-distance traders called pochteca. When drunk by the elites at banquets, chocolate was served at the end as a digestif. Soldiers in battle were the only exception, as cacao was considered a stimulant. Chocolate was included in their rations, eaten as pellets or wafers formed from ground cocoa. The use of chocolate in food commonly associated with the Aztecs, mole poblano, originated in territory that was never occupied by Aztecs after the Spanish invasion. Commoners who consumed chocolate could face execution. It was served to human sacrifice victims before their execution. Chocolate was also served to the sick, to treat a variety of illnesses including coughs, stomach issues and fever.
Cacao was imported into central Aztec territory, as frost stopped cacao trees from growing. Most beans were imported from Soconusco, which the Aztecs had conquered for its cacao. They required the conquered inhabitants pay the Aztecs cacao as tribute. At the time of the Spanish conquest, 1.5 million trees were tended in Soconusco. Cacao was transported across Aztec territory by the pochteca, carrying 24,000 beans weighing NaNlb on their backs.
While primarily drunk, chocolate was sometimes eaten. It was served both hot and cold. An inferior gruel was made by adding maize. While the highest quality chocolate was pure, additions were often made, requiring the removal of foam and then replacement. The most popular addition throughout Mesoamerica was dried and ground chilli, but honey, dried and ground vanilla or flowers, and likely annatto among many other ingredients were added. While Aztec chocolate drinks are popularly expected to contain cinnamon, the spice was only introduced to Mesoamerica through the Spanish conquest. Some chocolate recipes have been claimed by Spanish observers to have been considered an aphrodisiac, although these reports are not considered reliable. Women were responsible for processing cacao into a beverage.
The Spanish conquistadors recorded the currency exchange value of the cacao bean, noting in 1545 that that thirty could buy a small rabbit, one could buy a large tomato, and a hundred beans could purchase a turkey hen. Royal stores were claimed to hold massive amounts of cocoa beans. Cacao beans were often counterfeited, with dough made of amaranth, wax or broken avocado pits.
See also: History of chocolate in Spain.
On the fourth voyage of Columbus, on August 15, 1502, the expedition came upon a Mayan trading canoe near an island in the Gulf of Honduras. Chronicling the objects on the canoe, a member of the Columbus expedition noted the apparent value of cacao, inferred from how the canoe crew reacted when they were dropped, although they did not know what they were or that you could make a drink of them. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés may have been the first European to encounter chocolate when he observed it in the court of Moctezuma II in 1520. Missionaries early in the conquest began to sell solid sweet chocolates as delicacies, produced by nuns. These chocolates were very profitable.
By 1524, the Spanish ruled central Mexico, and expanded cacao production while increasing tribute requirements. Cacao was produced using forced labour under the encomienda labor system, and during the 16th century native Americans experienced a massive population decline and production decreased. In response, more cacao was produced on the Guayaquil coast of Ecuador, and Venezuela, although of a lower quality and using slaves from Africa. This cacao was inferior as it was not the same variety as the Criollo type grown in Mesoamerica: this was the Forastero, which was native to South America and tasted more dry and bitter, but produced more fruit and was more disease-resistant. The Spanish brought cacao to the Caribbean around 1525, where it spread from Trinidad to Jamaica.
Chocolate was an acquired taste for the Spanish living in the Americas, and the foam was particularly objectionable. However, the primarily male Spanish population was systematically exposed to chocolate via the Aztec women they married and took as concubines. As Spanish women immigrated and the Spanish elite no longer married the local population, Aztec women remained in the household as domestic servants. To accommodate chocolate to their tastes, chocolate was served warm, often sweetened, and with familiar spices. The foam was created by beating with a molinillo (a wooden whisk) rather than pouring from a height. This habit of serving chocolate spiced to emulate the Mesoamerican flavoring had decline by the eighteenth century.
Through the sixteenth century after colonization, the Spanish were interested in the medical qualities of Mesoamerican plants. Writers such as Bernal Díaz and Francisco Hernández, the royal physician to Phillip II of Spain, claimed chocolate was an aphrodisiac, and Hernández reported back to Spain a range of conditions he believed chocolate and its additives could treat. As a result, Spain at this time viewed chocolate primarily as medicinal.
It is unknown when chocolate was first brought to Spain, and there is no evidence it was Cortés who introduced it. The first evidence of its introduction to the Spanish court was in 1544 by Qʼeqchiʼ Mayan nobles, brought to Spain by Dominican friars, but it took until 1585 before the first official shipment of cacao to Europe was recorded.
From Spain, chocolate spread to other European nations; to Portugal, to Italy in the 17th century, and then outwards. Tracing the spread of chocolate in Europe is complicated by the religious wars and shifting allegiances of the time, but it was driven by cosmopolitanism and missionaries. During the 17th-century, chocolate-drinking became very popular among the elite of Europe, and was considered an aphrodisiac. It was expensive due to the high transportation costs and import duties. From the late-16th century until the early 18th, it was controversial whether chocolate was both a food and a drink, or just a drink. This distinction was needed to determine if consumption broke the ecclesiastical fast. Most cacao in the 17th–18th centuries was imported to Europe from Venezuela.
The introduction to France is therefore difficult to ascertain, but there is most evidence that it was introduced as a medicine. Historians believe the silver chocolate-pot, used to stir and beat chocolate, was invented by the French after its introduction. By the 1670s, drinking chocolate was widespread among French aristocratic women, despite disagreement over if chocolate was medically good or bad, and it would only be settled as good by 1684. Concerns about the health effects can be seen expressed in a 1671 letter by noblewoman Marie de Rabutin-Chantal:Chocolate arrived in England in the mid-17th century, around the same time as tea and coffee, and encountered an initial backlash from those with medical concerns. Cocoa was supplied by Jamaican plantations, taken from the Spaniards in 1655. While chocolate had begun being flavored with new, highly-perfumed ingredients, such as jasmine and ambergris in Italy in the seventeenth century, in England chocolate was a commercial product and production was simpler and less careful. Chocolate was served in coffee houses to whoever could pay, and by the end of the 17th century it was compulsory to include it in British navy rations. From England, chocolate spread to the North American colonies by the late-17th century. Chocolate was well established among the elite of late 17th century Philippines, brought over by the conquering Spanish.
In the 18th century, chocolate was considered southern European, aristocratic and Catholic. This was in contrast to the bourgeois coffee and proletarian alcohol. While the technique of producing chocolate was still very similar to that of native Americans, chocolate was also consumed as bars, pastilles, in ices, desserts, main courses and pasta. Medical opinion of this time held that chocolate was medically beneficial if not consumed in excess.
In Spain, Jesuits were prominent in importing and drinking chocolate until Charles III expelled them in 1767. The upper and middle class consumed chocolate for breakfast and after dinner, after drinking a glass of cold water. Guilds of chocolate grinders were formed across cities. In Italy chocolate preparation varied. Following a historic use of conveying poisons, Pope Benedict XIV was rumored to have been killed by poison put in his chocolate, after he suppressed the Jesuits. Chocolate was commonly used in recipes in Italy during the 18th century, particularly in northern Italy. In France, chocolate was mainly used in desserts and confectionary. The French began heating working areas of the table-mill to assist extraction in 1732. Chocolaterie Lombart was founded in 1760, and is claimed to have been the first chocolate company in France.
Developments to the technique of producing chocolate began in the 18th century. In 1729, a patent was granted to British apothecary Walter Churchman for a water engine that powered cocoa milling, purchased by Joseph Storrs Fry of J. S. Fry & Sons in 1789. In the American colonies, water-powered milling began in 1765. In 1776 in France, a hydraulic mill was invented, which spread to other European countries.
In 1828, Coenraad Johannes van Houten received a patent for the manufacturing process for making Dutch cocoa. The process removed cacao butter from chocolate liquor, the result of milling, by enough to create a cake that could be pulverized into a powder. This would later permit large-scale, cheap chocolate production, in powdered and solid forms, opening up mass consumption. At the time however, there was no market for cocoa butter, and it took until the 1860s to be widely used. Chocolate was often adulterated, including by firms such as Cadbury, which resulted in the creation of food standards laws. With improvements in production, a worker in 1890 could produce fifty times more chocolate paste than before the Industrial Revolution.
Quakers were active in chocolate entrepreneurship in the Industrial Revolution, setting up J. S. Fry & Sons, Cadbury and Rowntree's. They were teetotalers, and believed chocolate was a good alternative for alcohol. In 1847, Fry's invented a method of mixing cocoa butter with cocoa powder and sugar to invent a non-brittle and dry eating chocolate, commonly considered the first chocolate bar. A corresponding increase in cocoa butter prices made this, for a time, a food of the elite. Competition between Cadbury and Fry's in the 19th century created the chocolate box and the chocolate Easter egg. Quaker firms built model villages, such as Bournville, to promote worker morality and living conditions. This paternalistic concern was shared by other, irreligious chocolate manufacturers.
In 1819, the first chocolate factory in Switzerland was opened by François-Louis Cailler. The factory featured the first mélangeur (chocolate mixing machine), and produced chocolate more bitter than is now common. In the 1860s, the van Houten company alkalized cocoa powder, which improved taste and darkened appearance. Modern milk chocolate was invented in 1875 when Swiss chocolate manufacturer Daniel Peter combined the recently invented powdered milk with chocolate, and achieved public acceptance after 1900. While milk had previously been added to chocolate, it was expensive and difficult to keep fresh. In 1879, the conching process was invented by the Swiss Rudolphe Lindt, which heats and agitates liquid chocolate for days to change flavour and increase smoothness. Before conching was invented, chocolate had been gritty. Conching was maintained by Lindt as a trade secret for more than 20 years. Able to integrate more smoothly with batters and doughs, conched chocolate made chocolate a more common ingredient in baking.
The price of chocolate began to drop dramatically in the 1890s and 1900s as the production of chocolate shifted from the Americas to Asia and Africa. From 1880–1914, the mass market for chocolate experienced huge growth: between 1896 and 1909, chocolate consumption in the United States increased 414%, and similarly quadrupled between 1880 and 1902 in England. Eating chocolate overtook drinking chocolate in market share in the early 1900s, but this growth was largely restricted to Western nations.
See also: Cocoa production in Ghana and Cocoa production in Ivory Coast. In the early 19th century, the Portuguese began commercial cacao growing in West Africa after their colonies in South America gained independence. Introducing the crop to São Tomé from Brazil in 1824, widespread cultivation soon spread across Africa. In bringing cacao to Africa from Brazil, the Portuguese also recreated the slave plantation system. When Portugal made slavery illegal in 1869 after large international pressure, production was maintained by creating a captive workforce through "legal trickery." São Tomé and Príncipe became the largest producer in 1905. While cacao had historically been grown on a mix of estates and smallholdings, by 1914 the latter was becoming dominant.
After receiving the attention of journalists and activists, Cadbury began inquiring into labor practices in the Portuguese cacao industry in the first decade of the 20th century. A 1908 report by Cadbury agent Joseph Burtt described the system as "de facto slavery". In 1909, Fry's, Cadbury and Rowntree's boycotted plantations in Portuguese territories which generally improved working conditions, although not entirely. Cadbury moved sourcing to the British colony of the Gold Coast, today Ghana, which became the largest producer of cacao in 1911. It remained the largest producer until it was overtaken by the Ivory Coast in the late 1970s. The growth in the West African cocoa industry was driven by a combination of colonial pressures and a European market.
Slave labor among African cacao growers gained public attention after the release of the documentary Slavery: A Global Investigation in 2000. In 2005, a non-binding, voluntary industry agreement called the Harkin–Engel Protocol was created to address child and forced labor. The media's reporting on this issue is often sensationalistic, and as of 2018 the topic had not been systematically studied. Issues with child labor are not restricted to Africa.
Couverture chocolate was invented by Belgian chocolatier Octaaf Callebaut in 1925. Tempering, the process of heating chocolate mixture to 150F before cooling, was developed by 1931. This produces a snap upon breaking and gives a glossy appearance. In 1936, Nestlé first sold white chocolate. Lecithin began to be added after WWII to improve consistency and texture. From the 1970s there were arguments over how much cocoa butter could be replaced with cheaper fats and still be called chocolate. In 1997, EU regulations ruled this could only be 5% of chocolate's fat, which was followed by Australia and New Zealand. The US did not allow any substitutions.
Through the 20th century, plantations were damaged by disease and climate. Scientists attempted to stop this, by breeding hardier hybrid varieties and cloning the best stock. However, the chocolate these beans produced was sometimes bitter, and concentrating production in less varieties caused problems when they were impacted by disease. The supply chain became more efficient with motor vehicles and uptake of shipping containers.[2] In the 1980s, Indonesia increased production. From the late 1980s to 2019, cocoa bean production doubled. In this time, governance over production moved from states to market-led initiatives.
After Cadbury bought Fry's in 1918, their competition became Swiss chocolatiers and the American firms Mars and The Hershey Company. Godiva introduced Belgian-style chocolate to America in 1966, bringing about large demand for premium chocolate. Dark chocolate had experienced a "popular resurgent interest" by 2009 from public attention around health claims concerning its polyphenolic antioxidants, and raw and organic chocolates were observed to have risen in popularity as of 2018. Single origin chocolates were first created in 1984, starting the bean-to-bar, or craft chocolate movement. Origin is loosely defined, and can refer to countries or specific plantations. Valrhona introduced single-origin, vintage-dated chocolate in 1998 from Trinidadian plantation. Awareness of labor conditions of cacao growers has spurred demand for fair trade chocolate.
Markets in China and India emerged in the late 20th-century, with chocolate centrally a gift. In both markets, this rise was driven by an increases in investment and household income. In the 2000s, consumption grew in Africa; in Nigeria for example, the market grew 775% between 2006 and 2013.
Drinks are still made from cacao seeds across Mesoamerica.
As of 2010, the bean-to-bar movement was unregulated and producer's claims of provenance and quality criticised. Cacao growers and initial processors aim to meet minimum standards. The genetic purity of variants has been contested, as they crosspollinate with other variants. From this ambiguity, growers exaggerate types. In 2013 there were at least 37 bean-to-bar producers in the United States, from one in 1997. Most did not source from West Africa, despite its dominance in cacao production.
The cacao industry is under threat by the emergence of diseases; as of 2017 up to 38% of cacao harvested annually was lost to disease. As of 2023, the industry's sustainability was threatened by the need for deforesting for more land, poor soil management, persistent poverty and forced labor among cacao farmers, and climate change. As of 2018, there was "little evidence" that initiatives to reduce child labor had been effective. In 2022, Ghana and the Ivory Coast supplied 57% of the world's cocoa.[3]
In 2023, cocoa processors Olam, Cargill and Barry Callebaut controlled 40% of trade between countries. As of 2018, chocolate-makers Mars, Mondelez (owner of Cadbury), Ferrero, Nestlé and Hershey, known as the 'Big Five', comprised almost two thirds of the global chocolate market. The international trade in chocolate was worth $108 billion USD in 2018, and the largest market and consumption per capita remained in the West.