Chocolate, you are like a lover....sometimes titillating, sometimes soothing. You touch my tongue as a solid. My mouth's heat melts you into a thick liquid sliding over my tongue. You tease by activating taste receptors with opposing messages: sweet yet bitter, spicy yet calming, complex yet familiar. You fill my mouth with richness, then exit down my throat to satisfy my stomach's craving for fullness. And when you have left, your taste lingers to prolong my pleasure.
Chocolate, I like you best when your rich chocolate flavors are not masked by too much sugar. Today, the large amount of sugar in commercial chocolate often keeps me from fully experiencing your complexities.
I can't imagine what you were like as the admired drink of the the Aztec and Mayan people. They say that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella considered you "scummy" and bitter when Columbus introduced you to them. Your enormous potential was missed!
It took Hernando Cortes to capture the European imagination by introducing you with your Aztec name, xocoatl. He mixed you with vanilla and sugar to make you more appealing and shared remarkable stories of Aztec rituals that made the most of your mystical qualities. You quickly became a valued medicinal drink to the upper class Spaniards.
Although you were introduced to the rest of Europe, you were mostly known to the upper classes until the Industrial Revolution. In 1847, Fry's in the United Kingdom began producing chocolate bars as they are known today. Mass production techniques made you more accessible to people of all classes. You became famous and popular. I will share more of your story in additional posts.
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