A short lesson on chocolate

One of my favourite places in Antigua is Choco, the chocolate museum and shop. Here you can experience every aspect of chocolate in the place it was born.

The choco museum

 You smell the aroma as you savour the free samples while watching the chocolate get made on a table in front of you. You can even make your own chocolate from scratch, grinding and roasting the cacao beans and everything!

Chocolate making

After spending way too much time in that place, here is a quick run down of what I know:

1.       The cacao bean was first discovered by the Mayans in Central America. Everyone would grow the cacao plant in their backyards and grind it up and roast it, mixing it with water and chilli for a delicious cold drink. It was a massive part of their culture with the drink being incorporated into marriage ceremonies, other celebrations and daily life.

2.       The Aztecs rocked up later and conquered the Mayans. They couldn’t grow cacao plants where they used to live as it is a finicky plant and needs it’s own special place with lots of rain, well drained soil and constant cover under the canopy of the jungle. The Aztecs fell in love with the cacao bean and would trade it at first with the Mayans and later use it as a currency. They believed it had been a gift from an Aztec god and it became something only wealthy people could access. They started mixing it with other spices.

3.       The Spanish rocked up and took a whole lot of stuff from the Aztecs and Mayans. They took the nobles’ treasures, including the cacao beans, back to Europe.

4.       Chocolate became a huge fad for the wealthy in Europe and many different ways of eating it came about. Europeans used slave labourers to far cacao in central and introduced the bean to other places like Africa and Indonesia.

5.       Chocolate became a health drink because of  its high caloric content and physicians promoted it. A physician started advocating mixing it hot with milk...hot chocolate.

6.       The Industrial revolution: all of asudden they no longer had to hand roast or grind the beans and could use hydraulics to press it. The solid chocolate bar was born!!!!!!

7.       Chocolate took over the world and is worshipped now almost as fervently as it was when the Mayans first started roasting and grinding it. Australians eat on average 60 100g chocolate bars a year vs. Germans which eat 114 100g chocolate bars.

I thought we would eat more

I think my mixed blood of German, Chilena and, of course, Australian has resulted in an insatiable desire for chocolate because I most definitely eat more than my fair share in one year.

Hmm...what an amazing bean