Editing Chocolate (section)

==History==

{{Main|History of chocolate}}

[[File:Aztec. Man Carrying a Cacao Pod, 1440-1521.jpg|thumb|upright|Mexica. ''Man Carrying a Cacao Pod'', 1440–1521]]

Evidence for the domestication of the [[Theobroma cacao|cacao tree]] exists as early as 5300 [[Before Present|BP]] in [[South America]], in present-day southeast [[Ecuador]] by the [[Mayo-Chinchipe]] culture, before it was introduced to [[Mesoamerica]].<ref>{{Harvsp|Lanaud et al.|2024|p=8}}</ref> It is unknown when chocolate was first consumed as opposed to other cacao-based drinks, and there is evidence the [[Olmecs]], the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization, fermented the sweet pulp surrounding the cacao beans into an [[alcoholic beverage]].{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=The Tree of the Food of the Gods}}{{Sfnp|Collins|2022|pp=301–302}} Chocolate was extremely important to several Mesoamerican societies,{{Sfnp|MacLeod|2000|p=636}} and cacao was considered a gift from the gods by the [[Maya civilization|Mayans]] and the [[Aztec Empire|Aztecs]].{{Sfnp|Vail|2008|p=10}}{{Sfnp|Collins|2022|pp=160-162}} The [[cocoa bean]] was used as a currency across civilizations and was used in ceremonies, as a tribute to leaders and gods and as a medicine.{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=The Maya on the Eve of the Conquest}}{{Sfnp|Leissle|2018|p=34}}{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|p=95}}{{Sfnp|Presilla|2009|pp=12, 16, 22}}{{Sfnp|Aguilar-Moreno|2006|p=274}}{{Sfnp|Grivetti|2008b|p=68}} Chocolate in Mesoamerica was a bitter drink, flavored with additives such as [[vanilla]], [[Cymbopetalum penduliflorum|earflower]] and [[Chili pepper|chili]], and was capped with a dark brown foam created by pouring the liquid from a height between containers.{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=Flavorings, Spices, and Other Additions}}{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=Cacao Preparation among the Late Maya}}{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=Lords of the Forest: The Classic Maya}}

While 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,<ref>{{Harvsp|Dillinger et al.|2000|page=2058S-2059S}}</ref>{{Sfnp|Grivetti|2008a|p=100}} it proved to be an acquired taste,{{Sfnp|Collins|2022|p=285–288}}{{Sfnp|Norton|2004|p=15}} and it took until 1585 for the first official recording of a shipment of cocoa beans to Europe.{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=Cacao in Spain: "Chocolate Brought to Perfection"}} Chocolate was believed to be an [[aphrodisiac]] and medicine, and spread across Europe in the 17th century, sweetened, served warm and flavored with familiar spices.{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=Chocolate and the English}}{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=New Spain and Central America}}{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=Crossing the Taste Barrier}} It was initially primarily consumed by the elite, with expensive cocoa supplied by colonial plantations in the Americas.{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=Chocolate and the English}} In the 18th century, it was considered southern European, [[Aristocracy|aristocratic]] and [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] and was still produced in a similar way to the way it had been produced by the Aztecs.{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=Chapter 7}}[[File:Fry's Chocolate Cream split.jpg|thumb|One of the first mass-produced chocolate bars, [[Fry's Chocolate Cream]], was produced by [[J. S. Fry & Sons|Fry's]] in 1866.<ref name="Chocolates">{{cite book |last=Mintz |first=Sidney |title=The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=157}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PJxwAwAAQBAJ | title=Tout sur le chocolat | publisher=[[Odile Jacob]] | author=Khodorowsky, Katherine | year=2009 | pages=47 | isbn=978-2-7381-9390-2 | quote=(oubliant celle de Menier en 1836) | trans-quote=(forgetting that of Menier in 1836)}}</ref>]]Starting in the 18th century, chocolate production was improved. In the 19th century, engine-powered [[Milling (machining)|milling]] was developed,{{Sfnp|Snyder|Olsen|Brindle|2008|p=612}}{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=Quaker Capitalists}} and in 1828, [[Coenraad Johannes van Houten]] received a patent for a process making [[Dutch process cocoa|Dutch cocoa]]. This removed cocoa butter from [[chocolate liquor]] (the product of milling), and permitted large scale production of chocolate.{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=A Break with the Past: Van Houten's Inventions}} Other developments in the 19th century, including the ''[[melanger]]'' (a mixing machine), modern [[milk chocolate]], the [[conching]] process to make chocolate smoother and change the flavor meant a worker in 1890 could produce fifty times more chocolate with the same labor than they could before the [[Industrial Revolution]], and chocolate became a food to be eaten rather than drunk.{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=Switzerland: Land of Cows and Chocolate}} As production moved from the Americas to Asia and Africa, mass markets in Western nations for chocolate opened up.{{Sfnp|Clarence-Smith|2000|p=48}}

In the early 20th century, British chocolate producers including [[Cadbury]] and [[J. S. Fry & Sons|Fry's]] faced controversy over the labor conditions in the Portuguese cacao industry in Africa. A 1908 report by a Cadbury agent described conditions as "de facto slavery."{{Sfnp|Walker|2008|p=553}} While conditions somewhat improved with a boycott by chocolate makers,{{Sfnp|Coe|Coe|2013|loc=Quaker Capitalists}}{{Sfnp|Leissle|2018|p=41}} slave labor among African cacao growers again gained public attention in the early 21st century.{{Sfnp|Leissle|2018|p=28}} During the 20th century, chocolate production further developed, with development of the [[Tempered chocolate|tempering technique]] to improve the snap and gloss of chocolate and the addition of [[lecithin]] to improve texture and consistency.{{Sfnp|Snyder|Olsen|Brindle|2008|p=620}}{{Sfnp|Moss|Badenoch|2009|p=63}} [[White chocolate|White]] and [[couverture chocolate]] were developed in the 20th century and the [[bean-to-bar]] trade model began.{{Sfnp|Beckett|2019|p=10}}{{Sfnp|Garrone|Pieters|Swinnen|2016|p=91}}{{Sfnp|Leissle|2018|p=39}}