It’s hard to imagine chocolate tasting anything other than completely delicious. After all, this is chocolate we’re talking about — it’s universally loved, it can be added to almost anything and make it taste instantly better, and it can come in so many wonderful forms. Sure, some people may not be big fans of certain variations. Maybe you love milk chocolate, but can’t stand the bitter taste of dark chocolate. Or maybe you’re head over heels for super dark cacao, but you can’t even look at white chocolate. Still, it’s hard to imagine anyone ever saying chocolate as a whole tastes bad. But apparently, it wasn’t always this way.
Munchies did a deep dive into the history of chocolate, and honestly, it’s really interesting. The stuff has obviously been around for a long time, and historians have even been able to figure out what chocolate tasted like 230 years ago. That’s pretty amazing! You’ve probably never wondered what chocolate used to taste like to colonial people, because why would you? But now that you know it might not have been fantastic, we bet your curiosity is piqued. Ours definitely is! Let’s take a look at the truth behind old-school chocolate…
Chocolate has actually been around since B.C. times, and was once thought to have spiritual properties.
According to History.com, anthropologists have discovered evidence that chocolate was produced by pre-Olmec cultures as early as 1900 B.C. Ancient Mesoamericans who cultivated cacao plants actually mixed the beans into a paste with water, vanilla, honey, chili peppers, and other spices to make a chocolate drink.
Ancient civilizations believed chocolate could be a mood enhancer and aphrodisiac with mystical qualities. The Mayans even worshipped a god of cacao, and chocolate was reserved solely for rulers, warriors, priests, and nobles.
#DYK the Aztecs believed that cacao seeds were the gift of Quetzalcoatl, the god of wisdom? We can believe that - more chocolate, please! #chocolatehistory pic.twitter.com/Oll7hQMZQy
— American Heritage (@Choc_History) January 20, 2019
In the 1500s, the Spanish began sweetening chocolate drinks with cane sugar and cinnamon. At this time, chocolate was still seen as a symbol of luxury, wealth, and power, and only the royals could afford it.
In 1615, the daughter of Spanish King Philip III married French King Louis XIII and brought chocolate to France with her, where it’s popularity quickly spread throughout Europe.
Chocolate didn’t appear in America until around 1670.
According to Munchies, shipping records show that chocolate first appeared in Boston around 1670. Once it was paired with sugar, it became extremely popular, for obvious reasons.
Their chocolate didn’t look like the chocolate we know and love today, though. One chef and chocolate professor says it was probably “rough-looking.” There may have been “suspended balloons of fat” because there was no technology to separate cacao butter from the nib (that didn’t come about until 1828). Aging and separation probably also caused a whitish appearance.
Colonial chocolate also wasn’t meant to be a snack you could eat whenever you had a craving for it. It was “gritty, fatty, and oily,” and had to be chipped or shaved into hot liquids, then regularly stirred, with an oily sheen on top. Spices used to make it taste better likely included cinnamon, clove, anise, nutmeg, Mesoamerican vanilla, chili, orange, and lemon rind.
Over the years, the process of making chocolate edible evolved so much that historians say it’s hard to figure out exactly what it tasted like so many years ago.
Some companies have gone to great lengths to try to reproduce colonial-era chocolate, to get an idea of what it tasted like. Taza sources beans from direct-trade partners in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Bolivia, then uses hand-carved granite millstone disks to grind the cacao nibs, and they skip the conching (stirring) stage for a more “grainy and unrefined” taste and feel.
Mars Wrigley Confectionary also looked into colonial-era ingredients for their American Heritage series. While they didn’t reveal where they sourced the beans from and used a modern conching process for a glossy finish, they did partner with over 150 historical sites to find Mesoamerican chocolate documents and data.
It’s hard to get the process exactly right because of so many other factors. For example, historians have said that the quality of cocoa beans “was probably all over the board.” Long-distance travel would also impact the taste.
Plus, chocolate traveled with other items that could have changed its flavor. And during production, it’s possible that particles of brick, wheat, and mustard got in there, which would also change things in a way we can’t replicate.
So what did chocolate taste like 230 years ago? Probably not great. But hey, it was good enough for everyone to love anyway!
All we can say is that we’re glad for the technology that made it so much better.
