Post 1 - History

Did you ever wonder where chocolate comes from? Who invented chocolate? What is in chocolate? I bet you have thought about it deep inside before. Chocolate is made from sugar, cocoa butter, coco paste, and the most special ingredient, the cocoa bean. A cocoa bean grows on one type of tree, the cacao, that produces a seed called a cocoa bean. When the Olmec Indians lived in what is now Mexico, they discovered a tree with tiny, five petaled snow white flowers and odd looking pods which were someday going to change the world's taste of dessert.


Around 2000 years ago, in Mexico and Central America, the Mayan Indians were hard at work grinding their special drink made out of ground cocoa beans. The drink was sort of like hot chocolate, but the Indians did not use sugar. They drank the beans ground up raw which made it pretty bitter. Before they discovered the beans could produce this amazing, bitter drink, the Mayan and Aztec Indians used the beans as form of currency. The cocoa beans were worth a lot more money than they are now. The Indians treasured the cocoa bean because they loved their hot chocolate. Sixty-six avocados or two turkeys were traded for the amount of cocoa bean it takes to make a Hershey's candy bar. Three cocoa beans were worth an avocado in the Aztec world and 100 beans for a large turkey. If you were an Indian would you rather have 200 cocoa beans (the amount in a Hershey's bar) or sixty-six avocados and two turkeys? Remember, when you are done eating the avocados you can take the pit and plant them to make sixty-six avocado trees! The turkeys are alive so if you get a male and a female they can have babies and get more and more turkeys for dinner. So, what do you choose the sugar packed candy bar or all the food you will ever need?

In 1528 Cortez, a Spanish explorer, brought the cocoa bean from the Aztecs to King Charles the fourth. When the secret got out about this wonderful drink the Spanish became attached to the hot chocolate. As the drink became more popular the Spanish tried mixing it with orange blossom water, honey and spices. In the middle of the next century, the extraordinary chocolate drink was spreading its popularity in France. A Frenchman opened the first hot chocolate shop in London and set the world on fire with the amazing flavor of chocolate. In the 1700's the chocolate houses were as popular as coffee in England. By the 19th century, chocolate had reached almost all of the middle class in America and Europe.

The discovery of solid chocolate was found out by confectioners. The solid chocolate was made from chocolate liquor, cocoa butter and sugar. Thus the manufacturing of chocolate was born. In 1847, Joseph Fry created a paste that could be pressed into a mold. It came to many people that eating chocolate was almost just as fun as drinking it!

In 1900, Milton S. Hershey introduced the one of the original chocolate bars to the English, which soon spread to the entire world. Three years later Milton built a chocolate factory and a village for his workers near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 1907 Milton S. Hershey decided to build a park for his workers. The park was great for picnicking, boating and cooling off under the big trees surrounding the park. On Fourth of July, 1908 a merry-go-round was installed and opened with great enthusiasm. All through the 1900's Milton added elements to Hershey Park. In 1971 Hershey Park was was converted from a regional amusement park to Hersheypark the most popular amusement park around.

In the future, chocolate may be so expensive that an every day person will not be able to afford it.The rain forests are getting cut down by human beings and destroying the cacao trees home. If there are no cacao trees left in the world there will be no cacao beans and all chocolate lovers will have to go back to boring, old vanilla. If you want the chocolate to stay in the world protect the rain forests and enjoy your chocolate!

The picture above is of a Mayan Indian carrying a basket full of cocoa beans.