If you can't imagine life without chocolate, you're lucky you weren't born before the 16th century. Until then, chocolate only existed in Mesoamerica in a form quite different from what we know. As far back as 1900 BCE, the people of that region had learned to prepare the beans of the native cacao tree. The earliest records tell us the beans were ground and mixed with cornmeal and chili peppers to create a drink - not a relaxing cup of hot cocoa, but a bitter, invigorating concoction frothing with foam. And if you thought we make a big deal about chocolate today, the Mesoamericans had us beat. They believed that cacao was a heavenly food gifted to humans by a feathered serpent god, known to the Maya as Kukulkan and to the Aztecs as Quetzalcoatl. Aztecs used cacao beans as currency and drank chocolate at royal feasts, gave it to soldiers as a reward for success in battle, and used it in rituals. The first transatlantic chocolate encounter occurred in 1519 when Hernán Cortés visited the court of Moctezuma at Tenochtitlan. As recorded by Cortés's lieutenant, the king had 50 jugs of the drink brought out and poured into golden cups. When the colonists returned with shipments of the strange new bean, missionaries' salacious accounts of native customs gave it a reputation as an aphrodisiac. At first, its bitter taste made it suitable as a medicine for ailments, like upset stomachs, but sweetening it with honey, sugar, or vanilla quickly made chocolate a popular delicacy in the Spanish court. And soon, no aristocratic home was complete without dedicated chocolate ware. The fashionable drink was difficult and time consuming to produce on a large scale. That involved using plantations and imported slave labor in the Caribbean and on islands off the coast of Africa. The world of chocolate would change forever in 1828 with the introduction of the cocoa press by Coenraad van Houten of Amsterdam. Van Houten's invention could separate the cocoa's natural fat, or cocoa butter. This left a powder that could be mixed into a drinkable solution or recombined with the cocoa butter to create the solid chocolate we know today. Not long after, a Swiss chocolatier named Daniel Peter added powdered milk to the mix, thus inventing milk chocolate. By the 20th century, chocolate was no longer an elite luxury but had become a treat for the public. Meeting the massive demand required more cultivation of cocoa, which can only grow near the equator. Now, instead of African slaves being shipped to South American cocoa plantations, cocoa production itself would shift to West Africa with Cote d'Ivoire providing two-fifths of the world's cocoa as of 2015. Yet along with the growth of the industry, there have been horrific abuses of human rights. Many of the plantations throughout West Africa, which supply Western companies, use slave and child labor, with an estimation of more than 2 million children affected. This is a complex problem that persists despite efforts from major chocolate companies to partner with African nations to reduce child and indentured labor practices. Today, chocolate has established itself in the rituals of our modern culture. Due to its colonial association with native cultures, combined with the power of advertising, chocolate retains an aura of something sensual, decadent, and forbidden. Yet knowing more about its fascinating and often cruel history, as well as its production today, tells us where these associations originate and what they hide. So as you unwrap your next bar of chocolate, take a moment to consider that not everything about chocolate is sweet.
Ako ne možete zamisliti život bez čokolade, sretni ste što niste rođeni prije 16. stoljeća. Do tada, čokolada je postojala samo u Mezoamerici u poprilično drugačijem obliku od onoga kakvog danas znamo. Još davne 1900. pr. Kr., ljudi iz te regije naučili su pripremati zrna graha domaćeg stabla kakaoa. Prema najranijim podacima, grah bi se samljeo te pomiješao s palentom i čili papričicama kako bi se stvorilo piće - ne opuštajuća šalica vrućeg kakaoa, već gorka, osnažujuća pjenasta mješavina. Ako ste mislili da se danas previše uzbuđujemo oko čokolade, nismo ni do koljena Mezoamerikancima. Vjerovali su da je kakao božanska hrana koju je ljudima darovao pernati bog-zmija, Majama poznat kao Kukulkan a Astecima kao Quetzalcoatl. Asteci su koristili kakao grah kao valutu, a čokoladu su pili na kraljevskim gozbama, davali ih vojnicima kao nagradu za uspjeh u bitkama i koristili ih u ritualima. Prva transatlantički čokoladni susret dogodio se 1519. kada je Hernán Cortés posjetio dvor Montezuma u Tenochtitlanu. Kako je zabilježio Cortésov poručnik, kralj je naredio da se iznese 50 vrčeva pića i natoči u zlatne pehare. Kada su se kolonisti vratili s pošiljkama čudnovatog novog graha, zavodljive priče misionara o domorodačkim običajima utjecali su na njegovu reputaciju kao afrodizijaka. U početku je njegov gorak okus bio prikladan kao lijek za bolesti, kao što je bol u trbuhu, ali zaslađivanje medom, šećerom ili vanilijom brzo je čokoladu učinilo popularnom delicijom na španjolskom dvoru. Uskoro, nijedan aristokratski dom nije bio potpun bez čokolade. Proizvodnja mondenog pića bila je kompliciran i dugotrajan proces velikih razmjera. To je uključivalo plantaže i rad uvezenih robova na Karibima i otocima afričke obale. Svijet čokolade će se 1828. zauvijek promijeniti kada Coenraad van Houten iz Amsterdama uvede kakao prešu. Van Houtenov izum će moći odvojiti prirodne masnoće kakaoa ili kakao maslac. To ostavlja prah koji se mogao umiješati u pitku otopinu ili ponovno pomiješati s kakao maslacem kako bi se stvorila čvrsta čokolada kakvu danas poznajemo. Nedugo poslije, švicarski čokoladar, imena Daniel Peter u miks je dodao mlijeko u prahu, stvarajući time mliječnu čokoladu. Do 20. stoljeća, čokolada više nije bila elitni luksuz već je postala slastica za širu javnost. Zadovoljavanje masovne potražnje zahtijevalo je veći uzgoj kakaoa, koji je mogao rasti samo uz ekvator. Sada, umjesto da se afrički robovi brodovima šalju na južnoameričke plantaže kakaoa, sama proizvodnja kakaoa će se preseliti u zapadnu Afriku gdje će od 2015. Obala bjelokosti proizvoditi dvije petine svjetskog kakaoa. Ipak, s rastom industrije bilo je strašnog zanemarivanja ljudskih prava. Mnoge plantaže diljem zapadne Afrike, koje su opskrbljivale zapadne tvrtke, koriste ropstvo i dječji rad uz procjenu da je time pogođeno više od 2 milijuna djece. Ovo je kompleksni problem koji je ostao usprkos trudu velikih tvrtki da se udruže s afričkim nacijama da smanje prakse dječjeg i ugovornog rada. Danas je čokolada prisutna u ritualima naše moderne kulture. Zbog kolonijalne povezanosti s domorodačkim kulturama i uz moć reklame, čokolada zadržava auru nečega senzualnog, dekadentnog i zabranjenog. Ipak, znajući više o fascinantnoj i često okrutnoj povijesti, kao i o njenoj proizvodnji danas, govori nam odakle potječu te asocijacije i što skrivaju. Dok odmotavate svoju sljedeću pločicu čokolade, razmislite na trenutak kako nije sve u vezi čokolade tako slatko.