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.
Če si ne znaš predstavljati življenja brez čokolade, imaš srečo, da nisi bil rojen pred 16. stoletjem. Do takrat je čokolada obstajala samo v Srednji Ameriki v precej drugačni obliki, kot jo poznamo sedaj. Že leta 1900 pr. n. št. so se ljudje v tej regiji naučili pripraviti zrna tam rastočega kakavovca. Najzgodnejši zapisi nam povedo, da so zrna zdrobili in zmešali s koruzno moko in čilijem, da so ustvarili pijačo - ne sproščujočo skodelico vročega kakava, ampak grenek, poživljajoč zvarek, ki se peni. In če mislite, da zganjamo prevelik hrup okrog čokolade danes, so nas prebivalci Srednje Amerike premagali. Verjeli so, da je kakav hrana iz nebes, ki jo je ljudem podaril pernati plazilski bog, Majem poznan kot Kukulkan in Aztekom kot Quetzalcoatl. Azteki so uporabljali kakavova semena kot valuto in pili čokolado na kraljevih slavjih, jo dajali vojakom kot nagrado za uspeh v bojih in jo uporabljali v ritualih. Prvo transatlantsko čokoladno srečanje se je zgodilo leta 1519, ko je Hernán Cortés obiskal dvor Moctezume v Tenochtitlanu. Kot je zabeležil Cortezov poročnik, so kralju prinesli 50 vrčev in jih nalili v zlate skodelice. Ko so se kolonisti vrnili s pošiljko tega čudnega novega zrna, so jim opolzki opisi misijonarjev o običajih teh ljudstev dali sloves afrodiziaka. Sprva je bila zaradi grenkega okusa dobra za zdravljenje težav, kot so želodčne težave, a ko so jo sladkali z medom, sladkorjem ali vaniljo, je čokolada kmalu postala popularna poslastica na španskem dvoru. In kmalu noben aristokratski dom ni bil popoln brez pribora za čokolado. Proizvodnja te moderne pijače v velikih količinah je bila zelo težka in dolgotrajna. Vključevala je uporabo plantaž in suženjsko delovno silo na Karibih in otokih ob obali Afrike. Svet čokolade se je spremenil za vedno okrog leta 1828, ko je Coenraad van Houten iz Amsterdama predstavil stiskalnico za kakav. Van Houtenov izum je lahko izločil kakavovo mast, oziroma maslo. Ostal je prah, ki so ga lahko zmešali v pijačo ali spet združili s kakavovim maslom, da so ustvarili trdo čokolado, kot jo poznamo danes. Nedolgo zatem je švicarski izdelovalec čokolade Daniel Peter v mešanico dodal mleko v prahu, in tako izumil mlečno čokolado. V 20. stoletju čokolada ni bila več luksuz elit, ampak je postala posladek za množice. Povečano povpraševanje je zahtevalo gojenje večih količin kakava, ki lahko raste samo okrog ekvatorja. Namesto da bi sužnje iz Afrike pošiljali na plantaže kakava v Južni Ameriki, se je proizvodnja kakava preusmerila v Zahodno Afriko, in Slonokoščena obala tako proizvaja dve petini svetovnega kakava od leta 2015. A z rastjo industrije so bile tu tudi grozljive zlorabe človekovih pravic. Veliko plantaž v zahodni Afriki, ki zalagajo podjetja z vzhoda, uporabljajo suženjsko in otroško delovno silo, ki prizadene več kot 2 milijona otrok. To je kompleksen problem, ki vztraja kljub trudu glavnih proizvajalcev čokolade, da bi se povezali z Afriškimi državami in s tem zmanjšali obseg otroškega in prisilnega dela. Dandanes se je čokolada uveljavila v ritualih moderne kulture. Zaradi njene kolonialne povezave z domorodnimi kulturami, združene z močjo oglaševanja, čokolada ohranja sloves nečesa čutnega, dekadentnega in prepovedanega. A znanje o njeni fascinantni in pogosto kruti zgodovini, kot tudi o njeni proizvodnji danes, nam pove, od kod te povezave izvirajo in kaj skrivajo. Ko torej naslednjič odvijete tablico čokolade, si vzemite trenutek za razmislek, da ni vse sladko.