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.
如果你無法想像 你的人生中沒有巧克力 你會很慶幸你沒有 出生在 16 世紀以前 在那之前,巧克力只存在於中美洲 而且形式與我們所知的大相徑庭 回溯到公元前 1900 年 中美洲的人民已經學會培植可可豆 最早的記載說明他們將可可豆磨碎 並混合玉米粉和辣椒來製成飲品 並不是一杯讓人放鬆的熱可可 而是提神的苦味泡沫飲料 如果你認為今天的我們 非常重視巧克力 其實中美洲人民早已擊敗我們 他們相信可可 是羽蛇神賦予人間的食物 其在瑪雅被稱作 「庫庫爾坎」 阿茲特克則稱作 「魁札爾科亞特爾」 阿茲特克人使用可可豆作為貨幣 在貴族盛宴上喝巧克力 更將其作為勇士的勝仗獎勵 並在儀式中使用 第一次橫跨大西洋 發現巧克力是在 1519 年時 埃爾南·科爾特斯登陸 特諾奇提特蘭上蒙特祖瑪的宮廷 根據科爾特斯的上尉的記錄 國王曾用金杯喝下 50 罐這種飲料 當殖民者帶著這些 奇怪的新豆子回國時 傳教士基於當地的色情風俗 賦予它壯陽藥的聲譽 最初,它的苦味使其 作為治療疾病的藥物 例如腸胃不適 但是加入蜂蜜、糖或香草等甜味劑後 使巧克力快速地在西班牙宮廷間流行 很快地,貴族的家中 都有專用的巧克力器皿 這種時尚的飲品 很難且耗時大規模生產 這需要加勒比及非洲海岸島嶼的 莊園和進口的奴隸 巧克力的世界在 1828 年永遠改變 阿姆斯特丹的康尼拉范豪敦 引進了巧克力擠壓機 范豪敦的發明可以分離 可可的天然脂肪或可可脂 並留下可以被混合成飲用溶液的粉末 或與可可脂重組 製成我們今天知道的固體巧克力 不久後,瑞士巧克力師傅 丹尼爾·彼得 將奶粉混合巧克力 因此發明牛奶巧克力 到了 20 世紀 巧克力不再是奢侈品 而是公眾的一種享受 為了滿足大量的需求 就需要種植更多的可可樹 它們只能生長在赤道附近 至今,不再將非洲奴隸送往 南美洲的可可種植園 而是將可可的生產轉至西非 截至 2015 年,象牙海岸 提供的可可佔全世界的 40% 隨著產業的增長 可怕的人權侵犯問題也層出不窮 西非有許多的莊園都供應往西方公司 他們僱用奴隸與童工 估計有 200 多萬的兒童牽涉其中 這是個複雜且持續存在的問題 儘管大公司與非洲國家 努力地建立合作 來減少兒童和契約勞工的奴役 今天,巧克力已在現代文化中 確立自己的地位 因為其本地文化與殖民地的關聯 並結合廣告的力量 巧克力保留了一些感性的、頹廢的 和禁忌的味道 然而,瞭解它迷人且殘酷的歷史 以及今日的生產 告訴我們這些關聯的起源 和它們隱藏的事情 下次你拆開巧克力的包裝時 花一點時間來思考