Indigenous Chocolate (Chocolata Inda)
| Alternative medicine | |
|---|---|
.png) 1644 woodcut print of Neptune graciously receiving chocolate under maritime law. | |
| Modality | Complimentary |
| Claims | Panacea in the 17th to 19th centuries attributed as a cure for melancholy. |
| Year proposed | Circa 1522 |
| Original proponents | Huottuja (Piaroa Tribe) |
| Subsequent proponents | Biocolonialism |
| MeSH | D000069956 |
| See also | Theobroma grandiflorum Theobroma bicolor |
| Owner | Huottuja-De'aruhua |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Amerindians (Indigenous) |
| Country | Guiana Shield |
| Introduced | 1522 |
| Related brands | Indigenous Cacao™ |
| Markets | North America, Europe |
| Registered as a trademark in | Common Law 1542 |
| Tagline | Origin and Source of Chocolate |
| Website | Theobromatology Huottuja Foundation |
| Common Law Trademark[1] | |
| Intellectual Property[2] | |
Search Indigenous Chocolate on Amazon.
 Evidence of Pre-Columbian civilizations' discovery and use of cacao | |
| Alternative names | Natural Chocolate |
|---|---|
| Region or state | Mesoamerica, South America |
| Created by | Indigenous Peoples |
| Invented | 1522 |
| Main ingredients | Cacao |
| Ingredients generally used | Cupuacu |
| Variations | 13 |
| Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) | |
|---|---|
| Energy | 954 kJ (228 kcal) |
57.90 g | |
13.70 g | |
19.60 g | |
| Vitamins | Quantity %DV† |
| Vitamin A | 195 IU |
| Thiamine (B1) | 9% 0.1 mg |
| Riboflavin (B2) | 25% 0.3 mg |
| Niacin (B3) | 3% 0.4 mg |
| Vitamin B6 | 0% 0.0 mg |
| Folate (B9) | 3% 11 μg |
| Vitamin B12 | 29% 0.7 μg |
| Choline | 9% 46.1 mg |
| Vitamin C | 0% 0 mg |
| Vitamin E | 3% 0.5 mg |
| Vitamin K | 5% 5.7 μg |
| Minerals | Quantity %DV† |
| Calcium | 13% 128 mg |
| Iron | 107% 13.86 mg |
| Magnesium | 141% 499 mg |
| Manganese | 183% 3.837 mg |
| Phosphorus | 105% 734 mg |
| Potassium | 32% 1524 mg |
| Sodium | 1% 21 mg |
| Zinc | 72% 6.81 mg |
| Other constituents | Quantity |
| Water | 3.00 g |
| Caffeine | 230 mg |
| Cholesterol | 23 mg |
| Theobromine | 2060 mg |
| |
| †Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults. Source: USDA Nutrient Database | |
Indigenous Chocolate or Chocolata Inda (1644) is a traditional medicine, religious sacrament, and wholesome functional food that is very versatile; it is used today around the world in thousands of different products. Indigenous chocolate or 'chocolata' was created, discovered, invented, and prepared by the Indigenous Peoples of South America over 5,000 years ago. Only recently, it was discovered that it had been used in North America as early as 1,500 years ago in Chaco Canyon, and another recent discovery of ceramic vessels in Ecuador have been dated to be at least 4,000 years old.
Indigenous chocolate is made from fermented, dried, toasted, and ground or pulverized seeds of the 'chocolate tree', known to botanists since 1753 as Theobroma cacao (L.). Indigenous chocolate is also produced without fermentation and toasting of the bean; the dried cacao powder is used as a snuff by shamans in cleansing rituals.
When the Spanish arrived in Mexico in 1519, they found the people of the Aztec Empire using cacao extensively as their currency and drinking a concoction of it for good health and prosperity.
Chocolate was first introduced in detail publicly by Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma in 1644 in his book "Chocolata Inda". This is not the first factual documentation of chocolate. The New Laws of the Indies were created by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, in 1542 for fair treatment of the Indigenous people and to maintain the cacao trade with the encomienda system. The subject of cacao was discussed between Charles V and Hernando Cortes in 1522 when biocolonialism began following the conquest of Montezuma.
New International Laws
Origin of Natural Chocolate
Experts mostly agree that Theobroma cacao originated in South America approximately ten million years ago, somewhere on the Guiana Shield after the division of the Pangea supercontinent to form Africa and South America. The Piaroa, Yanomami, and Yekuana tribes of the region have been growing and harvesting wild cacao from their trees since the Spanish arrived at the Upper Orinoco Valley in 1533.
The natural wild Theobroma cacao genome is the most complex of Theobroma genus; all the cacao in the world is traced back to this species. This original cacao is known to be found recently in the Upper Orinoco and French Guiana. This species was also found in Ecuador and Peru where it hybridized with other Theobroma species and a great deal of genetic diversity occurred over time.
Source of the Wild Cacao Genome
Credible Indigenous Chocolate
Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civilization (19th-11th century BCE),[3][4] and the majority of Mesoamerican people (including the Maya and Aztecs) made chocolate beverages.[5]
Cultural Heritage
Chocolate has been prepared as a drink for nearly all of its history. For example, one vessel found at an Olmec archaeological site on the Gulf Coast of Veracruz, Mexico, dates chocolate's preparation by pre-Olmec peoples as early as 1750 BC.[6] On the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico, a Mokaya archaeological site provides evidence of cocoa beverages dating even earlier to 1900 BC.[7][6] The residues and the kind of vessel in which they were found indicate the initial use of cocoa was not simply as a beverage, but the white pulp around the cocoa beans was likely used as a source of fermentable sugars for an alcoholic drink.[8]
An early Classic-period (460–480 AD) Maya tomb from the site in Rio Azul had vessels with the Maya glyph for cocoa on them with residue of a chocolate drink, suggests the Maya were drinking chocolate around 400 AD.[9] Documents in Maya hieroglyphs stated chocolate was used for ceremonial purposes in addition to everyday life.[10] The Maya grew cacao trees in their backyards[11] and used the cocoa seeds the trees produced to make a frothy, bitter drink.[12]
Intellectual Property
By the 15th century, the Aztecs had gained control of a large part of Mesoamerica and had adopted cocoa into their culture. They associated chocolate with Quetzalcoatl, who, according to one legend, was cast away by the other gods for sharing chocolate with humans,[13] and identified its extrication from the pod with the removal of the human heart in sacrifice.[14] In contrast to the Maya, who liked their chocolate warm, the Aztecs drank it cold, seasoning it with a broad variety of additives, including the petals of the Cymbopetalum penduliflorum tree, chile pepper, allspice, vanilla, and honey.
The Aztecs were unable to grow cocoa themselves, as their home in the Mexican highlands was unsuitable for it, so chocolate was a luxury imported into the empire.[13] Those who lived in areas ruled by the Aztecs were required to offer cocoa seeds in payment of the tax they deemed "tribute".[13] Cocoa beans were often used as currency.[15] For example, the Aztecs used a system in which one turkey cost 100 cocoa beans and one fresh avocado was worth three beans.[16]
The Maya and Aztecs associated cocoa with human sacrifice, and chocolate drinks specifically with sacrificial human blood.[17][18]
The Spanish royal chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés described a chocolate drink he had seen in Nicaragua in 1528, mixed with achiote: "because those people are fond of drinking human blood, to make this beverage seem like blood, they add a little achiote, so that it then turns red. ... and part of that foam is left on the lips and around the mouth, and when it is red for having achiote, it seems a horrific thing, because it seems like blood itself."[18]
Colonialism (Plunder)
The first crimes against Indigenous Peoples were those made in the name of the imperialism of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain. Within 30 years of the discovery of the Americas, the plant species found to be in use by Indigenous peoples were being cultivated by the territorial settlers. Peanuts, vanilla, chili, potatoes, papaya, corn, sunflower, tomato, pepper, eggplant, and cacao were all being grown, distributed, and exploited by the European settlers. (This is before the Italians had pizza or tomato sauce for their pasta.) There are more than 100 food items that have been taken and converted into the cultural heritage of at least 8 European countries unlawfully based on their plunder of the cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples tribes. It becomes biocolonialism (biopiracy) because it was the Indigenous peoples that took the 3,000 previous years to learn which foods they should eat to develop the original genetic species of origin. It is an act of biopiracy to take cultural and intellectual property without free, prior, and informed consent from the Indigenous tribes who were the originating sources of Theobroma cacao and Theobroma grandiflorum.
Biocolonial Era (Discovery)
Until the 16th century, no European had ever heard of the popular drink from the Central American peoples.[13] Christopher Columbus and his son Ferdinand encountered the cocoa bean on Columbus's fourth mission to the Americas on 15 August 1502, when he and his crew stole a large native canoe that proved to contain cocoa beans among other goods for trade.[19] Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés may have been the first European to encounter it, as the frothy drink was part of the after-dinner routine of Montezuma.[9][20] José de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit missionary who lived in Peru and then Mexico in the later 16th century, wrote of its growing influence on the Spaniards:
Although bananas are more profitable, cocoa is more highly esteemed in Mexico. . . Cocoa is a smaller fruit than almonds and thicker, which toasted do not taste bad. It is so prized among the Indians and even among Spaniards. . . because since it is a dried fruit it can be stored for a long time without deterioration, and they bring ships loaded with them from the province of Guatemala. . . It also serves as currency, because with five cocoas you can buy one thing, with thirty another, and with a hundred something else, without there being contradiction; and they give these cocoas as alms to the poor who beg for them. The principal product of this cocoa is a concoction which they make that they call “chocolate,” which is a crazy thing treasured in that land, and those who are not accustomed are disgusted by it, because it has a foam on top and a bubbling like that of feces, which certainly takes a lot to put up with. Anyway, it is the prized beverage which the Indians offer to nobles who come to or pass through their lands; and the Spaniards, especially Spanish women born in those lands die for black chocolate. This aforementioned chocolate is said to be made in various forms and temperaments, hot, cold, and lukewarm. They are wont to use spices and much chili; they also make it into a paste, and it is said that it is a medicine to treat coughs, the stomach, and colds. Whatever may be the case, in fact those who have not been reared on this opinion are not appetized by it.[21]
While Columbus had taken cocoa beans with him back to Spain,[19] chocolate made no impact until Spanish friars introduced it to the Spanish court.[13] After the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, chocolate was imported to Europe. There, it quickly became a court favorite. It was still served as a beverage, but the Spanish added sugar, as well as honey (the original sweetener used by the Aztecs for chocolate), to counteract the natural bitterness.[22] Vanilla, another indigenous American introduction, was also a popular additive, with pepper and other spices sometimes used to give the illusion of a more potent vanilla flavor. Unfortunately, these spices tended to unsettle the European constitution; the Encyclopédie states, "The pleasant scent and sublime taste it imparts to chocolate have made it highly recommended; but a long experience having shown that it could potentially upset one's stomach", which is why chocolate without vanilla was sometimes referred to as "healthy chocolate".[23] By 1602, chocolate had made its way from Spain to Austria.[24] By 1662, Pope Alexander VII had declared that religious fasts were not broken by consuming chocolate drinks. Within about a hundred years, chocolate established a foothold throughout Europe.[13]
The new craze for chocolate brought with it a thriving slave market, as between the early 1600s and late 1800s, the laborious and slow processing of the cocoa bean was manual.[13] Cocoa plantations spread, as the English, Dutch, and French colonized and planted. With the depletion of Mesoamerican workers, largely to disease, cocoa production was often the work of poor wage laborers and African slaves. Wind-powered and horse-drawn mills were used to speed production, augmenting human labor. Heating the working areas of the table-mill, an innovation that emerged in France in 1732, also assisted in extraction.[25]
Medicinal Use and Nutrition
A 100-gram serving of milk chocolate supplies 540 calories. It is 59% carbohydrates (52% as sugar and 3% as dietary fiber), 30% fat and 8% protein (table). Approximately 65% of the fat in milk chocolate is saturated, mainly palmitic acid and stearic acid, while the predominant unsaturated fat is oleic acid (table).
100-grams of milk chocolate is an excellent source (over 19% of the Daily Value, DV) of riboflavin, vitamin B12, and the dietary minerals, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc. Chocolate is a good source (10–19% DV) of calcium, magnesium, and iron.
See also
References
- ↑ Constitutional Rights Foundation
- ↑ Cacao: Indigenous Network to Global Commodity
- ↑ Powis, Terry G.; Cyphers, Ann; Gaikwad, Nilesh W.; Grivetti, Louis; Cheong, Kong (24 May 2011). "Cacao use and the San Lorenzo Olmec". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (21): 8595–8600. Bibcode:2011PNAS..108.8595P. doi:10.1073/pnas.1100620108. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 3102397. PMID 21555564.
- ↑ "Consumían olmecas chocolate hace 3000 años". El Universal (Mexico City). Mexico City. 29 July 2008.
- ↑ "Chocolate: A Mesoamerican Luxury 1200–1521 – Obtaining Cacao". Field Museum. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Terry G. Powis; W. Jeffrey Hurst; María del Carmen Rodríguez; Ponciano Ortíz C.; Michael Blake; David Cheetham; Michael D. Coe; John G. Hodgson (December 2007). "Oldest chocolate in the New World". Antiquity. 81 (314). ISSN 0003-598X. Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2011. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Watson, Traci (22 January 2013). "Earliest Evidence of Chocolate in North America". Science. Archived from the original on 6 March 2014. Retrieved 3 March 2014. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "New Chemical Analyses Take Confirmation Back 500 Years and Reveal that the Impetus for Cacao Cultivation was an Alcoholic Beverage". Penn Museum. 2007. Archived from the original on 2 December 2007. Retrieved 13 November 2007.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Burleigh, Robert (2002). Chocolate: Riches from the Rainforest. Harry N. Abrams, Ins., Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8109-5734-3. Search this book on
- ↑ "Chocolate: A Mesoamerican Luxury 250–900 C.E. (A.D.) – Using Chocolate". Field Museum. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ↑ "Chocolate: A Mesoamerican Luxury 250–900 C.E. (A.D.) – Obtaining Cacao". Field Museum. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
- ↑ "Chocolate: A Mesoamerican Luxury 250–900 C.E. (A.D.) – Making Chocolate". Field Museum. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 "History of Chocolate". Field Museum. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- ↑ "Aztecs and Cacao: the bittersweet past of chocolate". The Daily Telegraph. 15 September 2009. Archived from the original on 18 April 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2014. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Peniche Rivero, Piedad (1990). "When cocoa was used as currency – pre-Columbian America – The Fortunes of Money". UNESCO Courier. Archived from the original on 27 May 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2008. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Buford, Bill (29 October 2007). "Notes of a Gastronome: Extreme Chocolate". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 16 June 2008. Retrieved 17 May 2008. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Coe & Coe (2013), p. 46.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Chinchilla Mazariegos (2017), p. 361.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Spadaccini, Jim. "The Sweet Lure of Chocolate". Exploratorium. Archived from the original on 14 March 2014. Retrieved 3 March 2014. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Solís y Ribadeneyra, Antonio de (1685). "Book III Chapter XV". The History of the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, done into English by Thomas Townsend. Translated by Thomas Townsend. London. pp. 336–38. Search this book on
- ↑ de Acosta, José. "Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias". Pueblos Originarios. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
- ↑ Bensen, Amanda (1 March 2008). "A Brief History of Chocolate". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- ↑ Diderot, Denis. "Chocolate." in The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Colleen Oberc, Samantha Schaeffer, and Courtney Wilder. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Library, 2015. Trans. of "Chocolat," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 3. Paris, 1753."
- ↑ Szogyi, Alex (1997). Chocolate: Food of the Gods. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 199. ISBN 978-0-313-30506-1. Archived from the original on 5 February 2016. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) Search this book on
- ↑ Wilson, Philip K.; Hurst, W. Jeffrey, eds. (2015). Chocolate and Health. Royal Society of Chemistry. p. 219. doi:10.1039/9781782622802. ISBN 978-1-84973-912-2. Search this book on
Further reading
- Almond, Steve (2004). Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America. Algonquin Books. ISBN 978-1-56512-421-9. Search this book on
- Grivetti, Louis Evan; Shapiro, Howard-Yana, eds. (2009). Chocolate. doi:10.1002/9780470411315. ISBN 9780470411315. Search this book on
- Norton, Marcy. Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World (Cornell UP, 2008)
- Off, Carol (2008). Bitter Chocolate: The Dark Side of the World's Most Seductive Sweet. The New Press. ISBN 978-1-59558-330-7. Search this book on
- Rosenblum, Mort (2006). Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light. North Point Press. ISBN 978-0-86547-730-8 Search this book on .
- Ryan, Órla (2011). Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa. Zed Books. ISBN 978-1-84813-005-0 Search this book on .
- Squicciarini, Mara P.; Swinnen, Johan (2016). The Economics of Chocolate. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198726449. Search this book on
- Young, Allen M. (2007). The Chocolate Tree: A Natural History of Cacao (Rev. and expanded ed.). University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-3044-9 Search this book on .
- Coe, Sophie D.; Coe, Michael D. (2013). The True History of Chocolate. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-77093-1. Search this book on
- Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo (2017). Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya. USA: Yale University. ISBN 9780300207170. Search this book on
External links
- "Chocolate and Tea", American Enterprise Exhibition, National Museum of American History (exhibit on 18th century American trade)
