History Of Chocolate

Mole(moh-lay)Poblano, documented as the first mole dish but still uncertain, is a sauce that is used in tamales, chicken and in other types of food. Mole Poblano's main ingredient is chocolate which comes from cacao alongside other spices that makes the sauce taste spicy and sweet. The mole poblano is devoured into your mouth as you get the taste of sweetness and spiciness. Mole poblano today is  known in Puebla Mexico for its creative use in its food, and it is one of the most well known sauces out of all the hundred Moles there are. 

Mole Poblano is dated back to the Aztec empire who spoke the Nahuatl language, and mole written as Molli. Mole is a sauce the Nahuatl people used for food apart from using cacao as currency and as a chocolate beverage.An article written by Judy Hevrdejs, titled “¡Ole Mole!” interviewed Patricia Quintana who is an author of various types of books including Mexican’s  Feasts of Life about mole, she says there are so many varieties of mole with different varieties of spices and its colors are very different. There are around three hundred to four hundred different moles that are out there. Mole that originated in Oaxaca have about thirty ingredients added and Oaxaca is nicknames the Land of the Seven Moles, because the seven moles were said to be originated in Oaxaca.An envision of a mole plate for Mexican is having, rice, beans, guacamole and the main meat or subject food that mole will be pouring on top of the specific subject(chicken, fried tortillas, enchiladas, etc.)Although it is hard to find the original recipe for Mole, all moles are prepared the same way, the difference is the ingredients apart from having the main ingredient, cacao and chocolate. 

Mole Poblano is a  dark red-brown sauce served with chicken and rice, served as part of tamales and is eaten alongside with family members during lunch, dinner, holidays and celebrations. Mole poblano comes in packages already made and sold in super markets.But Mole poblano can be made at home with specific ingredients and tools.Mole poblano is used internationally since the conquest of Mexico and trade system for cacao and chocolate, this shows us how mole came a long way to represent Mesoamerica and as a part of great cuisines.

According to the article there were several myths surrounding Mole poblano dated back to the 16th century, a story about an Archbishop and Mole in Puebla Convent. The story begins with an Archbishop visiting unexpectedly to a Convent of Santa Rosa in Puebla de Los Ángeles and the nuns had nothing to prepare for the Archbishop, until the nun started to mix random spices; chili, a bread that was a day old, nuts, chocolate and 20 other ingredients, boiling theme together in which the sauce was poured on pieces of turkey. As the Archbishop tasted the dish, he was delighted and nothing was left on his plate. Another origin was that Viceroy,Don Juan de Palafox and Mendoza were visiting one of the Convents in Puebla. Fray Pascual was the person in charge of preparing the turkey alongside his assistance. As he looked at the mess the nuns created, Fray decided to put every spice he held into a tray and suddenly the wind blew it over to an earthenware producing mole sauce.There are many myths and stories about the origins of mole, but one thing that we can compare between these two myths is that mole sauce has so many ingredients which shows that it is a complex sauce to create. This could be a reason that for many people, mole is ready made in paste and instead they mix mole paste with ready made broth.

Moles are complex due to elaborate effort in ingredients to the sauce and it is not like salsa that few ingredients.Mole was used before Hernan Cortes visited Montezuma, before the 1500, mole had to be stirred unlike today whose moles are fried and are oily. It is said that when Hernan Cortes visited Montezuma, Cortes served Mole, thinking that Cortes was a god. Mole Poblano contains 20 plus ingredients.The ingredients to start the Mole poblano sauce is starting with the chilies. You will need dried chilies which are chile guajillos,chile pasillas, chile anchos, and chipotles, which have to be washed and roasted.These chilies would then be fried under oil,put in the blender to make the sauce. Seasoning and spices are included;sesame seeds, aniseeds, a whole clove of garlic,dried bay leaves,and among others that will also have to be roasted, and blended with the spices. You will need Tomatillos and tomatoes to make the sauce softer and blend it with the other ingredients.Finally, you will need to add chopped Mexican Chocolate and blend it with the other ingredients added in the blender. Although adding chocolate could cause a bitter taste, it actually gives a soft texture in the sauce alongside the ingredients already added and tasting every ingredient added. That is what is fascinating from any other sauce, as you taste the mole poblano, you can taste different varieties of the ingredients added. Traditionally and originally, the making of mole would take very long but because the technology has become innovative such as blenders, mole making does not take long and it takes about three hours to finish. Molcajete or Molino would have been used and still used today to grind the ingredients.oil would not probably used since the nuts that are grinded containing oil to great a thick paste like peanut butter.Converting every ingredient into a great attesting mole poblano can either be made in one day or could be done in several days. 

Moles is very popular among Mexicans and there is a competition for the best mole cooking.Mole cooking contests are very popular and it happens annually in festivals in Puebla. The main winner according to Quintana who is interviewed by Judy Hevrdejs should have well balanced, cooked in hot temperature in order to smell the herbs and spices blended together but also have thickness of a tomato sauce. According to an article titled “A Brief History of Mole,Mexico’s National Dish” written by Lauren Cocking, the first mole recipe came into existence after the  Mexican War of Independence in 1810. Although the recipe may have come after the Independence war, Mole has existed since the Aztecs Empire alongside the Mesamerican cultures. Mole has gone a long way for its complex ingredients but it is a remembrance of Mesoamerica, the Aztecs cuisine. Mole Poblano is one of the best sauces out of the hundreds of mole sauces and recipes there are. 

                                          Bibliography

Amigofoods. “Mole-Mexico’s Famous Sauce with Recipe.”               (AmigofoodsBlog,2003) https://blog.amigofoods.com/index.php/mexican-foods/mole-  mexican-sauce/

Bousel, J. (2012, October 31). Mole Poblano Recipe. https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/10/mole-poblano-recipe-how-to-make-mole.html

Cocking, L. “A Brief History Of Mole, Mexico's National Dish”.(2016, November 11) https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/a-brief-history-of-mole-mexicos-national-dish/

Hevrdejs, Judy. “OLE, MOLE! When You Sample This Special Sauce, You're Tasting Mexican History.” Chicago Tribune (1963), 1992, pp. Chicago tribune (1963), 1992–10-15.

Image Link:https://www.mashed.com/252832/the-untold-truth-about-mole/

Pena-Calderon, M. (2020, September 27). The untold truth of mole. https://www.mashed.com/252832/the-untold-truth-about-mole/

We have eaten chocolate and probably wondered how chocolate is made and the ingredients added to create a delicious taste.But there is probably a less percent of chance that we haven’t thought really deep about the people who actually start from scratch in order for the company to actually create chocolate. In short, I am talking about the workers who are working in farms and harvesting cacao trees.Cacao beans is the main ingredient to create an authentic chocolate.Chocolate corporations have not gotten a great reputation when protecting their workers who are working in the farms.However, some have done better than other companies when it comes to Fair trade and sustainability. 

Fair trade is the alternative way of doing trade between countries who are harvesting cacao trees in order to produce cacao. Fair trade promises fair pay to workers working in cocoa farms. Fair trade creates a sustainable environment in order for deforestation not to happen.According to the book Cocoa by Kristy Leissle, she writes that “There is no simple solution...only complexity and complex pathways to change.”(p.134) There is so much complexity with little solution because Africans generation has done unfree labor and has constantly stayed there for a period of time which makes it hard for people to acknowledge and change that idea. Another one is the decision people make when agreeing to work in farms, especially the decision of parents sending their children at farms or at school.Parents tend to send their children in cocoa farms to work in order for the child to feed the whole family, in  many instances these children are not paid and are taken to far places and be exploited. So when there is no free trade, it seems that people who are eager to work end up working in cocoa farms under bad conditions and paid less than what it is expected. 

Apart from Free trade, deforestation has begun to be a problem as tall trees are being cut down for small cocoa trees to be planted and deforestation is also caused by wildfires, and illegal mining, mostly affecting West Africa. Having wildfires causes farmers to lose their land and farms that they have been working so hard on to provide for their family.Illegal Mining has to do with destruction on land that isn’t supposed to be destroyed which causes financial loss for the company or people who own the land. The Chocolate brand Mars for example, paid extra million of dollars to have a certification firm such as Rainforest alliance and certified cocoa. According to a Washington Post article “The trouble with chocolate” by Steven Mufson writes that Mars cares for global warming,causing deforestation and they became the first global company to promise using only sustainable cocoa.One solution that Mars have offered to West Africa is growing the small cocoa tree under the tall trees and in this way no trees will be cut down. Deforestation has been a problem for a long time and it seems that not many companies are either not aware of what their farmers who are providing them with cacao beans are suffering from and not wanting to demand protection over the forest. 

Fair trade and sustainability has been a big deal for environmentalists, consumers who know the dark side of chocolate and companies who are losing land from deforestation and illegal mining. It is a loss for the cocoa farm worker because they depend on the job and feeding their families with the amount they are getting paid. 

                                   Bibliography

Lecture 8:Chocolate Futures:Fair trade and Sustainability

Leissle Kristy.Cocoa(Bury,2018)128-146.

Link Image: https://cocoainitiative.org/news-media-post/fairtrade-becomes-a-member-of-the-international-cocoa-initiative/

Mufson, Steven. “The Problem with chocolate” The Washington Post,(WP Company,2019)

Today we see M&M and Ghirardelli for example convincing us to buy their product by looking at their commercials and ads in newspapers or magazines.Advertisements brought attention to consumers in order to buy chocolate products and continuously created an image, a good reputation for the Chocolate Corporations.Chocolate corporation created themes that were related to most people. Sometimes these themes turn out to be discriminatory, exaggerated, fantasy and too true to be the real world we are living in. Chocolate Consumption and expansion has changed and transformed Chocolates identity by the chocolate campaigns. 

Most chocolate campaigns target families, genders and children in different ways. Chocolate campaigns for men turn out to be using man eating chocolate and showing their attributes, such as their strength, virility and endurance. For women, chocolate campaign show women used in Romance and Sex scenes, sex dates, women turn out to be the chocolate or the object and the men are their subjects. During the 19th century, most chocolate began to target Families, such as showing an image of two children and parents being happy eating chocolate. Most of these families are shown to be cozy middle class families.Children are seen to be happy, joyful  with their friends eating chocolate. Women were shown to be the mother in the ads, they were seen to be nurturing and domesticity. 

Trade cards was the oldest campaign for families who purchased chocolate. Trade cards are small square shape papers that are given to customers when purchasing a chocolate bar or chocolate products. Trade cards became collectable for their size and decorations added, which included different images, dimensional cards, and became postcards that many consumers wanted to buy. Trade cards were like business cards and often came in punch holes in order to hang them and persuade consumers to buy some chocolate and come back again.

Packaging was something that made a chocolate product look better.By the 18th century, chocolates came from chocolate boxes and it started to evolve into tins that were durable by the 19th century. The dutch for example created praline chocolates, the packages were either custom made or from tin boxes.Chocolate packages that were made by artisan and handcrafted were expensive.The cheap packages were chocolate that came in Tins. Tins turned out to be cheap because they were recycled and used again.

Special Occasion were the biggest times Chocolate companies made a lot of profit because it involved buying chocolate for their loved ones. Advertising had a lot to with helping companies when the theme came to special occasions. When Valentine came around, there would be heart shaped chocolate packaging and it was a way to show their love to their significant other or loved one. 

As chocolate became popular internationally in the 19th century, we saw a shift from middle class families, loved ones giving chocolate to each other, to Africa getting targeted. Of course, it seems that chocolate campaigns or advertisements show comedy in them but they don’t realize that they are hurting the people they are targeting. Because of the color of the chocolate, they turn the attention to Africans being dark skin and comparing it to chocolate. Campaigns are showing Africans becoming into chocolate balls and being eaten by a white or light skin person.An example of this would be a chocolate brand named Conguitos from Spain. Conguitos shows a character that is dark skinned representing chocolate and a african person with a large red mouth. 

Apart from discrimination by the late 19th century and entering 20th century, we start watching erotic ads from women exposing their body with chocolate in order to persuade male consumer to buy. From the 1950s, we saw women being more conservative but yet showing sexual appearance by holding chocolate up to their chest to distract and appeal to male consumers to buy. Therefore it has not changed the ideas of women being used as sexual representation. This is also for men who appeal their body features with chocolate attracting women to consume chocolate. In 1988 for example, a Baci ad was shown featuring a young woman showing her breast covered with drops of  Baci chocolate. 

Today we are enjoying Chocolate bars and drinks thanks to their campaigns but there has been a rollercoaster on how they present their chocolate. Chocolate has changed its identity on how people look at chocolate now.

                                    Bibliography

Lecture#7

Le Besco Kathleen.Edible Ideologies.(Suny,2008)202-212. 

Westbrook Virginia.“Chocolate: HIstory, Culture, and Heritage.”Role of Trade Cards in Marketing Chocolate During the Late 19th Century. (Wiley,2009.)183-186.

Cacao production in the Americas became labor intensive during the colonial times.Cacao was produced by the poor and consumed by the rich. Producing cacao from enslaved laborers was labor intensive because they did not get paid, lied to in contracts,became part of the triangular trade system and wealth was only distributed to the International players. 

Contracts between the laborers and the Spanish authorities became nothing other than a piece of paper with lies written on it. These contracts were about staying temporarily to work for them and when the contract ended, they were promised to go home. This was not the case, they were lied to and it was an excuse for the laborers in continuing to work in bad conditions. Laborers didn’t earn much money and unfortunately, for most of them, they didn’t get paid at all. As we know the background of Spaniards colonization of Natives, Natives were converted to christinatity and were under control of the Encomenderos, conquerors. The Encomienda  System was about enslaving them and using them for labor which includes producing cacao. Native laborers including Tabasco and Soconusco were given grants, which was a way for encomenderos to protect natives under their care,turning each one into christianity and control over their land, in exchange for them living in their own village and fulfilling jobs they were required to follow under their native rulers. The Encomendieros later became Hacendados, landowners, while Spaniards took the empty lands and occupied them. Venezuela, Ecuador,Brazil and Carribean regions were part of the enslaved labor producing cacao in Haciendas. In the Spanish Empire, Venezuela which is present day Chuspa and Puerto Cabello,  was the major producer of Cacao, Venezuela had prevailing winds which gave great moisture for the soil and it had a supply of water. Spaniards did not own the Natives due to the fact that they were given grants and that it was the start of Spaniards having relationships with the natives,this formed mixed races known as the Mestizos. Therefore, Africa became the target for enslavement. 

During the Transatlantic slave trade, slaves coming from Africa were transported into ships and traveled in the middle passage. The transatlantic slave trade became extrememly profitable and fueled european economy. It became a system to trade goods such as cacao and slaves to each international player that was involved. Both international players would trade cacao for slaves or slaves for cacao, it was possible to have them because of the slave trade and slave ships.Other international players would also resell cacao either for a higher or lower price.For example, in a reading titled Encomienda, African Slavery, and Agriculture in Seventeenth Century Caracas byRobert J. Ferry wrote that there is a hypothesis saying that neighbors of Caracas, Portuguese slave traders would sell cacao from Central American dealers at a lower price to Spain. The slave ships were in bad conditions and the mortality rate was very high, which was not good due to the fact that they needed slaves for labor and trading.The International players Spain, France, Portugal,Dutch and Uk were not interested in Cacao but they wanted wealth, in order to have that, they took over land that would be producing cacao and other crops. Because chocolate was very popular internationally, it was a chance for them to make a profit out of it. Chocolate became recognized among the wealthy people by the mid1660 in Europe. 

Cacao eventually became part of this labor and trade system affecting natives and Africans for the International players to consume chocolate.Cacao changed the international players in becoming wealthy and consuming chocolate while also changing its own identity in the process. 

Ferry, Robert J. “Encomienda, African Slavery, and Agriculture in Seventeenth-Century Caracas.” The Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 61, no. 4, 1981, pp. 609–635. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2514606. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

Lecture 4:Production in the Americas

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Chocolate has its flaws and one of it is the taste.The taste is either bitter or sweet. Have you ever thought of an excuse you would use for consuming chocolate? Chocolate introduced to the Europeans, became to be innovated with certain excuses to be able to consume chocolate. Spaniards changed the taste of chocolate in order to keep their identity and not have chocolate change their Identity. 

Chocolate was served in royal courts and chocolate was blamed for different reasons and one man in particular was a Spanish historian Leon Pinelo who said that chocolate contains things that can give you illnesses. Others believed that chocolate made you help gain weight and it gave you an increase of appetite. According to the book CHOCOLATE II: Mysticism and Cultural Blends, section titled A sinful pleasure by Jose Luis Trueba Lara, Conquistador Berna Díaz Del Castillo  believed that nobilities drank chocolate to have favorable results with women.For radical priests, the consumption of chocolate was more of an issue of drinking based on fasting or for pleasure. Chocolate for the church and for many became a sinful drink. But the thought of being a sinful drink did not , absolutely not change peoples mind because it was a drink that they were liking. They would rather drink while feeling guilty and surrender themselves with chocolate that is becoming addictive and worth drinking. However, noblewomen and their handmaids were served chocolate while in mass, noblewomen would drink it during her siesta and nighttimes for a restful sleep. So women loved the idea of drinking chocolate because it made them feel at rest and made them feel pleasure. In New Spain, housewives were drinking  chocolate with bread, pastries and other delicious food they combined with their drink. Definitely great combinations when eating pan dulce con chocolate. 

Instead of being a drink that related to the so-called “savage” or an “Indian drink,” chocolate drinks  were mixed with flowers, herbs and spices. Spanish Historian Pinelo believed that each individual should drink chocolate differently based on their physical type; those who tend to be fat and lazy would probably want their chocolate hot with chili, cinnamon and aniseed added to their drink.Those who were bad tempered would probably want to drink their chocolate mixed with warm atole and little bits of aniseed. It would seem interesting to those who would actually want to try it today or who have tried it after hearing him out. Shamans and Sorcerers used chocolate for love potions.The thought of changing the drinks purpose made it possible for chocolate consumption  to have an identity for the Europeans, they did not want to recognize that the chocolate made from cacao came originally in MesoAmerica making them feel uneasy. The uneasiness was not just because of who made it but it was more of hierarchy. Europeans did not want to be in the same level of status or identity as the MesoAmericans. MesoAmerica is known to be the uncivilized world for the Europeans, therefore churches were worried that if they would consume chocolate, they were adapting the civilized way. In other words,Chocolate for Europeans was now coming into the new world, therefore the consumption and taste should be different in identity and taste. 

                                             Bibliography

LARA, JOSÉ LUIS TRUEBA. "A Sinful Pleasure." Artes De México,no. 105(2012):14-21.http://www.jstor.org/stable/24318984.

Aztecs were part of tenochtitlan located today in Mexico City. They were referred to as Mexica, which is where Mexico got its name from. Aztecs created their own empire once they settled in Tenochtitlan. Mexica or the rulers of the Aztecs lived in what today is the central part of Mexico which came to be part of the Spanish empire. The Aztecs believed that there were five historical eras;Jaguar, Wind, Rain,Water and Earthquake. These eras were visualizations of their beliefs that the era would be destroyed and reborn.Apart from Aztecs having a strong connection with cosmology, belief system,Mexica had finally obtained cacao as they conquered other groups(cacao did not originate in the Aztec empire) and cacao became a value that was affordable and a way to obtain more than what they already had.Cacao beans became the best material value because it was seen as currency and as a product to buy in order to produce something out of it such as chocolate.It was portable, durable, divisible and difficult to counterfeit. 

The Triple Alliance became created by the 15th century and at the end of the 15th century, merchants were able to exchange goods for food and goods of their neighbors, bringing them to local markets. One of the biggest markets was located in Tlatelolco. Merchants traded feathers and cottons in return for cacao and they were known as Cahueteros. Retailers who were most likely women converted them into chocolate drinks as they added vanilla,chile and ear flowers.Cacao beans was a great currency because it was created by nature not by men.It was not going to rot like fruits or soft that will be easy to break. Cacao beans were from cacao trees that were planted and therefore the only thing the Aztecs had to do was planting them. Counterfeits did occur, it included shells of cacao filled with mud.However, cacao beans were determined and separated for varieties of which one was going to be consumed and which onesies served for money. 

The Codex Mendoza, commissioned by Diego Mendoza, is one of the biggest evidence seen if it has to do with cacao.It includes information about the importance of cacao, the history of the Mexicas and information of Pre-Columbian Mexica Society.It is written in Nahuatl and Spanish and contains over seventy illustrations. These illustrations include drawings such as the Eagle holding a snake in its beak, crops representing corn or cacao trees, the five sun gods(jaguar,etc) and different objects they used during the Pre-columbian Mexica Society.It also includes  illustrations of the noble class drinking chocolate because it was so exclusive that it was considered a bad omen if a commoner was seen drinking chocolate Those who were at a higher level of society or elite had the privilege in drinking chocolate.They believed that they put themselves closer to the god as they started to grow cacao trees and depicted them as descendents of cacao trees.  

As the Spanish became introduced to cacao and chocolate, it  definitely changed them but somehow, they wanted to change chocolates identity in order to erase the idea that it came from the so called uncivilized world. 

                                    Bibliography

                                       Lecture #2

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Cacao was presented as the earliest food and sacred tree to the Mayans. Producing cacao was not very easy, it had to be cultivated, harvested and post harvested under large trees maintaining a certain temperature.The process of making chocolate included fermentation, drying, roasting,and separating the shells from the nibs. Cacao is pronounced as ka-ka-w by the Maya, ka meant fish and wa meant corn. Fish is used as a graphic symbol for cacao because it possesses the power of survival.Chocolate on the other hand, had different theories on how its got its name,but so far we know that the mayans drank their chocolate hot which comes from a Mayan word “Chocol haa” or from the K’iche’ Maya, “Chokola’j,”  which means drinking chocolate together. Aztecs had similar pronunciation but written differently as well. It is very difficult to find the origin of cacao but we can all agree that the word comes from MesoAmerica.There were major uses of Cacao but cacao took part in a social, political and economic strategy for the Mayan Society.

When it came to religious beliefs,there was a goddess known as the guardian of cacao. This figure is shown to have cacao pods growing directly from her body and a chocolate jug on top of her head. Therefore, cacao beans were very important in the Mayan religious value. Mayans had many gods and these gods were found in codices that survived from being destroyed by the Conquistadors and Catholic priests. These codices showed evidence on how cacao was used, consumed or how important cacao was to the Mayans.One example that was in one of the many codices found, was gods’ offerings to make cacao pods grow, it was a sacred offering that included piercing their ears and making their blood fall into the cacao pods.Knowing that Cacao is a religious value, this takes place to a social value for negotiations when making chocolate. 

Cacao was used during the negotiations among the Maya. Consuming Chocolate during social events establishes bonds between guests.Cacao became gifts to newlyweds throughout MesoAmerica, in this case the Mayans used cacao to bond marriage relationships when arranging a bride. The Foam was the important part when making a chocolate drink for the Mayans. The foam that is on top of the drink before drinking the chocolate is represented to be for the soul, the chocolate drink itself  is for the body. Those who were most likely to consume chocolate were elites( kings and nobles), though researchers and archaeologists are not quite sure if lower class were able to consume chocolate most of the time or if they were able to drink when they wanted. 

In addition to cacao and its consumption as an important role for social strategy, there were ways cacao was used for political and economic strategy. Mayan were very clever when it came to political issues and disputes. They would use cacao pods or ball games as a way to settle political issues or disputes, apart from entertainment uses. Cacao beans as currency was something that Spanish adapted when they came later on. But for the Mayan cacao be and was a great use for currency. Cacao beans were grown from trees and are easy to obtain rather than other crops.Whether it was buying food or clothes, you need to have cacao beans in order to obtain and buy them.Cacao beans were obtained from those who owed them, like in return for using the land by a superior person, cacao beans was used a s currency to pay it off. 

Cacao took part in a social, political and economic strategy for the Mayan Society. Cacao became currency, a bond between relationship, negotiations and political issues. Cacao had so many uses but cacao took part in these three strategies developing the Mayan society into a better relationship and innovative society.

                                           Bibliography 

De Orellana, Margarita, Richard Moszka, Timothy Adès, Valentine Tibère, J.M. Hoppan, Philippe Nondedeo, Nezahualcóyotl, Nikita Harwich, Nisao Ogata, Quentin Pope, Fray Toribio De Benavente, Motolinía, Guadalupe M. Santamaría, and Daniel Schechter. "Chocolate: Cultivation and Culture in Pre-Hispanic Mexico." Artes De México, no. 103 (2011): 65-80.  http://www.jstor.org/stable/24318969.