Chocolate: A Global History

138 Pages·2009·1.6 MB·English

by  Sarah Moss

Chocolate
A Global History
Sarah Moss and Alexander Badenoch
the edible series


Edible
SeriesEditor:AndrewF.Smith
isarevolutionarynewseriesof booksdedicatedtofoodand
drinkthatexplorestherichhistoryof cuisine.Eachbookrevealsthe
globalhistoryandcultureof onetypeof foodorbeverage.
Alreadypublished
Curry ColleenTaylorSen Pancake KenAlbala
Cheese AndrewDalby Pie JanetClarkson
Hamburger AndrewF.Smith Pizza CarolHelstosky
HotDog BruceKraig Spices FredCzarra
Forthcoming
Beer BobSkilnik Lobster ElisabethTownsend
Bread WilliamRubel Milk HannahVelten
Cake NicolaHumble Olive FabriziaLanza
Caviar NicholaFletcher Pasta KanthaShelke
Champagne BeckySueEpstein Porridge OliverB.Pollak
Cocktails JosephM.Carlin Potato AndrewF.Smith
Coffee JonathanMorris Soup JanetClarkson
Corn LindaMurrayBerzok Tea HelenSaberi
Dates NawalNasrallah Tomato DeborahA.Duchon
FishandChips PanikosPanayi Vodka PatriciaHerlihy
Gin LesleyJacobsSolmonson Whiskey KevinR.Rosar
IceCream LauraWeiss Wine MarcMillon
Chocolate
A Global History
Sarah Moss and Alexander Badenoch
 
ForAnthonyandKathy
PublishedbyReaktionBooksLtd
GreatSuttonStreet
London,
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
Firstpublished
Copyright©SarahMossandAlexanderBadenoch
Allrightsreserved
Nopartof thispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrieval
system,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,
mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise,withouttheprior
permissionof thepublishers.
PrintedandboundinChinabyC&COffsetPrintingCo.,Ltd
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
Moss,Sarah.
Chocolate:aglobalhistory.–(Edible)
.Chocolate–History.
.Chocolateindustry.
.Cookery(Chocolate)
I.Title
II.Series
III.Badenoch,Alexander.
.-
:
Contents
1 Inventing Chocolate 
2 The Chocolate House 
3 The Chocolate Factory 
4 The Chocolate Box 
Recipes 
References 
Select Bibliography 
Websites and Associations 
Acknowledgements 
Photo Acknowledgements 
Index 

1
Inventing Chocolate
Chocolate is complicated. The ‘chocolate tree’, Theobroma
cacao,growsonlywithintwentydegreesof theequator,only
belowabout,feet( m)inaltitude.Itrequiresshade,
which must be provided by taller trees, and humidity, and a
temperaturethatremainsabovesixteendegreesCelsius,all
of which mean that it does not grow within thousands of
miles of the countries that consume the most chocolate.
The tree does not take well to being farmed, and is prone
to diseases which destroy entire plantations in a few weeks.
It depends on midges, which breed best on the floors of
uncultivatedrainforests,forpollination.Thecocoabean,a
podwhichgrowsoutof thetree’strunk,mustbeharvested
with a carefully wielded machete to avoid damaging the
buds from which more beans will grow, and the process of
converting the resultant wrinkly pod into the shiny brown
barsweeatislongerandmoreexactthananyotherinculi-
nary history, involving a mixture of hand-work and high
technology which do not exist in the same economy and,
ideally, time spent in at least two climates; the warm, damp
environment where it grows and the arid heat required for
drying. The chocolate we know is intrinsically modern, the
productof aworlddividedbetweenlow-paidmanuallabour

Cocoatree.
andmechanizedfoodpreparation,betweenhungrylabourers
and sleek consumers, and between the ecologically rich
Equatorialnationsandtheeconomicpowersof Europeand
NorthAmerica.Itcouldnotexist,initsfamiliarform,inany
otherera.
