As far back at 1502, cacao was of high-value. Ferdinand Colombus was interacting with people in the “New World” when he saw them trading these strange seeds that he called almonds. His translator was unaware that they were actually cacao beans. “They seemed to hold these almonds at a great price; for when they were brought on board ship together with their goods, I observed that when any of these almonds fell, they all stooped to pick it up, as if an eye had fallen”1. He never tasted them and continued on his journey.
Not long after this, in the New World, Spaniard Giralamo Benzoni writes “It [chocolate] seemed more a drink for pigs, than a drink for humanity…The taste is somewhat bitter, it satisfies and refreshes the body, but does not inebriate, and it is the best and most expensive merchandise, according to the Indians of that country” 2 going to show that it’s value was not worldly reciprocated as money, but purely for consumption. Cacao butter/oils were also tested successful for medicinal value in healing.
Initially, Spaniards could not stomach the idea of consuming, let along drinking, chocolate. The traditional diet of the Spaniards was that of oils, fats, meats, and frying. The Mesoamerican culture was far from this, thus forcing the Spaniards to import most of the items they were to eat. Eventually, though, the two colonies began to merge into one another (Spanish Creoles and the old Aztec realm) and “this was the context in which chocolate was taken into the Colonial cuisine of New Spain, eventually transplanted to Old Spain and the rest of Europe3. Through festivals and banquets, the tastes of chocolate spread from group to group, creating a new-found sweet-tooth in those who tasted it. The Spaniards grew fond of it as “this was the manufacture of the finished beverage from a wafer or tablet of ground cacao to which hot water and sugar could be added” 4 to ease transport of the liquid as a dried product. New recipes were being tested to improve the taste of the chocolate to include the addition of sugar to make it sweeter. Different temperatures were tried to also increase it’s popularity and acceptance.
Where the term “cacao” comes from has a long lineage. “The caca of cacahuatl [is] in most Romance languages, and in the Latin from which they descend, this is a vulgar or nursery word for feces, and is often compounded to make other words and even verbs describing defecation. Spanish is definitely one of these languages (we can even find the term cacafuego, “shitfire,” in an early 18th-century Spanish–English dictionary). It is hard to believe that the Spaniards were not thoroughly uncomfortable with a noun beginning with caca to describe a thick, dark-brown drink which they had begun to appreciate. They desperately needed some other word, and we would not be at all surprised if it was the learned friars who came up with chocolatl and chocolate5.”
Soon after, chocolate was tested for its medical benefits in curing fevers, minimizing headaches, reducing body fatigue, and aiding in digestion. Many positive results were displayed, thus continuing cacao’s use in the world. The “theory was taken up by Galen, an ancient Greek born about AD 130, who expanded it by adding the notion that humors, diseases, and the drugs to cure disease could also be hot or cold, and moist or dry. Blood, for instance, is hot and moist, while phlegm is cold and moist6.” This went on to suggest that chocolate could be manipulated to cure many different types of medical cases. Juan de Cárdenas decided to test another there and, according to him,
“Chocolate has three parts:
(1)A “cold,” “dry,” and “earthy” part.
(2)An oily part which is “warm and humid,” and associated with air. There is more of this part in chocolate made from old cacao; oil is likewise increased with more toasting.
(3)A very “hot” part, with a bitter taste; this gives one headaches [perhaps not so far off the mark, as this is a symptom of caffeine, and possibly theobromine, withdrawal]7.
This theory was long held and further practiced by Spaniards and those they lived among.
Cuyagua Unit Blog 