an allegorical image of the New World giving Chocolate to Neptune to take to the Old World

"The divine drink which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits man to walk for a whole day without food."

- Hernando Corts, conqueror of the Azteca, 1519

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"Ideas should be clear and chocolate thick.

- Spanish proverb

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"It's strengthening, restorative, and apt to repair decayed strength and make people strong."

- Louis Lmery, French botanist and chemist, 1702

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Chocolate is here us'd by all People, at all times, but chiefly in the morning; it seems by its oiliness chiefly to be nourishing,and by the Eggs mixt with it to be render'd more so. The Custom, and very common usage of drinking it came to us from the Spaniards, although ours here is plain, without Spice. I found it in great quantities, nauseous, and hard of digestion, which I suppose came from its great oiliness, and therefore I was very unwilling to allow weak Stomachs the use of it, though Children and Infants drink it here, as commonly as in England they feed on Milk. Chocolate colours the Excrements of those feeding on it of a dirty colour. The common use of this, by all People in several Countries in America, proves sufficiently its being a wholesome Food. The drinking of it actually warm, may make it the more Stomachic, for we know by Anatomical preparations, that the tone of the fibres are strengthened by dipping the Stomach in hot water, and that hot Liquors will dissolve what cold will leave unaffected.....

The Trade of Jamaica is either with Europe or America. That of Europe confits in bringing thither Flower, Bisket, Beef, Pork, all manner of Clothing for Masters and Servants, as Osnabergs, blew Cloth, Liquors of all forts, etc. Madera Wine is also imported in great quantities from the Island of that name, by Vessels sent from England on purpose, on all which the Merchant is supposed to Gain generally 50 per cent. Profit. The Goods sent back again, or Exported from the lsland, are Sugars, molf part Muscavados, Indigo, Cotton.wool, Ginger, Piemento All-Spice or Jamaica-Pepper, Fustick-wood, Prince-wood, Lignum Vitae, Arnotto, Log-wood, and the several Commodities they have from the Spaniards of the West-Indies, (with whom they have a private Trade,) as Sarsaparilla, Cacao-Nuts, Cochineal, etc. on which they get considerable Profit....

- Sir Hans Sloane, Natural History of Jamaica , 1725

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"Among the many disorders which the intemperance of mankind has introduced to shorten their lives, one of the greatest, in my opinion, is the use of chocolate."

- Giovanni Batista Felici, physician to the Tuscan court, 1728

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The is also to be sold, A very likely Negro Woman, about Twenty Years of age, can do household work and grind chocolate very well; at the above said house

- advertisement, The Boston News-Letter , May 31st, 1733, page 2 .

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About the harvest of cocoa, and how to resweatand dry it, so that it can be preserved and shipped to Europe:

Cocoa is good to pick when all the pod have changed color, and when only the little bud underneath has remained green. We go from tree to tree, from row to row, and with forked tools, we make the ripened pods fall to the ground, taking care as to not touch those that are not ripe, or the flowers: for this task, only the most adroit shall be used, with other following them with baskets that pick up the pods from the ground, and who pile them up here and there in the cocoa patch without touching them.

During the months where pods are numerous, harvests happen every fortnight: during the less abundant seasons, we pick from month to month.

If the seeds remain in the pods for more than four days, they would inevitably germinate and spoil; this is why, when from Martinique, cocoa pods were sent to nearby islands which needed seeds to plant, extreme care was taken to harvest only when the ship was ready to set sails, and to use them when they arrived: it is thus impossible that the Spanish who wanted to have seeds to produce these trees had waited for these pods to ripen fully and dry, before extracting the seeds from these pods, and before carefully drying them in the shade, in order to plant them in a tree nursery, as is told by Oexmeli, History of Adventurers, Vol. 1, p. 424 . It is necessary to open the pods in the morning of the fifth day at the latest; in order to do that, a wooden stick is used to hit the middle of the pods, and then the hands finish to prop them open and to pull the almonds that are placed in baskets, throwing back into the cocoa patch the empty pods that will act to enrich the soils in almond and as a fertilizer, when they get rotten, just like the flowers falling off the trees act as perpetual manure.

The cocoa thus obtained is carried into a hut, put into a pile, on a sort of elevated floor covered by balisier leaves, measuring about four feet by twenty inches; then, wrapping the cocoa by boards covered by the same leaves, and by placing them into a type of attic that can contain all the pile of cocoa thus spread, one covers the whole by similar leaves, pressed upon by some more boards: cocoa , piled and covered and wrapped as it is on all sides, becomes increasingly warmer through the fermentation of its insensitive parts, what is termed in these regions resweat .

Cocoa is uncovered every morning and evening, and are allowed in the attic where it is stocked only vigorous farmers that move it and shake it so well with their hands and feet; after which cocoa is covered again with the same leaves and the same boards. This operation goes on every day until the fifth day, when cocoa usually is sufficiently resweat ; something that can be assessed with its color, now much darker and reddish.

The more cocoa resweats, and the more it loses of its depth and its sourness: but if it does not resweat enough, it more sour smells, and sometimes flowers; in order to do well, there is a certain measure to observe that one can only know through habit.

As soon as cocoa has resweat enough, then it is brought in the open air and exposed to the sun so that it can be dried...

The cocoa that comes to us from Caraque is more unctuous and less sour than the one from our islands, and it is preferred in Spain and in France to the latter: but in Germany and in the North, opinions are, according to the rumors, completely different. Many people are mixing half of the Caraque cocoa with half of the island's cocoa, and they claim that the mix is making their chocolate better. It is believed that at heart the difference between cocoas is not that formidable, since it forces to raise or diminish the dose of sugar to temperate the sourness of this fruit. Because it must be thought, as we have already said, that there is only one kind of cocoa , which grows as naturally in the forests of Martinique, as on the coast of Caraque; that the climate of these places is almost the same, and as a consequence the temperature of the seasons remarkable similar, and that there would not between these fruits no inner difference that would be essential.

Concerning the external differences that can be noticed, they can only originate from the varying fecundity of the soils, the varying care given to the culture of the trees, the varying industriousness and application by those that prepare and work on cocoa , from its harvest to its delivery; and maybe even from these three factors altogether; what can be seen in Martinique itself, where there are districts where cocoa would grow better than in others, by the sole difference of the richness in soils, whether they are dry or humid.

Cocoa from Caraque is a little flat, and resembles by its volume and its shape one of our big broad bean; the cocoa from Santo Domingo, from Jamaica, and from the Island of Cuba, generally is larger than the one from the Caribbean. The more the cocoa is big and well fed, the less waste there would after it is roasted and sliced.

Good cocoa must have a rather brown and unicolor skin; and when peeled, the almond has to look full, plump, and smooth; its color, ranging from fairly dark hazelnut on the outside to redder inside; its taste should be sour and astringent, without smelling green or rotten; in a word odorless and without being eaten by worms.

Cocoa is the most oleaginous fruit produced by nature; it has this admirable quality that it cannot go rancid, however old it is, contrary to what all other fruits do that are close to it in quality, like nuts, almonds, kernels, pistachios, olives, etc.

Shipped from America is a cocoa reduced into cylindrical breads of about one pound each; and since this preparation is the first and principal that it undergoes before making chocolate, it seems appropriate to add here how to prepare it.

The Indians, from which the recipe has been taken, did not lay too much store by it; they would roast their cocoa into earthenware pots, then after having dried it from its sweat and crushed it and mashed it between two stones, they would shape it into loaves with their hands.

The Spanish, more industrious than the savages, and today other nations, following their example, are choosing the better cocoa or the most recent. (As cocoa is never so clear, that among the good beans there are some aborted, or some earth, stones, etc, one must, before even using the cocoa, sift these unwanted elements through a sieve that would let them pass while keeping the cocoa beans.) They would put at least two pounds of cocoa in a large iron pan over a clear flame, and would whisk and stir the beans continually with a large spatula, until the almonds are roasted enough to be easily peeled; which one must do one by one, and set them aside, taking extreme care to reject the damaged grains, those rotten, and all the skins of the good ones; because these peelings left amongst the cocoa never dissolve in any liquor, not even in the stomach, and rush to the bottom of chocolate cups, if the cocoa has not been sifted carefully. Workers, in order to expedite this operation faster and to save time, are laying out a heavy tablecloth on a table, and they spread on it the cocoa still hot from the pan, then they use the iron roll over them so that the cocoa pod sins crack and detach; finally, they put everything into a wicker basket until cocoa is completely sifted.

If care was taken to weigh the cocoa at the grocer's, and if it is weighed again after it is roasted and sifted, it will be discovered that there is about one sixth of waste, more or less, depending on the nature and the qualities of cocoa ; meaning, for example, that from thirty pounds bought, there will remain about twenty-five all sifted.

All cocoa being thus roasted and sifted on several occasions, it is put once again to roast in the same iron pan, but over a less intense heat; almonds are to be mixed with a spatula without a break, until they are evenly and optimally roasted; which can be pinpointed thanks to the savory taste and its brown, without being black, color; the skill consists in avoiding both extremities, not to roast them enough or too much, meaning burn them. If they are not enough roasted, they keep a certain harshness in taste that is disagreeable; and if they are roasted until they burn, apart from the sourness and the bad taste they acquire, the process deprive them completely from their onctuosity, and of the best part of their good qualities.

In France, where all these measures are generally ignored, people have come to associate the burnt taste and the black color as required qualities of good chocolate; overlooking the fact that coal for coal it would be as advisable to substitute it with cocoa into the fire. This observation in not only true to reason and common sense: but it is also confirmed by the unanimous agreement from all these who wrote on the subject, and it is even authorized by universal practice in the whole of America....

Properties of cocoa: Cocoa is fairly tempered, rich, and easily digested. It promptly cures dissipated spirits and exhausted energies; it is beneficial to old persons.

Uses of cocoa ; jams and chocolate are made from it, and an oil named cocoa butter can be extracted from it.

From cocoa to jam . We select cocoa beans that are half ripe; almonds should be cleanly subtracted without damaging them, and they are left to soak for a few days in the water of a fountain, which should be changed morning and evening: after pulling them out and drying them, small lemon and cinnamon bark slips can be inserted into them, in the same fashion used to make the Rouen nuts.

Meanwhile, a recipient has been prepared of the most beautiful sugar, but fairly white, meaning that the sugar content is low; and after clarifying and purifying the sugar, it should be taken all boiling away from the flame and cocoa beans should be added to it, where they should soak for twenty-four hours, after which they should be scooped out; and as they dry, another recipient of sugar should be prepared, in a similar way as the old one but with a higher sugar content, where the cocoa beans should soak for another twenty-four hours. This operation is repeated five or six times, each time with a higher sugar content, without putting the cocoa beans over a flame or cooking them in any way. Finally, after preparing a last recipient of sugar, this is poured over the cocoa beans that are carefully drying in a faence pot to better conserve them, and when the syrup is almost cold, a few drops of amber are added.

This jam, that looks very much like the Rouen nuts, is excellent to fortify the stomach without irritating it too much, which means that it can even be given to sick people with a fever....

Cocoa butter . Take roasted and sifted cocoa beans, rolled over a stone; pour this fine paste in a big bowl of boiling water over a clear flame, where it should be left to boil until the water is evaporated; then some new clear water should be added: oil rises to the top, and solidifies into butter as the water warms down. If this oil is not really white, it just needs to be melted into a large bowl of cold water, where it will separate and purify itself from the reddish and earthy parts that remained in it.

In Martinique, this oil has the consistence of butter: but shipped to France, it turns into a fairly hard cheese, that however melts and becomes liquid when exposed to a light heat; it has no particular smell, and has the good quality never to rot. When there was a shortage of olive oil one year, cocoa oil was used during Lent: it has a nice taste, and far from being unpleasant, it contains the most essential and healthy parts of the cocoa .

Since this oil is very anodyne, it is excellent in the body to heal congestion, and to lighten the sharpness of the pain that with the flu irritates the chest. To use it so, the oil is melted, mixed with enough sugar cane, and small bars are made of the mixture, that one should keep as long as possible in one's mouth, letting the bar melt slowly without swallowing it.

Cocoa oil, when taken under certain circumstances, could be even more wonderful against corrosive poisons. It does not have less use for the outside of the body: 1. it is the best and most natural of all creams, and women with dry skin can use to make it gentler and smoother, without it looking shiny or oily. Spanish people from Mexico know this merit very well: but as it hardens too much in France, it is necessary to mix it with Ben oil, or oil made from sweet almonds untouched by the fire.

2. If the ancient tradition that Greeks and Romans had to place ointment on their skins were to be reestablished, there would be no other cream that would better answer the needs that had to conserve body parts by this means, and even to tone the muscles and increase their strength, and to protect them from rheumatisms and from other diseases that afflict them. Such practices have been abandoned owing to the bad smell and the uncleanliness that came with it; but substituting olive oil with cocoa oil, no such inconvenience would occur, because it is odorless, and because it dries on leather; nothing would be more advantageous, especially for older people, than to renew today a custom so condoned by experience throughout Antiquity.

3. Apothecaries must prefer this oil to all others to act as a basis for their apoplectic balms; because all grains rot and because muscadet oil whitened with spiritual wine, still retains a little bit of its natural odor, when cocoa oil does not have such inconveniences.

4. There is no other oil that is cleaner to prevent weapons from rusting, because it contains less water than all the other oils that are used for this purpose.

5. In Islands in America, this oil is mostly used for the healing of hemorrhoids: some use it pure; others, after melting two or three pounds of lead, gather the residue, crush it into powder, sieve it through silk, incorporate it with the cocoa oil, and make a very efficient liniment for this disease.

5. Others with the same intention are using with this oil the powder of woodlouses, Saturn sugar, pompholyxand a touch of laudanum.

Others are using this oil to sweeten the pains of gout, by applying it warm on this part with a compress that is covered with a warm towel. A similar device could be used for rheumatism.

Finally, cocoa oil is an element in the composition of the marvelous plaster, and of the cream against dermatitis.

- Denis Diderot, the Encyclopedia of Diderot and dAlembert , 1752

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Chocolate: a type of cake or bar prepared with different ingredients but whose basic element is cocoa. ( See Cocoa ). The beverage made from this bar retains the same name; the cocoa nut originates from the Americas: Spanish travelers established that it was much used in Mexico, when they conquered it around 1520.

Indians, who have enjoyed this beverage since the dawn of time, prepared it in a very simple way: they would roast the cocoa nuts in their clay pots, melt it in warm water and mix the result with some spice; for more mannered people, achiote would be added to add some color to the mixture, while atolle would serve to give it more volume. Atolle is a stew made from corn flour, either spiced up by the Mexicans or whose flavor was enhanced by Spanish nuns or ladies, not with spices, but with sugar, cinnamon, scented oils, amber, musk, etc.... All these ingredients mixed together give this composition so rough an appearance and so wild a taste, that a Spanish soldier once said that it would be more appropriate to the feeding of pigs than to the relish of humans; and that he would never have gotten used to it, if it were not for the shortage of wine that forced him to such a violent alternative, so that he could alternate pure water with something else.

Spaniards, who learned about this beverage from the Mexicans and were convinced, through their own experience that this beverage, though unrefined, was good for the health, set out to correct its defaults by adding sugar, some ingredients from the Orient, and several local drugs that it is unnecessary to list here, as we only know their name and as, from all these extras, only the vanilla leaf traveled to our regions (similarly, cinnamon was the only ingredient that was universally approved) and proved to resist time as part of the composition of chocolate.... The sweet scent and potent taste it imparts to chocolate have made it highly recommended for it; but time has shown that it could potentially upset one's stomach, and its use has decreased; some people who favor the care of their health to the pleasure of their senses, have stopped using it completely.

In Spain and in Italy, chocolate prepared without vanilla has been termed the healthy chocolate ; and in our French islands in the Americas, where vanilla is neither rare nor expensive, as it can be in Europe, it is never used, when the consumption of chocolate is as high as in any other part of the world.

However, as there is still quite a large number of people who favor the use of vanilla, and as it is only fair that we should respect their feeling, we shall use vanilla in the composition of the chocolate , the one that might be the better-prepared and the best overall. We only that that it only might be so; since there are in tastes an infinite variety of opinions, everyone wants their interest to be reckoned with, and one would concede what the other refuses; and even if we were to agree on the ingredients to be mixed, it proves impossible to pinpoint dosages that would be universally accepted; and it should be deemed enough that these dosages suit the highest number of people, thus forming the trend that is most popular.

When the cocoa paste has been well shredded on the stone ( see Article Cocoa ), sugar can be added once it has been filtered through a silk-cloth sifter; the secret to the true proportion of cocoa and sugar is to put equal quantity of both: one could in fact subtract one quarter out of the dosage of sugar, as it might dry up the paste too much, or render it too sensitive to changes in the air, or endanger it even more to the apparition of worms. But that suppressed quarter of sugar must be used when chocolate , the beverage, is being prepared.

Once sugar is well mixed with the cocoa paste, a very thin powder can be added, made with vanilla seeds and cinnamon sticks finely cut and sifted together; this new mixture shall be mixed on the stone; once every ingredient is well incorporated, the mixture shall be poured into chocolatire pots, the shape of which it will take, and where it will harden. When one loves scents, one could add some amber essence into the pots.

When chocolate is made without vanilla, the proportion of cinnamon is of two dragmes for each pound of cocoa; but if one wants to use vanilla, then the dosage of cinnamon should be cut at least in half. As for vanilla, its measurement is arbitrary: one, two, or three drops, even more, for each pound of cocoa, according to one's whim.

Chocolate chefs, to make it feel like they did use a lot of vanilla, resort to the use of pepper, ginger, etc. There exists some people of declared high taste who would not have it any other way; but, as these spices can but only lead to stomach upsets, wise people would shy away from these excesses, and will pay great attention to never enjoy any chocolate whose composition they have not ensured.

Any chocolate made in this fashion has this quality, that if one is in a hurry to go out, or one travels and lacks the time to melt it in a beverage, one could eat one ounce of the bar, and drink right after it, leaving to the stomach to mix that lunch on the go.

In the Caribbean islands, habits are to make pure cocoa bars, without any other ingredients. And when one wants to turn his chocolate into a drink, here how to proceed.

Preparation of the chocolate a la French Islands in the Americas . One shreds the cocoa bars in very thin layers with a knife, or rather with a flat grater, when the bats are dry enough and not greasy; when the desired quantity has been shredded, (for example, four filled teaspoonfuls which would amount to one ounce) two or three sprinkles of cinnamon, through a sifter, can be added, as two teaspoonfuls of powdered sugar.

The mixture is then placed in a dish with a fresh egg, that is both with the yoke and the white; mix well, using a whip until the consistence of liquid honey is reached; then, boiling liquid (water or milk, according to one's whim) can be poured as the stirring continues, so that everything mixes well.

Finally, the dish is put on the stove, or is double-boiled in a caldron filled with boiling water; as soon as the chocolate rises, the dish should be taken away from the heat; and after heavy stirring of the chocolate with the whip, the mixture is poured, in several times, and still well-whipped, in the cups. To heighten the scent, one could add before pouring the mixture a teaspoon of water scented with orange flower, in which one or two drops of amber essences had previously been dissolved.

This way of preparing chocolate has several advantages that are inherent to it, and that makes it preferable to all others.

At first, one can be sure that, if prepared according to the instructions, this chocolate has an exquisite perfume and tastes wonderfully; it is furthermore extremely gentle on your stomach, and leaves no messy residues either in the dish, or in the cups.

Secondly, one may at will prepare it as one fancies, adding more or less sugar and cinnamon, adding or not water scented with orange flower and amber essence; in a word, to make any changes that one would hold for more agreeable.

Thirdly, because nothing was added that could substitute the good qualities of the cocoa nut, the beverage proves to be so neutral that one can enjoy it at any time of the day, however old one might be, in the summer as well as in the winter, without fearing the least problem: whereas chocolate seasoned with vanilla and other sour, spicy ingredients can sometimes be dangerous, especially during the summer for the young and for those with vivacious, dry constitutions. The glass of cool water that one usually drinks before of after the chocolate can only temporarily alleviate the fire that it ignites in the blood and the entrails, once the soothing water has passed along.

Fourthly, this chocolate is so cheap that a cup of it will cost you one sou . If artisans were to learn about this aspect, few would fail to profit from such an easy, gracious, and cheap lunch that needs no other food to accompany it, be it solid or liquid.

- Denis Diderot, the Encyclopedia of Diderot and dAlembert , 1753

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"For the Entertainment of Gentlemen, Benefit of Commerce and Dispatch of Business, a Coffee-house is this Day opened in King Street Gentlemen who are pleased to use the House, may at any Time of the Day, after the Manner of those in London, have Tea, Coffee, or Chocolate, and constant Attendance given by their humble Servant, Mary Ballard

- advertisement, Boston Evening Post , December 8, 1755, p.2.

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If Columbus in an island of America had not caught the disease, which poisons the source of generation, and often indeed prevents generation, we should not have chocolate and cochineal"

- Voltaire, Candide , Chapter 4, 1759

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