17th Century Chocolate

Chocolate took off as a popular and luxury drink in 17th century Europe. It has all the trappings of an expensive commodity, using expensive imported ingredients and difficult to make. It was first encountered by Europeans in the early 16^th century with Christopher Columbus encountering the beans on his fourth mission to the Americas. Later the conquistador, Hernán Cortés possibly encountered it as a drink when he visited the court of Montezuma, in modern day Mexico. The European craze for chocolate began 100 years after this, in the early 1600s.

The first chocolate house in London, was in 1657. Making chocolate was a specialised job and not something readily done at home. Usually one would go to a chocolate house to enjoy the drink and socialize. Although the first chocolate house was in Bishopsgate, most of the coffee houses centred around St James’s in Westminster. The City coffee houses did sell chocolate as well as coffee, but the quality was not as good, it being a difficult drink to make and there wasn’t much demand for chocolate in a coffee house. Coffee houses were the places to go for business and caffeine induced coffee was the drink associated with being sharp witted to making profitable deals.

Whilst coffee was a drink for business, chocolate was a drink for leisure. It was expensive, aspirational and a real luxury; only drunk by those who could afford it. It was also seen as nourishment. Robert Hooke, 17^th century scientist, architect and City of London Fire Judge, kept a record of his diet and medicines, and would make a note of when he drank coffee.

“To Sir Chr. Wrens. Walked with him. Choclatt at Mans.” Friday 25^th February 1676.

Mans was a coffee house on Lincolns Inn Gate in Chancery Lane.

Making chocolate was a lengthy process requiring specialist skills. First of all, the cocoa beans would need to be roasted, and the nut taken out of the shell. These nuts would then be ground to a paste. The cocoa nut contains oil which when ground, made this paste-like substance. The more it was ground, the better the quality of the chocolate. The paste was made into a ‘cake’, which was a block of cocoa that was easy to store, transport and would mature with age.

In the 17^th century the chocolate drink was the main consumable from the paste. When required, the cake would be broken up and mixed with water. It was a case of dissolving the cocoa, not straining it and discarding the leaves or grounds as with coffee or tea. Due to the oil, the cocoa didn’t easily dissolve, so to make the drink it had to be boiled and constantly whisked. Otherwise there would be lumps of ‘fatty’ cocoa within the drink.

Pure chocolate, has a very bitter taste, and was not to the liking of 17^th century Europe. A lot of sugar was used to sweeten the drink. Other flavourings were also used including vanilla, cinnamon, aniseed, pepper and famously chilli. Milk, eggs or wine could also be added.

Going back to Robert Hooke, he did make chocolate at home, but not always with success:

“Grace Made chocolate but heat it too hot without water.” Friday 11^th February 1676.

Grace was Hooke’s housekeeper and niece. William III was a lover of chocolate. He brought his taste for it from Holland when he ascended the throne with Mary during the Glorious Revolution in 1689. In such elite households, it was a popular breakfast drink, But William III drank it throughout the day. He employed is own chocolatier, by the name of Solomon de le Faya.

All the ingredients for chocolate were imported from around the world and thus expensive. The main ingredients, the cacao and the sugar, came from plantations in the Caribbean and South America. Like many of the aspirational consumables of the time, the production was under-pinned by the slave trade and enslaved people working on the plantations.

In the early 19^th century, 1828, a process of removing the cacao oils and grounding the nib to make powder was introduced. This powder was mass produced, and so chocolate became an affordable everyday drink. Interestingly, although chocolate became affordable and is so today, it is still seen as luxurious and something you have on special occasions. There are high-end and low-end chocolate products, but when it comes to marketing, the angle is always quality and luxury.