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Young World
Food of the gods
RADHA H.S.
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Everybody loves a good chocolate. Its rich and lingering taste is indescribable. Where did this magic food come from?
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Cacao seeds were dried and used as currency. Two beans could buy a pumpkin and four could buy a rabbit!
Photo: AP
Theobroma Cacao: Mmmm...a tasty bite.
Suppose you went to a store and the shelves stocking chocolates were empty. May be they were all sold out or may be…they weren’t getting made! Not getting made is a rather difficult situation to imagine, isn’t it?
Here’s the story of cocoa. Theobroma cacao (kah-KOW) is the biological name of cocoa —the raw material used in making chocolate.
Cacao is an evergreen tree from the rainforests of South America. It has gone from being a wild crop to one cultivated in many parts of the world. There has been a tremendous increase in chocolate and chocolate products consumed worldwide. To cater to this increasing demand, farmers have started growing more productive hybrid varieties.
Cocoa travels
In olden times, the seeds were dried and used as currency. Early European explorers found that two beans could buy a pumpkin and four could buy a rabbit.
Originally, it was considered “food of the gods” when cultivated by the Mayans in South America, who introduced it to the Aztecs in Mexico. In fact the Theobroma part of the biological name means “food of the gods”.
With the Spanish exploration and the conquest of the Aztec empire in Mexico, the Spaniards were introduced to an exotic drink called chocolatl.
The Spaniards then introduced it to the Spanish courts in 1550s and from there it slowly spread to other European countries. When it was introduced in Europe not many liked the “bitter brew”. Eventually, just as it is done today sugar, milk and other spices/flavourings were used to make it less bitter. Over time a solid form of chocolate was introduced.
Pods which grow on the trunk and branches of the tree are used to make chocolate. Each pod has soft pulp inside in which the beans are cushioned. These beans are bitter. They are processed to remove the bitterness and then dried or dried with its bitterness intact.
In prehistoric periods cacao was grown in small groves alternating with the rainforest or other crops. Today cacao is an important crop for farmers in South America, Africa and Asia. Cocoa products are relished all over the world.
The Mayans and the Aztecs
The Mayans believed that the kakaw (cacao) was discovered by the gods in a mountain that also contained other delectable foods. The Maya celebrated an annual festival in April to honour their cacao god, Ek Chuah.
In a similar creation story, the Mexica (Aztec) god Quetzalcoatl discovered cacao (cacahuatl: "bitter water"), in a mountain filled with other plant foods. Cacao was offered regularly to a pantheon of deities.
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