For those of us who have come to truly appreciate fine dark chocolate, though we know that the market for such a product has not always been as large as it has become, still, it seems hard to imagine a time when there was not yet one single bar of this exquisite food in existence. The truth is, however, that until innovation in the 19th century, fine chocolate simply could not have existed, and even after these changes, fine chocolate really didn�t come into its own until the latter quarter of the 20th century. That said, though the mechanical capability to produce fine chocolate may have been born in an instant, it has taken 3000 or more years of human involvement with the plant called
Theobroma cacao (the cocoa tree) to get us to where we are today in terms of fine chocolate.
As for all of the important steps that have gotten us from point A to point C (that's 'C' for chocolate!), there are many chocolate-related timelines that can be found online, but often they focus more on fine chocolate-coated confections or perhaps on mass-produced chocolate items, than they do on fine chocolate per se. These other timelines, therefore, stray from our goal, which is to detail the events that, bit by bit, allowed the final creation of the delectable fine dark chocolate bars by
bean to bar chocolate makers. So, on toward chocolate!!
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Note: This timeline is a combination of comments from Patric Chocolate and source material from various references. Sentences including source material will be marked by numbers that correspond to the appropriate reference at the end of this post.)
Pre-Spanish Conquest: DiscoveryCirca 1000 BCE � circa 1500 CE: It is thought that the Olmecs, and then later the Maya, were the first to make use of the toasted and ground cacao seed in a hot, spiced beverage, rather than just as a vehicle for the pulpy fruit surrounding it (1). This recognition that dried, toasted, and perhaps fermented cacao seed could be transformed into a delicious product, with a flavor and aroma almost wholly unlike those of their raw form, is indeed a moment of genius. Though we may never be able to say thanks to the Olmecs who figured this out, we certainly are indebted to them. Later, between 900 CE and 1500 CE, the Toltecs and then the Aztecs also began to consume the toasted and spiced cacao beverage, but contrary to popular belief, they were not the first peoples to do so (1).
Spanish Conquest Period: TransmissionCirca 1528-1544: Starting in this period, transport of cacao to Spain with a quick spread to Italy (circa 1606), France (circa 1615) and England (circa 1650), and recognition of cacao as a flavorful beverage, began the chocolate cogs turning outside of Meso-America (1,3). Putting cacao in the hands of such a widely diverse group of people, who were culturally so far-removed from the Maya, surely led to a great deal of the innovation that we would see in the years to come.
1525: Spaniards transported the excellent quality Mexican criollo cacao to Trinidad, a country that would later become home to the hybrid
trinitario cacao after 1727 when a "blast" (either disease or hurricane-related) led to a cross-breeding of the remaining criollo with forastero-type cacao from eastern Venezuela (5). Trinitario-type cacao is now generally considered to be of excellent quality in terms of flavor and aroma.
1634: The Dutch seized a small island off the coast of north-western
Venezuela from the Spanish. This act allowed them to open trade routes from western Venezuela and eastern Columbia with many European nations, resulting in excellent-quality Venezuelan criollo cacao first being known outside of Spain (5). Today, cacao from the western half of Venezuela is still considered to be of high quality despite various breeding regimes that have changed the genetics, flavor and aroma of this cacao. In fact, it is from the south of Lake Maracaibo in western Venezuela that Porcelana cacao, a criollo with a smooth porcelain-colored pod, is thought to have originated.
Post-Conquest Period: Innovation1815: Van Hooten�s discovery of a way to extract cocoa butter from roasted and refined cacao in order to create cocoa powder led to an unintended, but very important, side-effect in the creation of the by-product cocoa butter, an ingredient that is quite important for dark chocolate bars with less than a 70% cacao content and for many other chocolate products, including milk chocolate (3,4).
Post-1834: Mexican criollo that had been transported to Sri Lanka (Ceylon) by the British, was soon taken to Madagascar for planting. In Madagascar, levels of production have remained small, and perhaps this fact has contributed to the high quality of cacao that is still grown there (5).
1847: Fry, in the UK, was the first to create a factory based upon an innovative combination of cacao, sugar and cocoa butter, resulting in the very first chocolate bars (3,4). Added cocoa butter decreased the feeling of graininess in the solid chocolate products, though, by no means was this yet fine chocolate. Keep this in mind when watching period-pieces that take place prior to this time; they sometimes include nobility eating modern hand-dipped-chocolates, something which would not have been possible.
1879: Rudolphe Lindt discovered the impact of conching on chocolate, which resulted in a much
smoother product (1,3,4). This discovery led to a chocolate that embodied the modern perception of fine chocolate, both due to further particle refinement and rounding, and to better homogenization of the sugar and cacao particles within the cocoa butter, coating them with a luscious layer of molten cocoa butter. Lindt's conching also led to flavor refinement, due to the mechanical action of the large granite roller on the chocolate, as just described, but also due to the subtle frictional-heating, and later additional external-heating, of the conche pot, which allowed for volatilization of unwanted flavor and aroma components, as well as very subtle chemical changes within the chocolate itself. And so 1879 was an important year for fine chocolate indeed!
Twentieth Century: The Beginning of a Golden-Age
1920's-Present: Research on cacao-growing, harvesting, fermentation, drying, roasting, and conching began to grow at universities in France, Germany and the United States. With new forms of research equipment, more accurate findings have led to a much better understanding of the development of chocolate flavor. There have been claims that there are between 300 and 600 chemical components in chocolate, making it one of the most complex foods in the world. Yet, with all of this growing understanding, scientists still have not determined what chemicals lead to the quintessential "chocolate" flavor. Some chemicals that are known to have some impact on chocolate flavor are volatile fatty acids, pyrazines, aldehydes, alcohols, esters, and sulfurs among others. However, it seems that a full understanding of chocolate flavor and aroma is still a long way off.
1930: The Cocoa Research Scheme was instituted in Trinidad at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture; it has since moved to the University of the West Indies and is now known as the Cocoa Research Unit (CRU) (6). The CRU continues its work on the research of cacao in relation to the International Cocoa Genebank in Trinidad (more below).
1953: Beginning with Maurice Bernachon, and continuing with his son Jean-Jacques Bernachon, this small French chocolate company has consistently focused on manufacturing fine chocolate for sale as bars and also for use in their other fine chocolate-based products (2). All these years they have resisted drastic national and international expansion and continue to maintain their headquarters in Lyon, France.
Bernachon Online1982: The International Cocoa Genebank, Trinidad (ICG,T) was founded by the Cocoa Research Unit in Trinidad on a 33 hectare site. This genebank includes "one of the most diverse collections of germplasm in the world," and it serves the CRU in their efforts to "conserve, characterise, evaluate, utilise and distribute cacao." (6,7) Such research and conservation is important due to potential extinction of certain cacao genotypes through problematic breeding programs over the last century that have resulted in greatly decreased cacao quality world-wide. In fact, by many accounts, pure criollo cacao is virtually extinct, composing much less than 1% of the world-production of cacao. Whether this number is accurate or not, it is certain that criollo would be in danger of total annihilation without programs like the ICG,T.
1984: Bonnat, a French chocolate maker, offered the first single-origin dark chocolate bars 100 years after the company first opened its doors (2).
Bonnat Chocolatier
1985: Valrhona, a French company founded in 1924, began their single-origin Gran Cru line of chocolate as a supply for chocolate professionals. Then, starting in 1986 and continuing to the present, Valrhona began releasing blend and single-origin bars for the public too (2,3).
Valrhona
1988: Fran�ois Pralus took over the French-based business that his father had started and began focusing his energy on an extensive line of single-origin dark chocolate bars (2).
Chocolats Pralus
1989: Swiss chocolate-giant Lindt released their
70% Noir dark chocolate bar, the first bar sold in supermarkets to promote the actual cacao percentage (3). Products like this exposed the mainstream to chocolate that they never knew existed, and educated them enough that they finally knew how to ask an important question: "Where can I get more?"
1995: Italian company Domori began production of dark chocolate bars with a focus on single-origin and even single-tree-variety chocolate bars processed in their unique style (3).
Domori
1997: Italian company Amedei began production of fine dark chocolate in the form of single-origin and blend bars with a primary focus on cacao from different areas of Venezuela (3).
Amedei1998: Michel Cluizel, chocolate maker at a French chocolate manufacturer of the same name, introduced a line of �nuanciers,� or chocolate disks that showcased the same beans with a variety of percentages, or on the other hand, beans from different origins with the same percentage. Michel Cluizel then went on to create a line of single-origin bars of his own (3).
Michel CluizelTwenty-First Century and Beyond: Into the Future1997-Present: The American Fine Chocolate Movement
Although not an organized movement, since the late 1990�s, a growing number of relatively small chocolate makers have been opening their doors here in the United States. Though not all of the companies share the same goal regarding fine chocolate, there are those who work hard to offer excellent-quality dark chocolate bars born from their own passion and love for the chocolate medium. Patric Chocolate counts itself proud to be one company within this growing group, and we hope to, through a careful focus on the quality of our products, inspire future generations of fine chocolate makers, here and abroad, just as we have been inspired by our predecessors and peers. We like to think that, despite the more than 3000 years it has taken to get here, the history of fine chocolate has only just begun!
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Disclaimer 1: Though only four cacao-growing countries have been mentioned above, in truth, there are excellent-quality fine chocolate bars made from almost countless different origins. It was not possible to focus on every country, so only a handful of well-known countries tied to quality production were mentioned.)
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Disclaimer 2: Patric Chocolate, in the timeline above, does not imply a personal or business association with any of the above-mentioned chocolate companies, nor does Patric Chocolate indicate any endorsement by the above companies. The statements made about these companies are factual as far as can be determined based on the resources cited below. Additionally, by providing links to the sites of said companies, Patric Chocolate does not necessarily guarantee or endorse the information or products available at those sites.)
References:1: The True History of Chocolate by Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe.
2: 100% Chocolate by Katherine Khodorowsky and Doctor Herv� Robert.
3: The Chocolate Connoisseur by Chlo� Doutre-Roussel.
4: Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use edited by Samuel Beckett.
5: Chocolate Production and Use by L. Russell Cook
6: Cocoa Research Unit7: International Cocoa Genebank, Trinidad(ICG,T)
