Cacao became the jewel of European commerce, while chocolate beverages became fashionable among lords and ladies, poets and prelates. The upper class sipped their steaming hot chocolate heavily sweetened and served in deep, straight-sided cups, while royalty flaunted their wealth by drinking from golden chalices. By the time the beverage made its way to the British Isles, milk has been added to the mixture, and although chocolate houses flourished in major cities, the prices of drinking chocolate was out reach for the bourgeoisie.
In 1828, everything changed when a Dutch chemist developed a new way of pressing the fat from cacao beans. His method for creating cocoa powder made the drink more affordable and available to the masses, although the new drink pale in comparison to the original.
While most countries in Europe remained faithful to the more luxurious recipe, convenient cocoa powder prevailed in Britain and elsewhere. As those in the United States adopted the British fondness for cocoa, they drink seemed to lose its appeal among adults.
Cocoa was relegated to adolescence and derided in literature as bedtime nourishment for schoolgirls. To make matter worse, Americans began using the terms “hot chocolate” and “hot cocoa” interchangeably, obscuring the considerable difference between the two.
True hot chocolate has maintained its exotic, romantic image in much of Europe, yet it has never been widely embraced in this side of the Atlantic. And while it’s obvious that American temperaments are suited to the stimulation of coffee, a growing number of us long for a time when life was simpler and food was slower.
Hot Chocolate
