Chocolate : A European Sweet

Nearly 100 years passed before other European countries caught the chocolate craze. Were the Spaniards trying to keep chocolate to themselves? And how did news of chocolate spread? We’re not sure.

Eventually someone let the secret slip, and chocolate became the latest and greatest fad to hit the royal courts of Europe—a trend that lasted until the Industrial Revolution made chocolate available to a much broader public.

Many countries established cacao-growing colonies. The English, Dutch, and French also colonized cacao-growing lands near the equator. The British planted trees in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The Dutch established plantations in Venezuela, Java, and Sumatra. And the French focused on the West Indies.

Soon, these countries were shipping cacao back home to keep Europe well stocked with chocolate.

Plantations struggled with labor issues. Many of the products coming out of the Americas at this time were labor-intensive crops. Colonial landowners needed a large workforce to meet European demand for sugar as well as indigo (dye), tobacco, cotton, and cacao itself.

After so many Mesoamericans died from European diseases, growers needed a new labor force. European colonial landowners turned to Africa to supply them with the necessary labor. For over two centuries, a combination of millions of wage laborers and enslaved peoples were used to create a large workforce.

Chocolate mills helped Europeans grind large amounts of cacao. Like the Spanish, most other Europeans had their plantation workers harvest, ferment, and dry the seeds for overseas shipping. Once they arrived in European ports, these seeds would have to be ground by hand.

But eventually, to produce larger amounts of chocolate more quickly, people began grinding their cacao using wind-driven or horse-drawn mills.

As with the Spanish, most Europeans liked their chocolate sweetened with sugar, another expensive and exotic import from faraway plantations.

And in the late 1600s, Sir Hans Sloane, president of the Royal College of Physicians, introduced another culinary custom: mixing the already popular chocolate drink with milk for a lighter, smoother flavor.

In France, chocolate was a state monopoly. According to legend, the French court’s love of chocolate was sealed when its new, self-confessed chocoholic queen, Anne of Austria (daughter of King Philip III of Spain), married Louis XIII in 1615.

Chocolate became an instant status symbol, and by decree, no one but members of the French aristocracy were allowed to drink it.

In England, anyone with money could drink chocolate. The first chocolate house opened in London in 1657. Like coffee shops, which became popular much later, chocolate houses were places to enjoy a hot drink, discuss politics, socialize, and gamble.

Many chocolate houses admitted only men. Others were open to anyone who could afford the entrance fee.

Europeans preferred to drink their chocolate from ornate dishes made out of precious materials and crafted by artisans.

Like the elaborate ceramic vessels of ancient Maya and Aztec rulers, these dishes were more than serving pieces. They were also symbols of wealth.