Tag Archive: chocolate history
Chocolate Kisses
February 16, 2012
In 1907, an exquisite brand-new candy was released, and it was called Hershey's Kisses. Hershey's Kisses is chocolate brand created by The Hershey Company. They are bite-sized and possess a unique shape, typically referred to as flat-bottomed teardrops.
33 million Hershey Kisses are produced in one day in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Curiously, the city was originally named Derry Church, Pennsylvania. It was renamed Hershey in 1906 (one year before the Kiss was developed) after the growing popularity of Hershey's Chocolate.
Hershey's Kisses are individually wrapped in small squares of lightweight aluminum foil which includes a thin strip of paper sticking out from the top. The reason behind its name is not precisely known, but theory has it that they were named after the machine that makes them which looks like lips.
Ever since it was launched, the wrapping process of Kisses has always been the exact same. The tiny flag sticking out of the candy was put in 1924. Currently, their machines could easily wrap around 1,300 of these treats in a minute.
The very first Kisses were wrapped exclusively in silver-colored foil during the earlier times. However, come 1962, colored foils made their way into the picture. This started off a trend over the following years to be able to complement just about any holiday. Red, green, and silver foils were made available during the Christmas season; pastel pink, blue and green foils to celebrate Easter; lastly red and silver foil to harmonize with Valentine's Day.
Up until 1990, no enhancements were done to the chocolate itself. Now, Hershey's franchise put almonds into the candies. They were instantly and popularly accepted and have never gone away. And they've added other variations since.
After more than a hundred years, Hershey's Kisses continue to be a darling in the simple silver foil packaging. The sweet and smooth chocolate flavor has stayed pretty much pristine. They are widely known throughout the world and are recognized right away by practically anybody as one of the little pleasures in life.
Authentic Mexican Hot Chocolate
February 2, 2012
Chocolate, a native to Mexico, has been a staple there for centuries already. Initially, they enjoyed chocolate as a drink. They made variations og chocolate by incorporating different flavors and ingredients such as honey, spices, and nuts, among many others. The chocolate beverages they made did not have a sweet taste to them. Nevertheless, it was well-loved by the Aztec and Mayan royalty.
The Aztecs were whipping up and enjoying their hot chocolate drinks when the Spaniards arrived. They took the cacao beans along with them as they headed home, and started enhancing the flavors by adding milk and sugar. You can trace the roots of the hot chocolate drink recipe back to that. Shortly thereafter, chocolate became all the rage in European royal places. Special china pots and cups were produced, intended only for drinking hot chocolate. Nowadays, such kitchenware are considered as collectors’ items and can sell for a fortune if they come in a complete set.
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Chocolate Mousse Tidbits
January 12, 2012
For such a valued and delectable dessert, information about the origins of chocolate mousse is rather sparse.
The word "mousse" is a French word which means "foam" or "lather". A mousse is a certain type of food that incorporates air bubbles to give it an airy texture. Depending on how you prepare it, it can turn out light and fluffy or creamy and thick.
It made its way into the culinary world in the 18th century which was the period when chefs in Europe, especially in France, learned about the frothing power of eggs. A French writer Menon recorded the recipes which mostly involved different kinds of dishes from fish to vegetables. It didn't take too long until the infamous 19th century French painter and cook Henri de Toulouse came up with the idea of mixing in chocolate with mousse. He originally called it "chocolate mayonnaise", which we now know by the more appealing name "chocolate mousse".
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Queens Of Chocolate
December 15, 2011
The queens of France were allegedly the ones held responsible for the craze of drinking chocolate during their times. They brought the practice along with them from their countries of origin, or so they say.
The first queen was Anne of Austria who married Louis XIII. When the king died, she became regent and declared her immense love of chocolate. She was even given a personal chocolatier!
The second queen who had extreme love of chocolate was Maria Theresa of Austria who married Louis XIV. It is said that she only had two passions in life... the king, and you guessed right, chocolate. And according to the king, chocolate tricks hunger but does not fill the stomach.
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The Dark Side of Chocolate History
November 17, 2011
Did you know that some centuries back, the Catholic Church used to associate chocolate with heretical behavior such as blasphemy and even witchcraft? Intriguing? I know.
Does the word 'Inquisition' ring your bell? If not, let me shed some light. The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis (inquiry on heretical perversity), depicts religious overkill, torture, and intolerance. It was the fight against heresy by the Roman Catholic Church.
What certain behavior connects such disheartening event to chocolate, you may ask. Well, it was the act of drinking chocolate alone while attending an event. As morbid as it may sound, there were even stories wherein Charles II, King of Spain, drank chocolate while witnessing Inquisition victims being killed.
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The Guardian of Chocolate?
November 10, 2011
If you already have gone through the previous blog posts, you may have learned that chocolate can trace its origins back to the Aztecs. They have associated cacao trees with the god of agriculture, Quetzalcoatl. Legend has it that Quetzalcoatl was held responsible for bringing cacao to earth. His actions were frowned upon so he got kicked out of the heavens for giving it to humans. As he escaped, he swore to return one day as a “fair-skinned bearded man” to save the earth.
The earliest Aztecs highly thought of the cacao plant. They considered it as a source of strength and wealth and Quetzalcoatl was said to be its guardian which explains why cacao beans were used as their form of currency.
The Aztecs were among the first ones to work with cacao beans. However, they initially didn’t use this for any culinary purpose whatsoever. They only developed interest in its edibility after observing certain animals, particularly monkeys. This is why only the pulp of the cacao tree was used at first, only after a while did they start utilizing the beans.
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The History of Chocolate Chip Cookies
November 3, 2011
Homemade chocolate chip cookies almost always bring a smile to one’s face not only because of its pleasant taste but also because of how we grew up eating them.
What many people don't know is that, like the most renowned inventions, these treats were just accidentally created by Ruth Graves Wakefield back in 1933. Wakefield was the proprietor of the Toll House Inn, which was located on the outskirts of Whitman, Massachusetts. It was a famed place then to get some scrumptious home-cooked meals. Ruth's strategy to provide her patrons an additional serving of entrées for them to take home, along with her homemade cookies as dessert, made the inn all the more popular.
One day, Wakefield was preparing one of her favorite recipes, Butter Drop Do cookies. She commonly made the recipe using bakers’ chocolate, but she realized she had run out of it and only had Nestle semi sweet chocolate on hand. She then thought of utilizing it so she mixed it into the batter thinking it would melt and blend well. The chocolate pieces certainly did not mix like the bakers’ chocolate. Instead, it held its shape and softened to a creamy texture, and the rest is chocolate chip history.
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How Milk Chocolate Came About
October 20, 2011
Some of the finest chocolates ever created were made by the Swiss. Around 1876, a candy maker named Daniel Peter of Vevey, Switzerland, invented the first milk chocolate. Initially, he had a problem with removing the water from the milk, which caused mildewing.
He then teamed up with Henry Nestle, a manufacturer of condensed milk. They came up with the idea of adding condensed milk to chocolate liquor which is a nonalcoholic smooth, thick, and liquid form of chocolate. It is the ground or melted state of the nib of the cacao bean, the purest form of chocolate. Milk chocolate became famous and well-loved by consumers by the 1900’s, and still holds true today.
There is an array of milk chocolate forms. Hot cocoa is among the list, it is a cocoa powder mixed with milk and sugar and heated until hot and smooth. This infamous beverage never failed to make people warm and give a sense of comfort. Also included in the list are liquid milk products, powdered milk products, granule and of course, chocolate bars. One can the goodness of milk chocolate hot or cold, hard or soft, practically any way you want.
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Chocolate: Around the World
October 7, 2011
If you are a self-proclaimed true blue chocoholic and want to satisfy your need for anything chocolate, then why don’t you head to the Field Museum in Chicago?
“Chocolate: Around the World”, a smash hit exhibit which sold more than 360,000 tickets in its first Field run in the year 2002 is back not only to entertain you, but also give you juicy and interesting information.
In the past nine years, “Chocolate” has already been to 22 other American museums and will go international when its present Field run is done in January, said the Field president and chief executive officer, John McCarter.
“Chocolate” is a combination of both the Field’s focus on anthropology as well as natural history and its attention to the origins of cacao beans and the role chocolate played in the past centuries. “This is one of the great combination stories,” McCarter said.
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