Question

the history of chocolate
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Answer 1

Resposta:

Historia do chocolate:

Os primeiros vestígios da descoberta do chocolate são de 1.500 a.C. e vêm da civilização Olmeca que habitava o México na época. Posteriormente, foi aproveitado pelos Maias. O cacau era cultivado e com suas sementes era feita uma bebida considerada sagrada, ela era amarga e geralmente temperada com baunilha e pimenta.

The first traces of the discovery of chocolate date back to 1500 BC and come from the Olmec civilization that inhabited Mexico at the time. Later, it was used by the Mayans. Cocoa was cultivated and its seeds made a drink considered sacred, it was bitter and usually seasoned with vanilla and pepper.

Answer 2

Resposta:

Chocolate is a food derived from fermented and roasted cocoa beans. Consumed worldwide, it is an important component of the food industry, in addition to playing a fundamental role in the economy of several countries around the globe. Its tree is the cacao tree, a typical plant with a tropical climate, which finds in Brazil an ideal environment for its cultivation, especially in the regions of Espírito Santo and the south of Bahia, in Ilhéus. Brazil is the largest chocolate producer in Latin America and one of the largest in the world alongside Ivory Coast, Ghana and Ecuador. According to scientists, the original cocoa home was in the forests of the Amazon River region, or in the Orinoco region, in Venezuela. Colombo had the opportunity, during his fourth trip to America, to meet the cocoa beans, but he paid no attention to them.

Reports say that the first to consume chocolate regularly, around 1500 B.C., were members of the Olmec civilization, inhabitants of present-day Mexico and Guatemala. Subsequently, the Mayans and Aztecs of the same area developed the custom of drinking chocolate, a product considered sacred. The seeds were roasted and mixed with delicacies such as pepper, a base of fermented corn and spices, resulting in a very different flavor from what is known today. In religious ceremonies, roasted cocoa was served with spices and honey.

It is through trade carried out by Spanish conquistadors that chocolate arrives in Europe, eventually spreading throughout the world. In the beginning, it is considered a special food for its nutritional and energetic value and only women, priests and nobles consumed it in services of the Catholic Church. Around 1700 the "Chocolate Houses" started to compete with the "Coffee Houses" in London.

With the Industrial Revolution, the invention of several machines makes mass production possible, in addition to making products cheaper. The same is true of the chocolate industry. Gradually, cocoa becomes more popular and diversifies with the addition of other ingredients. In 1828 the Dutch manufacturer Conrad van Houtten discovered a method of extracting fat from ground cocoa beans and turning it into cocoa butter. The habit of eating chunks of chocolate would only become popular 20 years later in 1847, when an English firm, Fry and Sons, started producing sweet chocolate bars to eat (and not just powdered chocolate to drink), mixing ground cocoa. with cocoa butter and sugar. In Switzerland, the consecrated blend of chocolate, milk and sugar finally appears, giving rise to chocolate as it is known today.