Читать книгу The Manufacture of Chocolate and other Cacao Preparations - Paul Zipperer - Страница 6

The cacao tree flourishes in a warm, moist climate. It is therefore indigenous to tropical America, from 23° north to 15° or 20° south latitude.

Consequently the area in which it grows comprises the Central American republic of Mexico down to the Isthmus of Panama; Guatemala, the Greater and Lesser Antilles, Martinique, Trinidad, St. Lucia, Granada, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, and San Domingo; in South America, the republics of Venezuela, Columbia, Guiana, Ecuador, Peru and the northern parts of Brazil, especially the districts lying along the middle Amazon.

In all other countries where the cacao tree now flourishes, it has been naturalised, either by colonists, or with government aid, as in Asia, where the Philippine Islands, Java, Celebes, Amboyna and Ceylon in particular are deserving of mention; and in Cameroon (Bibundi, Victoria and Buea), Bourbon, San Thomé and the Canary Islands in Africa, where the tree is sometimes found growing at an elevation of about 980 ft. above sea level. Ceylon offers an instructive illustration of the zeal with which the cultivation is carried on in some districts. According to information furnished by Mr. Ph. Freudenburg, late German Consul at Colombo, cacao had been planted in a few instances during the time Ceylon was in possession of the Dutch, but only since 1819 has seed been distributed out of the botanical gardens at Kalatura, and it was still later before planters could obtain it from those established at Peradenija. Systematic cultivation for commercial purposes was commenced in 1872 or 1873. The principal seats of cacao plantations are Dumbara, Kurunegalla, Kegalla and Polgahawella, together with North, East and West Matala, Urah and Panwila.1 According to statistical records, the relation between the growth and export of cacao is shown by the following table, which also shows the development of its cultivation:

Year	Area under cultivation (acres)	Exports (cwts)
1878	300	10
1879	500	42
1880	3000	121
1881	5460	283
1885	12800	7247
1892	14500	17327
1895	18278	27519
1898	22500	32688
1908	39788	62186

Like all other articles of human food, cacao has a history of some interest, the most essential points of which are here summarised from the excellent work of A. Mitscherlich.2

A knowledge of the cacao tree was first brought to Europe in 1519 by Fernando Cortez and his troops. He found in Mexico a very extensive cultivation of cacao, which had been carried on for several centuries. In the first letter addressed by Cortez to Charles the Fifth, he described cacao beans as being used in place of money. Cortez applied to the cacao tree the name of “Cacap”, a word derived from the old Mexican designation “Cacava-quahitl”. The Mexicans called the fruit “Cacavacentli”, the beans “Cacahoatl” and the beverage prepared from them “Chocolatl”3, said to be derived from the root “Cacava” and “Atl”, water. This term was adopted by the Spaniards, and it gave rise in the course of time to the word “Chocolate”, which is now universal.

The botanical definition of the typical form of the cacao tree, which belongs to the family BUTTNERIACEAE, is referable to Linnaeus, who gave it the name “Theobroma Cacao” (food of the gods, from “Theos”, God, and “Broma”, food). Probably chocolate was a favourite beverage with Linnaeus, who may have been acquainted with the work of the Paris physician Buchat, published in 1684, in which chocolate is alluded to as an invention more worthy of being called food of the gods than nectar or ambrosia. Clusius first described the cacao tree in his “Plantae exoticae”. The taste for chocolate soon spread throughout Spain after the return of Cortez’ expedition from the New World, not, however, without encountering some opposition, especially on the part of the clergy, who raised the question whether it were lawful to partake of chocolate on fast days, as it was known to possess nutritive properties. However, it found an advocate in Cardinal Brancatio, who described it as an article belonging, like wine, to the necessaries of life, and he therefore held that its use in moderation could not be prohibited. In 1624 Franciscus Rauch published a work at Vienna, in which he condemned the use of chocolate and suggested that the monks should be prevented from partaking of it, as a means of preventing excesses. About the commencement of the 17th century, the use of chocolate spread from Spain to Italy, where it was brought to the notice of the public by the Florentine Antonio Carletti (1606), who had lived for some time in the Antilles. The method of converting cacao beans into chocolate was also made known in Europe by Carletti, while the Spaniards had kept it a secret. Under Theresa of Austria, wife of Louis XIV, the habit of taking chocolate appears to have become very common in France after the partial introduction of cacao by importation from Spain. The first cacao imported from the French colony of Martinique arrived in Brest in 1679 in “Le Triomphant”, the flagship of admiral d’Estrées. Opinion in France as to chocolate was then divided: Madame Sévigné, once an admirer of chocolate, afterwards wrote to her daughter: “il vous flatte pour un temps et puis il vous allume tout d’un coup fièvre continue qui vous conduit à la mort”, a theory which nowadays must necessarily be regarded as ridiculous.

Chocolate was in general use in England about the middle of the 17th century. Chocolate houses, similar to the coffee houses of Germany, were opened in London. Bontekoë, physician to the Elector Wilhelm of Brandenburg, published in 1679 a work entitled “Tractat van Kruyd, Thee, Coffe, Chocolate,” in which he spoke very strongly in favour of chocolate and contributed very sensibly to the increase of its consumption in Germany. The first chocolate factory in Germany is said to have been erected by Prince Wilhelm von der Lippe about the year 1756 at Steinhude. This prince brought over Portuguese specially versed in the art of chocolate making.