Chocolate- an amazing journey

CHOCOLATE

Chocolate is something we all eat! Me, you, any random person on the street; you ask anybody; they would have eaten chocolate, except for perhaps the poor chocolate workers in African cocoa farms who are sometimes not even paid a cent and made to work like slaves… but that’s another story…

There are a million brands- Cadbury, Snickers, Mars, and Maltesers to name a few. The slightly higher end hand crafted ones are Lindt and Sprungli. Some brands are so big, they have their own amusement parks and activities, a bit like a chocolate Disney World. Hershey’s Chocolate World, Pennsylvania, is one of them. It has it’s own town, called, quite unimaginatively, Hershey.  And believe me, two days there and you will be so sick of chocolate that you won’t eat it for at least a week (that’s a long time for a chocolate lover like me!). It’s common all over the world, from India to America. But did you ever imagine as you bit into a bar of luscious, creamy Dairy Milk, where it had come from? Who invented it? Who made the yummy, crunchy square in your hand? Now you’re going to be thinking, ‘Well, obviously not! I was concentrating on eating and enjoying it wasn’t I?’ That’s probably what I would have said, till ,one day, I read a book on the Aztecs…

Aztecs and chocolate?? The words have no connection, you think? Wrong! They have a very strong link…

Maybe you’ve heard of the cacao bean (the thing that makes chocolate, silly! Did you think it was made of thin air?) being discovered by some tribals on a remote island? The ‘tribals’ were the Aztecs, and Mayans before them. They were actually quite a civilized and smart culture (unless you count their human sacrifices to the sun). They discovered the Cacao in their homeland of Mexico.

Besides paying priests to build large golden pyramids, sacrificing a citizen now and again, and strolling through Cuzco-the capital of the Aztec Empire- the Aztec Emperor would look through new inventions and discoveries. That’s how he noticed the Cacao bean. It had been found and eaten as a powder by the citizens of an Aztec village unknown to the rest of the Aztecs until a messenger from the Emperor passed through and told the Emperor of the ‘bitter, strange fruit’.

The emperor from then on would mix it in milk and eat it (the Aztecs had no sugar) and for flavor would sometimes even add in cornmeal and chili peppers. This bitter drink could only be drunk by the nobles and Royal Family. Thus began the legend that the head god, Quetzalcoatl, had brought down a sacred Cocoa Tree from heaven for the kings who were considered incarnations of God. The Cacao Bean was even used as a thanksgiving sacrifice to the gods. After the Aztec empire reached Guatemala, the Aztecs began spreading out into South America. Slowly, trade with other cultures caused it to become the common man’s drink. And over time it became popular in the Spanish conquistador societies; which had now reached South America. Here is the tale of a certain Father Jóse Paulo, a Spanish priest…

Father Jóse Paulo, called Paulo by the Aztecs, was one of the only whites to befriend them. He came as the priest on a Spanish ship of conquistadors, which ran aground, making him wash up unconscious on the beaches of Colombia clutching a rosary. The Aztecs found him, and rescued him, even though he was a ‘white Yaotl’ or (in plain English) ‘white warrior enemy’. He, over the years, befriended them and become almost one of them. They, in turn, revealed to him their secrets- the Cacao bean and their golden temple treasures. The Cacao was indeed a strange bean to Father Paulo. His Aztec friends were the brewers of the chocolate drink sent to the Emperor each day, (it was called xcolacotl, meaning hot bitter water in Nahuatl the Aztec language) and they had let the Father taste it in secret. To the Father the taste was most disagreeable, yet he believed his friends and swore to protect their secret. They would use a golden, sacred, three-pronged instrument like a fork- called a tuning fork, to froth the cacao and make it creamy. It was the size of a normal fork; but plated in gold.

Life passed pleasantly for four years with his friends, when another ship of Conquistadors- led by Francisco Pizarro- appeared on the coast. The Father was scared; he knew what the Spanish planned to do. Despite his warnings, the Aztecs invited in the Europeans and traded with them. On discovering Father Paulo, the Spanish began to speak to him in his native tongue of Spanish, to the Father’s great joy. Yet, as the Spanish began to loot and plunder the village the Father had learned to call home, Father Jóse felt a sense of hate. How could his own countrymen kill unfeelingly those who had welcomed them warmly, and moreover, helped him, a poor, shipwrecked man of no use to them, out of the goodness of their hearts? The conquistadors tried to get Father Paulo to their side; asking him to give up the secrets he swore never to reveal.

 

Late one evening, the Aztec Head Cacao Brewer, Centehua, Father Jóse’s special friend, pulled him to a dark corner of the brewery…

“Father. I know we have foolishly not heeded your excellent advice on the other white Yaotl. I deeply regret it. However, what is done is done. They have begun looting and plundering, killing and massacring! They may kill me; but they will never kill you, one of their brothers and countrymen. I would let them capture Cuzco, our capital and steal all the wealth- but there is one thing they must never find!” He led the Father to a jeweled box. He opened it and there lay the instrument they called a Tuning Fork, and a bolt of silver inlaid with sapphires.

“Paulo! Promise me! Promise me this, in return for our brotherhood and friendship of five years. Promise me that you will never, ever let this fall into the hands of evil! This bolt locks the Brewery. I know they will break it down eventually; yet, please, if anything happens to me- the first thing you must do is bolt this building with this magic bolt and take the Fork away with you. Get away from here! Go to your homeland with them. But never leave the Fork, Paulo! Give me your solemn word- please, brother!’ Centehua pleaded in desperation.

Father Jóse took a deep breath. He agreed.

The minute Centehua stepped out; a Spanish bullet hit him in the head. He fell backwards, clutching Paulo.

“P-p-paul-lo! K-ke-keep your pr-pr-promi-” Centehua drew his last breath. Paulo looked up at his friend’s assailant, trying to hide the tears that fell from his eyes in grief.

“Wh-what?” Paulo cried, half in anger, half in grief.

“Leave this barbarian alone. Come home with us, Father Jóse. Leave this stupid land of barbarians with us and we shall give you the treasure we have,” the soldier said.

Paulo almost screamed at the soldier in rage at his cruelty, but he was bound by a dying mans last words. He remembered his promise and told the soldier.

“I will be at the ship once I pack my things.”

The soldier nodded and turned to shoot a brewery worker. Father Paulo could not bear to watch and turned inside.

He picked up the jeweled box and hid it under his robes till her reached his hut, which was connected to the brewery. He opened the jeweled box and took out the fork and the magic bolt. In his room he had an old grey cloth bag. In it he put his rosary, a handful of cacao beans and a drawing of the brewery and the Head Brewer, Centehua. He could not bear to look at Centehua’s picture and shoved it into the bottom of the bag. The tuning fork he put in the secret pocket in the side of the bag. He bolted the door outside, bolted his hut’s entrance and ran to the ship, turning back with tears in his eyes at the thought of saying goodbye to the land he had known and loved for 5 years. In awe he watched as the brewery seemed to explode! Almost as if it had been hit by lightning! He turned around and gave a steely gaze to the ship. Someday, Father Jóse Paulo swore, the Spanish would be paid back. He no longer felt any love or longing to go back to his homeland, now that he had realized his fellow Spaniard’s cruelty. He cursed himself, for he would have been part of such happenings back in his original expedition. He thanked god for helping him meet and befriend such truly selfless beings as the Aztecs. But now, they were gone- the people, their monuments, their houses, their food, their land- all had been swallowed up by the monster of Spain, leaving no trace of their existence. Father Paulo felt burning hatred; a desire to kill all the Spaniards on the ship, who had wiped off not only a culture but also an influence on the world. He walked to the Captain’s cabin, declared his arrival and stepped into his cabin. He had been given a wooden box for coins. He placed in it the bag with the tuning Fork and covered it with coins as he received his share of the treasure. Though day upon day Francisco pressurized him to give up his Aztec brothers’ secrets, Father Paulo had a will of iron. He had sworn to the Aztecs that he would not give away what they had told him; and that was what he intended to do. Even when they tried to make him homesick and loyal to Spain, Jóse did not crack. He had a burning hatred for his country and it’s citizens in him now- and never would it stop. He looked out into the horizon as the ship set sail at last, saying goodbye to what he felt was his only true home, a distant continent halfway across the world from his country- the Aztec Empire, where his only true friends and brothers had once lived….

 They seemed to have bad luck with the sea though. The ship ran aground in the ocean; though most others made it out, Father Jóse Paulo went down with the ship and his precious Tuning Fork. But, perhaps, he actually had good luck with the sea; for in his original voyage he ran aground to meet his friends, the Aztecs and the second time, had he landed in Spain, his fellow Spaniards may have discovered his treasure, but by letting it float away, he ensured that no one would find it for millennia…

Who knows? Maybe the Tuning Fork of the Aztecs is still out there… somewhere still at the bottom of the sea in a decaying box? So if you ever find an old battered box with strange symbols washed up on the beach, check inside to see whether the treasure countless Aztecs and Father Jóse Paulo gave up their lives to protect is inside; a two pronged, solid gold and diamond inlaid fork. Just don’t use it to eat dinner; your food might turn frothy and creamy! (That’s actually not a bad idea- it might make food taste better!)

Later ships of Conquistadors found cacao beans and took them to Europe. These slowly evolved from ‘xcolacotl’ to Swiss Handcrafted Chocolate to the Mars and Hershey bars we know today.

Chocolate has had an amazing journey… from a bitter drink made by tuning forks… an ancient promise to protect it… to bars and cake. It has spanned the centuries and delighted many. Now goodbye… as I turn to munch on a Hershey! .... (Sound of chocolate wrapper being ripped open)…(munch)… (Crunch)… hey, stop staring and get your own chocolate!