Cocoa

Theobroma cacao

"Food of the gods"-that is the literal and apt translation of the name Theobroma. It was given to the chocolate tree and its genus by the great botanist Carolus Linnaeus, creator of the modern system of scientific nomenclature. The name reflects not only the flavor of chocolate, but its history as well.

In 1519, the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez and his soldiers witnessed a strange ceremony at the court of the Aztec emperor Montezuma. Seated high on a golden throne, observed by his subjects with reverent awe, the "living god" repeatedly drank from a golden goblet containing a beverage called chocolatl. When the Indians honored the Spanish by offering them the bitter, dark brown drink, they explained that the beans from which it was made had come from paradise, and so each sip would bring wisdom and knowledge. So valuable were the beans to the Aztecs that they served as a form of currency: 4 beans could buy a wild turkey; 100 could purchase a live slave.

Cortez praised chocolate effusively in a letter to the Spanish ruler, Charles V, and brought a supply of the beans home with him. Enthusiasm for the new drink, made more palatable by the addition of sugar and vanilla (an improvement said to have been made about 1550 by the nuns of a Mexican cloister), spread to the French court. There chocolate was considered an aphrodisiac and happily imbibed by those who could afford it. The English added milk to the formula and established chocolate houses, as did the Dutch, where aristocrats sipped the heavenly drink in privacy.

Native to the tropics of Central and South America, the chocolate tree is a widely branching evergreen that may reach 40 feet in height, but is pruned to about 20 feet on plantations. Small fragrant clusters of pink or creamy flowers, borne directly on the trunk or main branches, develop into woody, football-shaped fruits up to 1 foot long. These range in color from yellow to reddish purple to brown. Within each fruit, embedded in a gelatinous pinkish pulp, are about 50 bitter seeds, or cocoa beans.

Harvesters scrape the beans and pulp together into fermenting troughs, where the sweet pulp liquefies and the beans lose their astringency. Then the beans are dried, roasted, shelled, and processed into their constituent parts. Fat - more than 50 percent of a cocoa bean - is rendered into yellowish cocoa butter. Unlike most fats, it is not greasy. It also has a pleasant odor and does not easily become rancid, and so it is prized for use in soaps and other toiletry products, as well as in suppositories and soothing ointments.

The fat-free powdered residue is cocoa; mixed with sugar and hot milk or water, it is the warming, energizing drink that northerly peoples still regard as the food of the gods. Various grades of chocolate candy, from smooth milk chocolate to the hard, bitter blocks used by bakers, are made by combining the cocoa with assorted mixtures of cocoa butter, milk, vanilla, and sweeteners. Because it is rich in the stimulants caffeine and theobromine, chocolate combats fatigue and gives a burst of quick energy. This is why soldiers have carried chocolate into battle from the period of the Civil War to modern times. In addition, recent research has found that chocolate has a soothing effect on troubled minds.

Other names

• Cacao
• Chocolate
• Theobroma cacao

Parts used

Seed.

Uses

Cocoa's Latin name, Theobroma, means "food of the gods." To the Aztec, xocoatl (cocoa) was a form of currency and a beverage drunk by nobility from gold goblets. The rest of the world learned about chocolate when Hernando Cortez brought it back from Mexico in 1519. The Spanish succeeded in keeping chocolate a secret for more than a century before its use spread throughout Europe. Cocoa was originally consumed solely as a sweet or bitter beverage. Only since about 150 years ago has chocolate been enjoyed as a confectio. Cocoa butter is widely used as an ointment base, an emollient, and an ingredient in various topical cosmetic preparations.

Central Americans have used cocoa for centuries to treat the pains of pregnancy and childbirth, fevers, and coughs. Cocoa's primary alkaloid, theobromine, has an effect similar to that of caffeine - stimulating the muscles, heart, and kidneys - and is closely related to theophylline, which treats asthma. Accordingly, theobromine and caffeine can relieve congestion during colds by opening the bronchial passages in the lungs. Theobromine also relaxes the smooth muscle in the digestive tract. In addition, cocoa contains methylxanthines, which have a diuretic, bronchyolitic, and vasodilatory effect.

Although cacao is most often used as a food, it also has therapeutic value as a nervous system stimulant. In Central America and the Caribbean, the seeds are taken as a heart and kidney tonic. The plant may be used to treat angina and as a diuretic. Cacao butter makes a good lip salve, and is often used as a base for suppositories.

Habitat & cultivation

Cocoa is native to Mexico and Central America; cocoa grows worldwide in tropical regions.

Research

In 1994, Argentinean researchers showed that cacao extracts counter the bacteria responsible for boils and septicemia.

Constituents

The seed pulp contains xanthines, a fixed oil, and many constituents responsible for its flavor. The seeds contain very small amounts of endorphins, which are powerful painkillers that occur naturally within the body.

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