Cocoa: Origins of the Fruit
Today it is a commonly used ingredient, but once it was a real rarity, so much so that it had a great value. What are the origins of cocoa and , by extension, of chocolate , one of Enrico Rizzi 's specialties? We will try to tell you about it briefly.
The cocoa plant, whose scientific name is Theobroma cacao , is native to South America . Before the discovery of the New World, therefore, it was completely unknown in Europe and the rest of the world.
The cocoa plant has ancient origins, it is estimated that it dates back to at least 6000 years ago and that it was initially widespread in the area of ​​the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers . There is no absolute certainty as to who were the first to cultivate it and use its fruits, but the main "suspects" are the Maya, who inhabited Central America, in the area now occupied by Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. Legend has it that the third Mayan king, Hunahpu, was the one who started cocoa cultivation.
Already the Olmecs , around 1000 BC, called this plant kakawa in their language, a name later adopted by the Maya in the form kakaw . The origins of the word cacao, therefore, date back to this era.
The Origins of Chocolate, the "Food of the Gods"
Now that we have clarified the origins of cocoa, we must explore the origins of chocolate . But we don't have to go very far, because the inventors of this delight were the Mayans themselves .
The Maya used to prepare a drink with hot water and cocoa , called chacauhaa (a fusion of the terms haa , meaning water, and chacau , meaning hot) and later chocolhaa , a name that was later adopted by the Spanish conquistadors and changed to chocolate .
The Mayans did not limit themselves to consuming the bitter drink obtained from the “smooth” cocoa fruit, but mixed it with various ingredients , such as chili pepper, in a combination of the two ingredients that still remains a great classic today.
At that time , cocoa beans were so precious that they were used as coins , while the fruits and cocoa drink were reserved exclusively for the nobles and the wealthy . It is no coincidence that chocolate was also known as the “food of the gods”.
From the Maya, the tradition of chocolate passed to the Aztecs , who assigned a religious value to the cocoa plant and associated it with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility. The hot drink was in fact consumed during sacred ceremonies and offered as a sacrifice to the deities.
The first Westerner to taste cocoa was none other than Christopher Columbus , the “discoverer” of the Americas, who had the honour of tasting it during his voyage to Honduras in 1502. On his return he brought some seeds of the plant to court , but without giving particular weight to the discovery (ah, if only he had realised the things that can be done with cocoa!).
It was Hernán Cortés , to whom the Aztec emperor Montezuma had donated an entire plantation, who brought cocoa beans on a more consistent basis, while the first documented shipment to arrive in Europe travelled from Veracruz to Seville in 1585 .
More or less in this period dates back the intuition (brilliant, if we can say so), of mixing cocoa with sugar . And always between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries cocoa, until then a prerogative of Spain alone, was introduced in other regions of Europe, including France and Italy.
From then on, it was a real “invasion”: cocoa and chocolate spread to the main European courts and became highly sought after among the wealthy classes, from Venice to Amsterdam. At the same time, cocoa plantations multiplied in Central and South America as well as in Asia, and their cultivation became a golden business for the colonial powers.
Still in the Old Continent, some cities specialized in the processing of cocoa and the production of chocolate: among these, Turin certainly stands out. And throughout the 19th century, a series of innovations were introduced that led to the creation of the first chocolate bars , the invention of milk chocolate and the marketing of cocoa powder and cocoa butter .
The “heroes” of this period have names that still stand out today on numerous chocolate-based products, from the Dutch van Houten to the Turin-based Caffarel. Another delicious invention from Turin is gianduja, created by Michele Prochet by mixing cocoa and chopped and toasted hazelnuts.
Since its origins, chocolate has changed face and above all has experienced a success and diffusion unthinkable at the time. Today it is the “comfort food” par excellence , while cocoa is one of the most used ingredients in pastry making . In short, we can really say that this plant once considered exotic has truly conquered the world!
Enrico Rizzi's Chocolate
Enrico Rizzi is proud to be part of this age-old tradition and to continue the experimentation that has contributed to making chocolate what it is today. Always on the lookout for fine varieties of cocoa, he decided to make the most of the starting raw material by opening the first From Bean to Bar laboratory in Milan.
La Fabbrica del Cioccolato is located in via Gian Giacomo Mora 18, in the heart of Milan , just a 10-minute walk from Piazza del Duomo. Here, together with his collaborators, Enrico Rizzi brings single-origin bars and refined blends to life every day.
Eager to spread the culture of chocolate, the pastry chef has also decided to open the doors of his new atelier with the Chocolate Experience . Buy it now and you will visit a plantation in Peru thanks to an immersive video in VR360°, you will see up close the machinery used to process the beans and you will participate in a guided tasting of single-origin bars.
