This tile panel originating from Spain in the early eighteenth century depicts Spaniards brewing hot chocolate to drink at a chocolate party in the Spanish city of Valencia. This piece of artwork helps to link us to the changing habits and appetites of Europeans as a result of contact with the Americas. In particular chocolate had quite a large impact on the daily lives of many Europeans.
Originally in the New World, where it originates, chocolate had a cultural prestige attached to it and among various Native American groups it was both used as part of religious practices and a social status symbol. Due to its particular taste ,which many Europeans disliked, it took a rather long time for chocolate consumption to cross both cultures and the Atlantic. Chocolate consumption became common for Spaniards living in the New World colonies by the second half of the 1500's but did not become popular in the mainland Spain until the seventeenth century. From Spain the drinking of chocolate spread across the rest of Europe via trade routes and even the movement of religious orders until chocolate consumption was later supplanted by the arrival of tea and coffee.
In Europe, the consumption of chocolate began to resemble elements of its Native American cultural past in that it became a status symbol for royalty and nobility. Marcy Norton in the article Conquests of Chocolate makes note that many aristocrats had special rooms dedicated to the sole purpose of consuming chocolate. Also the Native American practice of adding spices and sweeteners to chocolate became widespread among Europeans. Often added were things like vanilla, sugar, and cinnamon. Norton surmises that the practice of adding sugar to chocolate was a European substitute for the Native American practice of adding honey to chocolate because sugar was substantially easier for Europeans to acquire due to their new colonial holdings.
Despite its initially negative reception chocolate became widely consumed in Europe and became a part of European life. Overall however, chocolate consumption in Europe opened the way for caffeinated beverages to take hold in the European diet and provides a notable example of a New World product that substantially changed life in the Old World.
Bibliography
Mckay, John, et al. A History of Western Societies.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2017.
Norton, Marcy. "Conquests of Chocolate." OAH
Magazine of History (2004): 14-17.
Pohlman. Working With Evidence: Exchange &
Status in the Early Modern World. n.d. <http://pohlmanpavilion.weebly.com/portion-1.html>.
