The Chocolate Process and the Inconsistency of Consistency

What are some descriptors that pop into your head when you think about chocolate? Smooth? Creamy? Velvety? Those are some of the feelings Dove wants you to imagine when you are viewing their ads like the one above which show gleaming liquid chocolate on and even comparing their chocolate to silk throughout. Though these are some of the modern connotations of chocolate, its origins were anything but. As technologies improved, the goal of chocolate makers moved towards smoother and smoother chocolate, that is, until technologies allowed for chocolate to become “too smooth,” after which consistency became more of a conscious choice by chocolate makers.

Evidence of cacao consumption dates back to as early as 1900 BC according to tests on pre-Olmec vessels found at archeological sites in Mexico and Central America. The word cacao is sometimes thought to come from the Olmec word “kakawa.” The Olmecs, whose civilization prospered from approximately 1500 BC to 400 BC, likely used cacao for religious and medicinal purposes. They were also possible ancestors of the Mayans who are thoroughly documented—primarily from the Dresden Codex—as having used cacao in many aspects of their lives. When the Maya consumed cacao, it was often in the form of a frothy beverage, often mixed with maize and spices. One technique involved grinding the cacao nibs with a metate, a curved volcanic stone slab. The individual grinding the nibs uses a stone roller with a curvature almost matching that of the metate. Then, while the nibs are being ground, small amounts of water are tossed in, creating a sort of cacao paste. When this is mixed with other ingredients in water, granules are still very much present and noticeable. There will not be any whole nibs, but particles will still be distinguishable. In the video below, at approximately the 2 minute mark, we can see a woman, affectionately referred to as Señora Ruiz, grinding roasted beans on a metate. Usually, the beans would be deshelled, or winnowed, which leaves only the nibs, but this is not necessarily a mandatory step. We can see that even after she grinds it into a “fine” powder, the cacao paste is still visibly granular. In addition, in the video, Señora Ruiz adds sugar—among other ingredients—to the cacao paste. Sugar was not introduced in Mesoamerica until the Europeans brought it over during colonization, thus the recipe that Señora Ruiz is concocting is, in fact, not a true ancient Mesoamerican recipe.

            The metate and other instruments like it were among the only ways to grind cacao until around the early 1800s as the industrial revolution ushered in new mechanized methods for refining chocolate past what was possibly by hand. The first major breakthrough in this was when Coenraad Johannes van Houten patented the hydraulic press in 1828. The hydraulic press allowed cocoa powder to be separated from the cocoa butter, “a peculiar mild fat…to the amount of 43 per cent according to Bousingault, and 53 per cent according to Lampadius” (Scientific American 3). Not only could this process separate the two which allowed the cocoa powder to become finer, the cocoa butter could then be added later in different quantities which alters consistency and texture. The same Scientific American article that described the proportion of cocoa butter per bean also outlines another new technology of the time, a granite cacao milling machine, “a machine consisting of an annular trough of granite, in which two speroidal granite millstones are turned by machinery” (Scientific American 3). This is yet another step in the road to finer, smoother chocolate. The technology is not immensely complicated. It is still, at its core, a stone that is grinding cacao, just like the metate, yet this machine can do the process more intensely, more efficiently, and with more precision.

            1879 brought the concept of conching into the world of chocolate thanks to Rudolphe Lindt (yes, the same Lindt as Lindt Chocolate). Conching involves the cocoa butter being re-added and the chocolate liquor being continuously turned in a large vat, evenly distributing the cocoa butter and any other ingredients that are added at this stage. According to F. H. Banfield, Director of Research at the British Food Manufacturing Industries, conching along with controlled grinding “can standardize the smooth-eating qualities of his product” (Banfield 299). It is interesting to note that in this article, he mentions chocolate as a couverture, in which the consistency matters a great deal as flow rate and viscosity are vital factors due to the chocolate not flowing evenly if it is too thick and draining off if it is too thin. Thus, consistency is not only important for the mouthfeel it gives a consumer eating it straight, but also with its performance around other food items.

           Lastly, an invention that debuted in 1912 but is still widely used to this day is the three-roll mill (or five-roll mill depending on the preferred end consistency). During this process, the chocolate liquor is run through a number of tightly spaced rollers that squeeze the liquor through, reducing its particle size. The more times this process is run, the finer the texture of the chocolate gets. Most chocolate makers today aim for 18-20 microns for their particle size. Particle size is a delicate balance. A particle size too large and the consumer can feel individual granules within the chocolate—which is not necessarily a bad thing and at times done intentionally, especially by more artisanal chocolate makers. A particle size too small and the consistency of the chocolate comes off as almost gooey. The video below shows the chocolate process as a whole but does a good job of describing the rolling process and its significance with consistency. Not only does it get the particles to a desired size, it shapes them into almost “pearl-like” spheres so that they roll, instead of sticking to the palette.

            In ancient Mesopotamia, the most advanced form of chocolate grinding came in the form of the metate resulting in cacao products and beverages with rough and gritty cacao particles. The Industrial Revolution was the impetus for many chocolate related inventions, the first of which being van Houton’s hydraulic press which allowed for the separation of cocoa butter from cocoa powder. The conching process, invented by Rudolph Lindt, allowed for a smoother chocolate by re-adding cocoa butter and thoroughly mixing the chocolate liquor. The final game changer with regards to consistency was the three-roll mill. It was this invention that allowed for the chocolate liquor to become not only fine enough where individual particles are indistinguishable by the tongue, but too fine to where the chocolate feels gooey. Whereas originally, chocolate consistency was a factor of the present technology, after many inventions and adaptations of technologies, consistency has become a conscious choice.

Works Cited

Banfield, F. H. “FROM COCOA BEAN TO CHOCOLATE.” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, vol. 105, no. 4998, 1957, pp. 298–300. JSTOR.

“Chocolate.” Scientific American, vol. 8, no. 1, 1852, pp. 3. JSTOR.

Edgar, Blake. “The Power of Chocolate.” Archaeology, vol. 63, no. 6, 2010, pp. 20–25. JSTOR.

Lee, Owen. “Preparing Drinking Chocolate near Oaxaca, Mexico.” YouTube, YouTube, 25 Apr. 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlAg7zIR57k.

Mars, Incorporated. “Dove Chocolate Commercial – Senses.” YouTube, YouTube, 6 May 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwPwQ4S4op8.

Tasty. “How Chocolate Is Made.” YouTube, YouTube, 27 Nov. 2017, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPe1jMuX32s.

The Industrialization of Chocolate: How Sweetness Got Huge

Introduction

As is the case with many of the fundamental aspects of 21^st century Western life, food is often taken for granted due to its widespread availability and how easy it is to obtain. As we all likely know (but don’t think of often), the efficient nature of food production and distribution is a relatively new phenomenon. In this week’s blog post, we will examine the history of the industrialization of food through a case study of the industrialization of America’s sweetheart: chocolate.

Pre-Industrial Cacao and Chocolate

Cacao-based food products predate the industrialization of food by millennia. We can trace the consumption of cacao (in various forms) by the Mayan and Aztec civilizations (and likely even Olmec – they used the term “kakawa”) all the way back to as early as 1500 BCE (Aframer 119x).Of course, one should understand that the industrialization of cacao/chocolate in the 18th century and onward did not represent the first wave of technological advances involving and developed for cacao and its derivative forms.

The most prominent pre-industrial advance is the metate, a grinding stone that has been in use as far back as 7000 BCE (although used for corn/maize at this time) (Hernandez 2013). This tool is used to grind roasted cacao beans into a chocolate liquor, from which various chocolate derivatives are formed. Another development was the molinillo, a device used to create a frothy texture to chocolate drinks which was ironically developed by Spanish colonists in Mexico in the late 17th century (Aframer 119x). While the industrialization of chocolate represents an era of drastic technological change, it is important to remember that technological advances in the production and consumption of cacao preceded this era.

Fig 1. (Left) A metate in use grinding up roasted cacao beans (RIght) a traditional molinillo used to froth chocolate drinks

The Industrialization of Food

Initially, it seems a bit odd to consider how the industrialization of food would matter when cacao consumption has origins long before industrialization. Indeed, in the timeline of cacao-based consumption and production, the industrialized era represents but a small portion. Perhaps this picture would become clearer by looking at the industrialization of food in general and subsequently applying it to chocolate.

Four key factors contributed to the rise of industrial cuisine in the West: the development of preservation, mechanization, retailing (and wholesaling), and transport (Goody 1982). Breaking down the steps to the industrialization of food highlights a key misconception about the term “industrialization.” While most people associate industrialization with the development of the steam engine, factories, and assembly lines, industrialization was the byproduct of a multi-faceted effort across the aforementioned factors, not just mechanization.

Preservation

Advances such as the salting of food (dating back to ancient times), adding sugar to create preservatives, and the development of hardy foods such as hardtack represent innovations driven out of the necessity for longer lasting food. In a more modern context, international trade and military expeditions required food supplies that would not perish over the course of the voyage. The industrialization of food through a preservation lens came from two major aspects: canning and artificial refrigeration/freezing. Canning in its primitive form was developed by Nicolas Appert in 1795 (Goody 1982), beginning with glass jars and ultimately turning to the tin can as a supplement as technological advances in the method of development of tin cans allowed food producers to preserve food more efficiently and cheaply. Refrigeration with natural ice began in America in the early 19^th century (Goody 1982).

In the context of chocolate, we see the effects of the development of preservation to this day. Chocolate is stored in wrappers to protect it from the elements and often kept in cool conditions (provided by refrigeration) that allow for chocolate to stay in its ideal solid consistency. Without the ability to preserve chocolate, it would undoubtedly be not as popular and widely available as it is today.

Mechanization

The second element of industrialization, mechanization, falls more in line with what the average person considers when thinking about the industrialization of food. As Goody mentions, mechanization depended on the “adaptation of simple machinery for producing standard goods on a large scale” (Goody 1982). In the case of chocolate, we can look to a factory of the Hershey company for an example.

WATCH: “Old Hershey’s Chocolate” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ophXa_LvUKk

Transport

Transport is an element of industrialization that is closely tied with mechanization, which intuitively makes sense. As production of chocolate increased, distribution demands increased as well. A railway boom in the mid 1800’s specifically in the years 1845-1847 marked a period in which 6,000 miles of rail were laid in England alone (Goody 1982). International transport was aided by the development of refrigerated ships. For chocolate, increased ease of transport was essential for the growth industry. As we have covered in class, chocolate is a very global industry in the sense that the consumers tend to live in North America and Europe while cacao production takes place in South America and West Africa.

Retail/Wholesale

Retailing is the last major actor in the industrialization of food. Changes in retailing were twofold. First, open food markets that dominated pre-Elizabethan times were replaced with closed retail shops (Goody 1982). In the case of chocolate, small retail stores known as chocolateries began to pop up. Retailing, along with mechanization, was largely responsible for the homogenization and standardization of food products (Goody 1982), and chocolate was no exception. Another aspect of retailing was the increased separation between the consumer and the producer of food products, which in large part likely explains why labor rights issues still exist in the chocolate industry today: consumers are blind to the supply chain beyond the major corporation and grocery store, and a large disconnect exists between cacao farmers and cacao consumers, which wasn’t always the case.

Consider: The Hershey Company

An interesting byproduct of the industrialization of chocolate was the standardization of flavor in chocolate products. A good example is the case of the Hershey company. M.S. Hershey set out to develop the perfect formula for his chocolate bars (with the help of John Schmalbach) (D’Antonio 2006). This flavor is described as having the sweet characteristics of European chocolates that preceded it, but with a hint of sourness not present in other chocolates. Having achieved the ideal formula, the next step was to develop a production system that would allow him to accurately recreate the perfected formula with each chocolate bar made by the company. This required the mechanization aspect of industrialization that we have briefly reviewed earlier. Hershey’s factory system not only allowed him to produce chocolate at a faster rate, but also to recreate the signature taste with every bar.

As we know, Hershey is a dominant force (among a few other major corporations) in the global chocolate industry as the 5^th largest producer of chocolate in 2018 by net sales (ICCO 2019). It is a reasonable assumption that the standardization of the Hershey chocolate (only possible through the wonders of industrialization) also led to the standardization of the average US palate for chocolate. So, industrialization’s impact on chocolate has been the preclusion of the inevitable variety in chocolate products that would have existed without industrialization. Whether this effect is good or bad is up for debate. On the positive side, Hershey bars (and others) are standardized. On the negative side, chocolate has become a very commercialized, corporate and completely standardized food product that ultimately feels very much at odds with its historical and traditional roots in Mesoamerica due to industrialization. Comment your thoughts on this issue below!

Fig 2. This images displays the standardization of chocolate resulting from industrialization as shown by Hershey’s Kiss production

Concluding Thoughts

As we’ve seen, the industrialization of chocolate (and food as whole) is multi-faceted, complex, and didn’t happen overnight. Indeed, the chocolate we know and love today is undeniably tied to the advancements resulting from this period of industrialization. Hopefully, this short post will allow lovers of chocolate everywhere to have a better understanding of the foundational and historical aspects of the modern world of chocolate!

Sources

Scholarly

Aframer 119x Lecture Notes and Lecture Slides

D’Antonio, Michael D. 2006. Hershey: Milton S. Hershey’s Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams. pp. 106-126

Goody, Jack. 2013[1982]. “Industrial Food: Towards the Development of a World Cuisine.” pp. 72-88

Hernández Triviño, A. (2013). Chocolate: Historia de un nahuatlismo. Estudios De Cultura Náhuatl,46, 37-87.

“The Chocolate Industry.” The International Cocoa Organization, 1 Feb. 2019, http://www.icco.org/about-cocoa/chocolate-industry.html.

Multimedia

Anonymous. “Hershey’s Kisses Coming out as Finished Products.” Chocolate Class, Aframer 119x, 6 May 2015, chocolateclass.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/can-a-hersheys-bar-be-simply-chocolate/.

Giller, Megan. “Metate Photo.” Chocolate Noise, http://www.chocolatenoise.com/taza-chocolate.

“HOW IT’S MADE: Old Hershey’s Chocolate.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Oct. 2016, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ophXa_LvUKk.

“Molinillo Photo.” Taza Chocolate, http://www.tazachocolate.com/products/molinillo?variant=8074820355.

The Long Intercontinental and Multiethnic Career of the Mesoamerican Metate

Figure 1: A Traditional Mesoamerican Metate and Mano

          In order to create their sacred chocolate drink, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican women kneeled on the ground to pulverize roasted beans with a mano on a curved grinding stone called a metate, which together act as a horizontal version of a mortar and pestle (Mcanany and Murata 12).  During this “gendered labor”, women added damp corn masa as well as other spices, “such as chile pepper, vanilla, and annatto”, to the cacao (Mcanany and Murata 12).  Originating as early as 7000 BCE, these grinding stones are some of the oldest domestic tools in the Americas (“Metate”).  This simple invention spread hand-in-hand with the popularization of cacao in Europe.  Due to its involvement in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican chocolate production and its persistence as a pillar of Latin American food traditions, its pervasive adoption by Europeans, and its influence on the modern, niche chocolate industry, the metate proves to be one of the most important artifacts in the history of chocolate.

Enjoying “an amazing intercontinental and multiethnic career”, metates rank among the few elements of the chocolate-making process that Europeans did not alter (Presilla 26).  In order to appeal to a European audience and “cross the ethnocentric taste barrier” between Mesoamericans and Europeans, chocolate had to undergo a hybridization process (Coe and Coe 114).  This hybridization changed or modified nearly everything about the chocolate-making and chocolate-consuming processes.  Instead of following Aztec customs of drinking chocolate at cold or at room temperature, Europeans “insisted on taking chocolate hot” (Coe and Coe 115).  In regard to the recipe, Europeans regularly sweetened the drink with cane sugar, and invaders introduced “Old World spices”, such as cinnamon, anise seed, and black pepper, in place of native Mesoamerican flavorings (Coe and Coe 115).  Europeans even replaced the method of obtaining the greatly desired froth of the drink.  While native Mesoamerican women customarily poured the liquid from one vessel to another from a height to achieve frothiness in the drink, Europeans used “a large, wooden swizzle-stick called a molinillo”(Coe and Coe 115).  Despite all these changes during the European adoption of chocolate, the metate was embraced by Europeans in the same capacity as it was used by Mesoamericans.

The age of mechanization of chocolate manufacturing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries made the metate obsolete, yet the device continued to be used in Latin America as a symbol of tradition and in Europe by artisanal confectioners.  Beginning in the sixteenth century the Mesoamerican invention of the metate and the technique perfected by the Aztecs and Maya of grinding up roasted cacao beans on it “travelled everywhere that cacao was turned into chocolate” (Presilla 180).  The metate instantly became a popular device in Europe; “The metate became as much at home in Spain, France (where it was called “the Spanish stone”), and the Philippines as in Mexico” (Presilla 26).  Figure 2 shows a carving from de Blegny’s 1687 treatise, depicting a European man using a metate to grind heated cacao beans.  This depiction is notable because European men took up the craft of chocolate-making in European, which was viewed as a woman’s task in Mesoamerica.

Figure 2: European gentleman grinding cacao beans from de Blegny’s 1687 treatise

The industrial revolution marks a shift away from using the metate in favor of machine processes in the late 1700s, such as M. Doret’s hydraulic machine to grind chocolate and form a paste.  However, this transition to machine-based chocolate production took time, and cacao beans continued to be ground by hand (Coe and Coe 227).  The “ancient ways of making chocolate” persisted in “isolated pockets within Southern Europe” (Coe and Coe 233).  Confectioners in southern France in the 1870s continued to use metates as did the Romanengo chocolate establishment in Italy, which “still had stones to grind the cacao” as late as 1989 (Coe and Coe 233).  In fact, the industrialization of the chocolate industry made many consumers distrust the quality of the chocolate they purchased, which bolstered the artisanal chocolate industry and its use of metates as the artisanal chocolate was perceived as purer.  For example, Catalan chocolate makers in Spain encouraged observers to witness the chocolate being made with the metate to demonstrate to the buyer “that the chocolate he is buying is true-stone ground chocolate, made according to a procedure which…makes it more difficult to add adulterants” (Coe and Coe 233).

Figure 3:  Preparing Drinking Chocolate Near Oaxaca, Mexico

Today, many Latin Americans pay homage to their ancestors by using the traditional metate in making chocolate, and the niche chocolate industry often derives their techniques and tastes from this ancient style of chocolate production.  As shown in the video of Figure 3, a Mexican woman from Teotítlan Del Valle makes a traditional chocolate drink using a mano and a metate over a flame.  Alex Whitmore, CEO of Taza Chocolate, “brought a taste of Mexico to Somerville”, Massachusetts by making “authentic stone ground chocolate” (Hofherr) (Figure 4).  After apprenticing with Mexican molineros and “learning their ancient chocolate-making secrets”, Alex decided to use simple rotary stone mills derivative of the metate to create a chocolate with a “gritty, rustic texture” and be “one of a handful of companies in the country that are bean-to-bar chocolate makers” (Hofherr).  Taza and its rival companies symbolize a retreat to the roots of chocolate production and the traditional tools involved in the process.

Figure 4: Taza Chocolate Mission

          Ultimately, the metate proves to be one of the most important instruments in the history of chocolate.  From its humble origins in the Maya and Aztec civilizations to its widespread adoption all over Europe, the metate enjoyed “an amazing intercontinental and multiethnic career”, transcending vastly different cultures and enduring the test of time (Presilla 26).  Due to the longevity and geographical range of its use and to the influence it has on contemporary niche confectioners, the metate helped shape the history of chocolate as we know it today.

Works Cited

A Mexican Metate, or Grinding Stone. Digital image. Mexicolore. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2017.            <http://mexicolore.co.uk/images-4/482_03_2.jpg&gt;.

Coe, Sophie D., and Michael D. Coe. The True History of Chocolate. New York: Thames and              Hudson, 2013. Print.

Hofherr, Justine. “CEO Desk: How Taza Chocolate’s founder brought a taste of Mexico to             Somerville.” Boston.com. The Boston Globe, 23 Feb. 2016. Web. 8 Mar. 2017,                               https://www.boston.com/jobs/jobs-news/2016/02/23/ceo-desk-how-taza-                               chocolates-founder-brought-a-taste-of-mexico-to-the-east-coast

Le bon usage du thé, du caffee et du chocolat. Digital image. Rachellaudan.com. Rachel Laudan,           18 July 2010. Web. 9 Mar. 2017.

Mcanany, Patricia A., and Satoru Murata. “America’s First Connoisseurs of Chocolate.”               Food and Foodways 15. 1-2 (2007): 7-30. Taylor & Francis Online. Web. 8 Mar. 2017.

“Metate.” Mexicolore, 8 Mar. 2017, http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/metate

Presilla, Maricel E. The New Taste of Chocolate Revised: A Cultural and Natural History of                        Cacao with Recipes. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2009. Print.

Taza Chocolate Mission. Digital image. Taza Chocolate. Taza Chocolate, n.d. Web. 9 Mar.                   2017.

Wilmo55. “Preparing drinking chocolate near Oaxaca, Mexico.” Youtube. The Sunday                     Supper Project, 25 Apr. 2010. Web. 9 Mar. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?               v=GlAg7zIR57k>.

Bringing Back the Stone Age: A Brief History of the Metate and the Effects on Contemporary Artisanal Food Culture

 

Metate: This image illustrates the complexity of metate carvings.

Indigenous Mesoamericans kneel down holding a long stone with a slight curve formed to conform to the large stone slab set beneath them, grinding what looks like dark brown mud into an ever more viscous puree (Presilla 26). The above illustration elicits a picturesque, idealized metate-ground production of chocolate liquor in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. In the relatively brief period in which Europeans had managed to wrest control of Theobroma cacao and similar species from the indigenous Mesoamericans, the use and production of metates spread across the globe for the purpose of chocolate liquor production (Presilla, Coe & Coe). The manufacturing of chocolate from pod to drink or food has seen three separate ideological, social, and economical revolutions (Presilla, Coe & Coe). These revolutions have directly related to a particular processing point of the cacao bean: the grinding of the shelled cacao beans in to a viscous paste on a metate (Presilla 26). The metate stone-grinding process has come full circle from the ancient processing method to the now passé idealized food production and processing movement, symbolizing personal and environmental wellbeing (Ray 190-191, Chin et al).

A metate is being used here to illustrate the rough and gritty beginnings of chocolate liquor.

The metate, a heated stone slab on which roasted, crushed cacao beans were ground into the basic form of chocolate liquor is the foundation upon which most Mesoamerican foodstuffs were processed (Presilla 26). Grinding slabs (metates) and pestles (manos) have a complex history throughout the world in nearly every culture as the basic implements for food processing (Ray 190-191). The preliminary diacritical marker of most modern Mexican metates over that of ‘generic’ grinding slabs is that of its aesthetic composition: “three legs, two in front and one behind” (Aschmann 683). Not only are metates created for utility but also can be decorated; with the advent of modern oil based paints, the metate maker can decorate easily, otherwise he/she would be confronted with the arduous task of chiseling (Cook 1499). This represents a division of appeal in which undecorated metates have wider appeal amongst rural households and/or low income, often gender stratified, households in which the homestead grinding of foodstuffs is seen as more productive than working in a capitalist economy (Cook, “Price and Output”); (Cook, “Stone Tools” 1499). Those metates which are painted or elaborately decorated would be for higher income households/individuals who have income and time available for the artisanal and ritual production of traditional indigenous foods (Preston-Werner).

This latter group of individuals who attempt to embody the traditional indigenous production of food have done so in response to the capitalist industrial mass market economy focused on inexpensive production and uniformity of poor quality foodstuffs particularly those involving cacao (Coe & Coe 233). In “Comparison of antioxidant activity and flavanol content of cacao beans processed by modern and traditional Mesoamerican methods,” an article by Elizabeth Chin…et al, they discovered that the cacao beans of original origin and production in Mesoamerica, particularly washed (lavado) unfermented beans have near double the antioxidants of the Ivory Coast fermented cacao beans, which are popularly used by Hershey (5-6). Ancient Mesoamerican people would have imbibed these higher antioxidant rich cacao products because of local environmental factors which increased the appeal of washed and relatively unfermented cacao beans (Chin et al 6). For further illustration see graph.

Metate carvers are polishing the edges.

“The craftsman, however, would not consider leaving the shady date groves of Comondú for an ugly, hot, dusty mining camp merely to double his income. Likewise there is no attempt to sell at the highest price the traffic will bear. The poor ranchero who comes to town on a burro to buy a metate once in 15 years will get it at the same price as the jobber who guarantees to take entire unsold surplus. The former even receives favored treatment, and will get the first metate made, even though the jobber is ready to haul it to Santa Rosalia that very day. The craftsman gets a satisfaction from putting his product directly in the hands of the consumer.” (686)

 

 

The metate signifies how ancient Mesoamerican tools of food processing continue to shape modern socio-economic and cultural perceptions of artisanal chocolate confectioners.

This chocolate claims on its packaging to be stone-ground indicating a niche market in which artisanal chocolatiers utilizing metates are able to capitalize.

Bibliography

Artisan Crafted Metate Sculpture of Pre-Hispanic Blue Iguana, ‘Turquoise Iguana’ 2016. Novica. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

Aschmann, Homer. “A Metate Maker of Baja, California.” American Anthropologist 51.4 (1949): 682-86. Anthrosource. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

Ceronne. 2010. Flickr. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

Chin, Elizabeth, Kenneth B. Miller, Mark J. Payne, W. Jeffery Hurst, and David A. Stuart. “Comparison of Antioxidant Activity and Flavanol Content of Cacao Beans Processed by Modern and Traditional Mesoamerican Methods.” Heritage Science 1.1 (2013): 1-7. SpringerOpen. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

Coe, Sophie D., and Michael D. Coe. The True History of Chocolate. 3rd ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2013. Print.

Cook, Scott. “Price and Output Variability in a Peasant-Artisan Stoneworking Industry in Oaxaca, Mexico: An Analytical Essay in Economic Anthropology.” American Anthropologist 72.4 (1970): 776-801. AnthroSource. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

Cook, Scott. “Stone Tools for Steel-Age Mexicans? Aspects of Production in a Zapotec Stoneworking Industry.” American Anthropologist 75.5 (1973): 1485-503. AnthroSource. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

Flying Panel Metate. 1986. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

Presilla, Maricel E. The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes. Revised ed. Berkeley: Ten Speed, 2009. Print.

Preston-Werner, Theresa. “4 Breaking Down Binaries: Gender, Art, and Tools in Ancient Costa Rica.” Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 18.1 (2008): 49-59. AnthroSource. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

Ray, Cyrus N. “Was the American Mano and Metate an Invention Made during Pleistocene Time?” Science 91.2356 (1940): 190-91. JSTOR. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

Taza 85% Super Dark Mexican Style Stone Ground Chocolate Organic – 77g Disk Dated 22/12/15. 2015. The Stateside Candy Co. Americansweets.co.uk. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

Terrio, Susan J. “Bibliography Crafting the Culture and History of French Chocolate.” Food and Foodways 10.1-2 (2002): 79-95. RoutledgeTaylor&FrancisOnline. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.