The New chocolate - a revolution
Three varieties?

The cocoa found in our chocolate today originates from what is now Venezuela, and also from the Amazon basin. By around 1000 AD the Venezuelan variety had migrated northwards into Mesoamerica (the area from present day Honduras to east Mexico), taking on its own distinct characteristics. Historians are not sure why or how this happened, but it is likely humans, possibly the Maya, carried it there. Other theories suggest cacao evolved independently in this region. Either way, this variety - now established in southern parts of what became Mexico and in surrounding forests - was the first to undergo the convoluted process that transformed the seeds of a soft pulpy forest fruit into the fabled chocolate drinks of the Aztecs, Mayans, and others before them.

Criollo - the original

After the conquest of what is now Mexico, Spanish monks recorded the trade in cocoa beans, which for the Aztecs were both a form of currency and a drink of religious significance taken only by their aristocracy. The Aztecs traded in beans of differing quality in full knowledge of the origin of the beans - they were connoisseurs. When the Spanish adopted the use of cocoa as a drink, they followed the Aztec example, being very conscious of the quality and origin of the beans they used.

Later the Spanish gave various names to the original cacao beans so precious to the Aztecs, but in the end the collective name that stuck was 'criollo', meaning (in this context) 'of the new world'. Beans of the criollo kind are still known and sought after as the best available and are used in many fine chocolates, but today account for only a few percent of the world's cocoa production.

Forestero - the foreigner

Once the habit of drinking chocolate made its way back to Spain, and so on to France, England, Italy and the rest of Europe, demand soon soared. Slave labour from Africa was taken to the New World to replace the native population decimated from the diseases carried by the colonialists. They were put to work growing not just cocoa, but also the sugar now obligatory in the chocolate being drunk in Europe (sweetening - with honey - being just one of the many flavouring options used by the Aztecs).

As Europeans explored the Amazon basin, they discovered another type of cacao growing wild. Known to the native population only as a fruit, the Europeans recognised this plant as cacao and soon found they could also produce cocoa from these plants. Later on these trees acquired the generic name 'Forestero', meaning 'foreign', to distinguish it from the Criollo grown and harvested for generations by the Maya and Aztecs.

An imposter?

Put bluntly, Forestero is an adulteration of the original cacao that the Aztecs considered to have god-like properties. This is of course a sweeping generalisation as there is some fine chocolate made from cacao from the Forestero family, often as part of a blend. However as a rule Forestero is blander and less refined in taste, more bitter and with less interesting 'notes'. This may be because Criollo had already been cultivated for a thousand years or more under human influence, which might help explain its superior flavour.

Forestero though has one huge advantage over Criollo - it is a hardier plant with a much better yield. As demand in Europe kept on growing during the 18th century, Forestero became more and more the dominant cacao in the world, even though the inferior quality was noticed by consumers. Today over 90% of the chocolate we eat is made from Forestero beans rather than the Criollo known to the Aztecs as 'the food of the gods'.

Trinitario - The hybrid

Forestero was not the only answer to rising demand, and as the Spanish struggled to raise production in Mexico after millions of the indigenous population died from disease, they began planting Criollo in their other colonies; in Venezuela where it mingled with its ancestors, and in the Caribbean. However after waves of disease wiped out most of these trees in the 1720's, new Forestero trees were brought in as replacements.

These new trees naturally crossed with the remaining Criollo and soon a new variety was born - stronger than Criollo, better tasting than Forestero. The hybrid was named after the island where it first became commercially known - Trinidad. 'Trinitario' was born.

The whole story?

Although the story of 'three varieties' may be quite new to many of us, it's what most of the leading lights in the world of fine chocolate have been telling us for some time. However there is more to chocolate's story than this and in reality there are thousands of sub-varieties, crosses an regional variations to be found, all with different flavours and qualities.

But first we'll look at how industrial production and the dominance of quantity over quality led to the homogenised chocolate mass market most of have come to know.

Next  >>>    An Industrial Age