In honor of International Chocolate Day, let’s dive into a little history of chocolate!

During Austen’s day, chocolate was largely synonymous with drinking chocolate, a beverage that could be prepared at home and was often enjoyed for breakfast. A few recipes for sweets made with chocolate were available, but for the most part, it was drinking chocolate that people.

With our modern access to  the internet, it is fairly easy to learn as much as we want about nearly any subject, including chocolate. But in Austen’s day, information was much more difficult to acquire. So, what might Austen have known about chocolate?

When I went to investigate the question, I discovered the short answer was: more than I expected. This article, from a 1744 collection provided a surprising amount of information about chocolate. (Original spelling, capitalization, errors and biases have been retained from the original article. Long ‘s’ has been converted to modern conventions for ease of reading.)

Regarding who First Drank Chocolate

The Indians look upon their Chocolate as the greatest Delicacy for extraordinary Entertainments. Montezuma is said to have treated Cortez and his Soldiers with it ; and you can scarce read an [South and Middle ] American Traveller, but he will often tell you of the magnificent Collations of Chocolate, that the Indians offered him in his Passage and Journies through their Country; …

Spaniards do constantly drink Chocolate in their Churches at Mexico and Chiapa, of which they, being once forbid, did mutiny, and commit great Outrages, till their Custom was restored them.…

Oldys, 1744. Harleian Misc

Regarding the Cacoa Bean and Tree

This Nut, or rather the Seed, or Kernel of the Nut, as Mr. Hughes observes *, is of the Bigness of a great Almond ; in some of these Fruits there are a Dozen, in some twenty, in other thirty, or more of these Kernels, or Cocoa’s, which are well described by the ingenious and learned Dr. Grewt, when these Kernels are cured, they become blackish, and are compared to a Bullock’s Kidney, cut into Partitions ; there is great Variety in them, by Reason of the Difference of Soils and Climates where they grow.

The Tree is said to be as large as our English Plum-trees, the Leaves sharp-pointed, compared by some Travellers to the Leaves of Chesnut ; … the Flower of a Saffron Colour, upon the Appearance of which, the Fruit appears upon the Branches as Apples; this Tree grows in several Parts of America, as in Nicaragua, New Spain, Mexico, Cuba, and in Jamaica, especially at Colonel Barrington’s Quarters, or Plantations …they prosper best in low, moist, and fat Ground, (Authorial intrusion here, I have no clue what ‘fat’ ground means, if you know, leave me a comment!) and are as squarely and orderly set, as the Cherry-trees in Kent …; they commonly bear within seven Years, and then twice every Year; the first Crop between January and February, the other between May and June.…

Oldys, 1744. Harleian Misc

Regarding how to find the Best Chocolate

Mr. Hughes gives us very good Advice, in telling us, that we may buy the best Chocolate of Sea men and Merchants, who bring it over ready made from the West-Indies; his reason… is this: Let the Cocoa Kernels be never so well cured in the West Indies, and stowed never so carefully in the Ship, yet, by their long Transportation, and by the various Airs of Climates, they are often spoiled, their natural Oiliness tending much to Putrefaction; …

The best Cocoa-nuts are said to come from Carraca, or Nicaragua, … yet the Doctor commends the Cocoa nuts of Jamaica, which were first planted there by the Spaniards.

Oldys, 1744. Harleian Misc

Regarding the Preparation of  Chocolate

The Indians and Christians, in the [South and Middle] American Plantations, have been observed to live several Months upon Cocoa Nuts alone, made into a Paste with Sugar, and so dissolved in Water.…

The Indians at first made their Chocolate of the Nut alone without any Addition, unless sometimes Pepper, and Maiz, or Indian Wheat; and in Jamaica at this Day… there is a Sort of Chocolate, made up only of the Paste of the Cocoa itself; …In the common Sort, the Cocoa Nuts may take up half the Composition… in the worst, a third Part only. As to the other Ingredients for making up Chocolate, they may be varied according to the Constitutions of those that are to drink it; in cold Constitutions, Jamaica Pepper, Cinnamon, Nutmegs, Cloves, &c. may be mixed with the Cocoa-nut; some add Milk, Ambergrease, Citron, Lemon peels, and odoriferous Aromatick Oils:

In hot consumptives Tempers you may mix Almonds, Pistacho’s, &c. …

Oldys, 1744. Harleian Misc

Regarding the Preparation of Chocolate in  England

That you may know how to prepare your Chocolate, I will give you a short Direction, if you intend to make it up yourself; consult your own Constitution and Circumstances, and vary the Ingredients according to the Premises, for I cannot give a Receipt to make up the Mass of Chocolate, which will be agreeable and proper to all Complexions ; …

…As for the great Quantity of Sugar which is commonly put in, it may destroy the native and genuine Temper of the Chocolate, Sugar being such a corrosive Salt, and such an hypocritical Enemy to the Body. Simon Pauli “* (a learned Dane) thinks Sugar to be one Cause of our English Consumptions ; and Dr. Willis blames it as one Cause of our universal Scurvies ; therefore, when Chocolate produces any ill Effects, they may be often imputed to the great Superfluity of its Sugar, which often fills up half its Composition.

For preparing the Drink of Chocolate, you may observe the following Meaſures: Take of the Mass of Chocolate, cut into small Pieces, one Ounce; of Milk and Water well boiled together, of each half a Pint ; one Yolk of an Egg well beaten ; mix them together, let them boil but gently, till all is dissolved, stirring them often together with your Mollinet, or Chocolate-mill ; afterwards pour it into your Dishes, and into every Dish put one Spoonful of Sack.

Oldys, 1744. Harleian Misc

The biases and misinformation contained in this period piece offer a fascinating look at the world view held in the mid 1700s, as well as insight into the sort of information that might be available to those who had access to reading materials. There is no way to know exactly what Austen did or did not know about chocolate, but this information might have been available to her.

Reference

Oxford, Edward Harley, and Thomas Osborne. “The Natural history of Chocolate.” The Harleian Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and Entertaining Pamphlets and Tracts, as Well in Manuscript as in Print, Found in the Late Earl of Oxford’s Library.: Interspersed with Historical, Political, and Critical Notes. Vol. I. London: Printed for T. Osborne, in Gray’s-Inn., 1744.

Learn more about Regency era Chocolate HERE