Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Rare books about coffee, tea, and chocolate at Berkeley

Bransten Coffee and Tea Collection, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

This is one of the most complete collections in existence on the subject. It also includes many books on chocolate. The works included range in date from the 16th century to the present.

n 1972, Robert Bransten (the B in MJB Coffee) donated his collection of 81 rare books on the history of coffee and tea and an endowment to maintain the collection, which now numbers nearly 400 titles. Thanks to his generosity, Bancroft's collection is among the best coffee collections and is widely used.

[These are excerpts from the Bancroft website]

Organic, fair trade chocolate in Washington State

Theo Chocolate, in the Seattle area, is the only roaster of organic cocoa beans in the USA and the first to roast fair trade cocoa in the country. For more, see here. Consumer interest in organic and fair trade products has spread to speciality chocolates.

Cadbury chocolate (book)

John Bradley, Cadbury's Purple Reign: The Story behind Chocolate's Best-Loved Brand (Wiley, 2008). Apparently a semi-official book situated as a commodity history.

Cocoa and chocolate from plantation to consumer (book)

Arthur W. Knapp, Cocoa and Chocolate--Their History from Plantation to Consumer (Crawford Press, 2007).

Australia to grow cacao trees

Australians have planted cacao trees in northern Queensland where the soils, temperatures, and rainfall are similar to those in West Africa where three-quarters of the cacao is produced. Australia hopes to win a slice in the (Australian?) $75 billion chocolate market. For more, see here.

Pennsylvania chocolate factory moving to Mexico

The fears and anger among Pennsylvanian blue collar workers are part of the story of the Democratic presidential primary. An example of the NAFTA problem is the decision of the Hershey company to move a candy factory from Reading, Pennsylvania, to Mexico. For more, see here.

2008 chocolate awards

The British chocolatier William Curley received numerous awards in the 2008 international chocolate competition. For more, see here.

German officials raid offices of major chocolate firms

German anti-trust authorities have raided offices of major chocolate firms to investigate possible price fixing. For more, see here.

Research Centre for the History of Food & Drink, University of Adelaide

Research Centre for the History of Food & Drink, University of Adelaide, Australia
For its website, see here.

Abstracts of papers (some of them not recent, so the biographical information may not always be accurate).

Several of the papers appear in full in Robert Dare, ed. Food, Power and Community (Wakefield Press), namely those of Andrea Cast, Brett J. Stubbs, and Anna E. Blainey (and can be read via Google)

Anna Blainey, Wowserism Reconsidered: The Ethos of the Total Abstinence and Prohibition Movements in Australia, 1880-1910
Unlike the US anti-alcohol movement, little has been written on the movement in Australia. The one widely read work on this subject, Keith Dunstan'sWowsers, draws largely from the words of the anti-drink movement's opponents who attributed to the teetotallers largely imaginary motives and obscured their true agenda. The so-called "wowsers" themselves, however, did not see drink in terms of the spiritual evils of pleasure as their enemies insisted. Rather, they presented drinking and especially moderate drinking as an unethical act - an act which impacted on and harmed others in various and complex ways. Their anger, however, was directed not at drinking but rather at drink selling which they saw in terms of the infliction of damage on others - comparable to crimes of violence against the person. The anti-drink movement saw alcohol as the expression of the ethos of individualism and the profit motive at the expense of social responsibility and community protection.
Anna Blainey is currently completing a PhD at La Trobe University. She has taught and written teaching texts for History and Women's Studies subjects at Deakin University.

PO Box 257, East Melbourne VIC 3002
hisaeb@lure.latrobe.edu.au

George Bretherton, Food, Drink, Sex and The Body in the Light of Temperance Propaganda in the British Isles, 1830-60
The way temperance advocates developed their notions about what was fit or not to ingest naturally had basic and very profound effects on all sorts of attitudes towards food and drink. Alcohol, which had been regarded as a health and strength giving substance in the pre-temperance days, had to be discredited, which was done mainly in two ways. First by showing that alcohol was unhealthy, an argument put forward in medical treatises--Irish and Scottish physicians were especially important among the first generation of temperance people--and in more homely ways; Joseph Livesy's malt lecture is a good example a talk he gave to many a Mechanics' Institute audience in which he subjected a pint of beer to chemical analysis, revealing that far from deserving the appellation "liquid bread" it consisted entirely of poisons. The relation between food and drink also needed to be rethought. If drinking was healthy and the more you drank the healthier you were then a stout physique and a red face, not atypical results, were signs of health.
Dr. George Bretherton is Associate Professor of History at Montclair State University in New Jersey. He wrote his PhD dissertation on the Irish temperance movement, has published many article and given many conference papers on various aspects of the history of the temperance movement, and is currently working on the role of Theobald Matthew in the temperance movement.

Department of History, Montclair State University, Upper Montclair, New Jersey 07043

Andrea Cast, Drinking Women in Early Modern English Drinking Songs
Drinking alcohol has always been a significant event, imbued with cultural values and meanings. In early modern England everyone drank alcohol every day. What can we learn about early modern English society from looking at the public drinking of women? We do not have access to direct information about alehouse and tavern culture but we do have many of the ballads that were written, sung, sold and displayed there. From these drinking songs historians can glean information that may shed some light on how women participated in what can only be described as the national pastime.
Andrea Cast is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at The University of Adelaide. Her thesis topic is the consumption of alcohol by women in early modern England.

Department of History, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA 5000
acast@arts.adelaide.edu.au

Valmai Hankel, The Eager Oenographers
Unlike today, most books on wine published in Australia in the nineteenth century were written by winegrowers for winegrowers rather than for consumers. At the same time, in England wine book writers were sometimes wine merchants, whose opinions of Australian wines were often less than flattering. This paper will look at nineteenth-century Australian wine books and the portrayal of Australian wines in English books of the same period. It will draw on the resources of the State Library of South Australia, which has the largest collection of wine literature in the southern hemisphere.
Valmai Hankel is Senior Rare Books Librarian at the State Library of South Australia. She is the wine writer for The Adelaide Review and also writes a column on wine history for the national magazine Winestate. For six years she chaired the Consumer Panel of judges for the Advertiser-Hyatt Regency South Australian Wine of the Year Awards.

State Library of South Australia, North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000
valmaih@slsa.sa.gov.au

Annie Harper, Strong Beere and Merry Lads: Drinking Culture and Popular Song in Early Modern England
This paper explores the culture of drinking in Early Modern England through the rich source of popular song. The first part of the paper examines the relationship between drinking and popular balladry. Records from the Jacobean Star Chamber offer evidence about the dissemination and composition of these songs, and indicate that the Alehouse was an important centre for the creation and dissemination of Ballads. Printed urban Broadsides were also heavily flavoured by drinking culture, and Ballad publishers, authors and performers were often associated with urban drinking establishments.
The relationship between drinking and music was symbiotic, as both the audience and the performance space of the Alehouse was reflected in the content of these songs. The second part of this paper looks at this content, examining the two main thematic motifs found in these drinking songs. One emphasises the companionship and community cohesion found in communal drinking ballads; the other represents the problems associated with drink in society, a tradition of social comment through song. In this way I shall explore some of the ambiguities associated with drinking culture at the time.
Annie Harper is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of Melbourne. Her thesis topic is popular ballads in early modern England.

Department of History, University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3052
a.harper@pgrad.unimelb.EDU.AU

Cath Kerry, Chocolate: A History
Chocolate, as the confectionary bar we eat today, is barely 100 years old. Chocolate was used by the Aztecs and Mayans as a mainly ceremonial drink. It came to Europe and vied for popularity with coffee and tea. New technology in the 19th century set out to improve its drinkability, texture and handling qualities, and led eventually to a novelty, eating chocolate that quickly came to symbolise love, nurture, luxury and compulsion. Any interest in chocolate and why it's a part of our lives are obvious.
Cath Kerry is a chef who keeps an academic approach to food for consenting adults in private. Her interests and attitude to chocolate are influenced by her passion for knowing why we live as we do, and by her belief that eating well is one of the last affordable and safe pleasures.

Art Gallery of South Australia, North Terrace, Adelaide 5000; Fax 08 8232 7266

David K. Round, Louise Sutherland, and Anne Arnold, Going, Going, Gone: Red Wine Auction Prices in Australia
In recent years in Australia, red wine auctions have resulted in prices which have caught the attention of the public and the press, as selected labels have rocketed in price. The market for red wine in Australia is an incredibly diverse one. A given red wine from one geographic area, from the same vintage, from a particular grape variety, can vary enormously in price from other wines with identical characteristics. Why is this? Economists can explain such price discrepancies easily, at least in theory. In the formal language of economics, they depend on the underlying conditions of supply and demand. This paper presents a preliminary investigation into the operation of the red wine auction market in Australia.
We start by looking at the economic characteristics of the auction process, and then move on to describe the essential features of wine auctions in Australia. Next, we identify the major wine labels which have been driving the auction market, and consider briefly the reasons why these particular wines might be seen as so distinct by buyers. We then move on to a statistical description of the price trends for some of the most commonly auctioned red wines, and analyse the quite marked differences which appear. We conclude with some projections of future prices, and assess, from a price perspective, just what it is that makes a great wine.
David K. Round is Associate Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Adelaide, Louise Sutherland is an honours student in the School of Economics, and Anne Arnold is a Lecturer in Economics in the School of Economics. The research for this paper was funded by a grant from the University of Adelaide. Prof. Round's major research interests are in the areas of competition, policy, price fixing, and mergers.

School of Economics, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA 5005
dround@economics.adelaide.edu.au

Brett J. Stubbs, 'A New Drink for Young Australia': The Transition from Ale to Lager Beer in New South Wales, c. 1880 to 1930
One of the most significant twentieth century developments in the Australian brewing industry was the almost complete replacement of the traditional British top-fermented ale style by the Continental bottom-fermented lager style of beer. In the 1880s and 1890s there emerged in Australia a strong demand for lager beer which was met mainly by bottled imports from Germany and the United States of America. There were also several attempts at local manufacture. In New South Wales, at least, these all failed. During the First World War the curtailment of imports left the demand for lager unsatisfied. Perceiving this gap, Tooth & Co., the largest brewer in New South Wales, successfully launched K.B. (Kent Brewery) lager in 1918. This was a crucial turning point in NSW, providing the momentum for lager eventually to supplant the traditional ale style. This trend was paralleled in other Australian states.
Dr. Brett J. Stubbs is a lecturer in the School of Resource Science and Management at Southern Cross University. His publications include "The Revival and Decline of the Independent Breweries in New South Wales, 1946 to 1961," and his current research includes the brewing industry in Australia.

School of Resource Science and Management, Southern Cross University, P.O. Box 157, Lismore NSW 2480; Fax 02 6621 2669
bstubbs@scu.edu.au

Chocolate as health food

After centuries when Europeans regarded chocolate as a health food, chocolate got a bad reputation because it ordinarily is consumed with sugar. Today the health benefits of chocolate are again praised. By the way, the country in Europe that consumes the most chocolate per capita--Switzerland--also is the European country with the lowest rates of obesity and coronary heart disease. For more see, here.

Allegations of chocolate price fixing in Canada

Allegations of chocolate price fixing in Canada involve Nestle, Mars, Hershey, and others. For more, see here.

Problem with chocolate

An article in the New York Times, 22 December 2007, and comments by readers explore the problem with chocolate as a health aid. For details, see here.

Making chocolate in San Francisco

Once again San Francisco has a chocolate factory. Run by people with a high tech background, Tcho now offers what it calls a beta version of its chocolate, a handmade $4 chocolate bar wrapped in brown paper. For more, see here.

Hot chocolate in chilly New York City

The fashion for the elite in New York City is to reject hot cocoa (ground cacao beans with most of the cocoa butter removed) in favor of hot chocolate with milk and sometimes spices. Spanish, Venezuelan, and French chocolate makers add various extras in the drink itself or to dip in it. For more, see here.

Cacao consumed as a frothy alcoholic drink, ca. 1000 BC

Archaeologists say that cacao (the basis for chocolate) originally was consumed in Mesoamerica as a frothy fermented drink, perhaps 5% alcohol, as early as 1000 BC; pottery of that age with traces of cacao have been found in Hondoras. For more, see here.

$25,000 for a hot chocolate?

Serendipity 3, a midtown Manhattan restaurant, now offers the world's most expensive desert, a chocolate concoction that must be ordered two weeks in advance. For the details, see here. Nobody has ordered the costly sweet as of press time.

Early, bittersweet career of Milton S. Hershey (article)

Thomas R. Winpenny, "A Father Who Distracts and a Family that Underfinances: the Early, Bittersweet Career of Milton S. Hershey," Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society 2005 107/2 (2005): 62-73.

chocolate lounges

For an article on Ethel's Chocolate Lounge in Napierville, Illinois, see here. Named after the matriarch of the Mars chocolate family, this lounge appears to be one of ten in Illinois, mostly in the Chicago area. The factory for making the chocolates is in Nevada where there are eleven retail outlets.

Chocolate and sex in early modern Guatemala (article)

Martha Few, "Chocolate, Sex, and Disorderly Women in Late-Seventeenth- and Early-Eighteenth-Century Guatemala," Ethnohistory 52/4 (2005): 673-687.

Introducing chocolate to England (thesis)

Heather Ellen McMillan, "Possessing the Foreign: The Introduction of Chocolate to England" (M.A. thesis, University of Alberta, 2005).

Sri Lankan resort's $14,500 chocolate dessert

A resort in Sri Lanka has created the world's most expensive dessert, costing $14,500. It includes a chocolate sculpture. For more, including a picture of the confection, see here. As of yet, nobody has ordered the pricey sweet.

Chocolate in Britain from Dickens to Joyce (dissertation)

David R.M. Satran, "Chocolate from Dickens to Joyce: The changing iconography of cocoa in turn of the twentieth century Britain" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Delaware, 2006).

Mars rejects cocoa butter substitutes

Mars, with Hershey one of the two major American chocolate makers, has dissociated itself from chocolate industry requests that the Food and Drug Administration allow substitutes for cocoa butter in candy labeled as chocolate. For more, see here.

German chocolate market saturated

The market for chocolate is saturated in Germany where per capita consumption is almost 20 pounds annually. About a third of German chocolate is exported. The three countries that are the leading consumers of chocolate are the USA and two much smaller states Germany and France. Most of the world's cocoa is grown in West Africa, particularly in the Ivory Coast which sells a majority of its beans to the Germans. German chocolate makers hope to develop markets in India and China where little chocolate is consumed today. In Germany itself the growth area is dark chocolate. For more, see here.

Chocolate exhibit at Connecticut museum

"A Taste for Chocolate" is the title for an exhibit at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, that runs until February 24, 2009. Although much smaller than the 2003 chocolate exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, it too covers two thousand years. For more, see here. For still more, see here. From August 25 through December 2, 2007, there will be a supplementary exhibit, "Eye Candy: Two Centuries of Chocolate Advertising," with focus on the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Starbucks, Hershey, and coffee-flavored chocolates

Starbucks and Hershey have entered into an agreement to make and market coffee-flavored chocolate products.

Chocolate candy bars vary by nationality (and the British like their own)

The New York Times describes the dislike that British expatriates in the New York City area feel for American chocolate candy bars. To find British chocolate candy bars, they go to speciality shops such as the Blue Apron in Brooklyn and the London Food Company in Montclair, New Jersey. In fact, national tastes vary from country to country, so the same name for a product guarantees nothing. For more, see here.

EU definitions of vodka, whiskies, liqueurs, chocolate

Professor Gary Slapper explains the legal complexities of European Union definitions of vodka, whiskies, liqueurs, and chocolate in the (London) Times, 28 June 2007, here. The "vodka belt" countries lost their fight against new vodka producers that made their drink with non-traditional ingredients, while the whiskies producers in contrast were allowed a stringent "purity" standard for the name whiskey. The EU forced Germany to admit low alcohol content French liqueurs, while countries that were chocolate purists reluctantly had to accept the sale as chocolate in their countries of British products with non-cacao vegetable fats. Slapper pointed out the economic importance of these legal decisions. For instance, 16 of the world's 20 best markets for chocolate are European countries.

Chocolate in Pennsylvania (article)

John Ward Willson Loose, "Lancaster's Sweet Tooth," Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society 107/2 (2005): 74-97.

Caffeinated multi-billionaires

The (London) Times, 30 April 2007, listed the 100 richest individuals or families, the "poorest" of whom had a worth of more than four billion pounds sterling. Nobody in alcohol or tobacco made the cut, but there were two in chocolate: #9, Forrest and John Mars (USA); tied for #71, Michele Ferrero (Italy)--and one in coffee--#33, Herz family (Germany).

Moonstruck chocolate cafés

Portland-based Moonstruck chocolate cafés, founded in the mid-90s, plans to expand. Currently it has nine shops, mostly in Oregon. By 2009 it plans to add eight more, all of them to be located at malls. Moonstruck sells espresso as well as chocolate drinks, pastries, and chocolate candies. For more, see here.

Commodities of Empire (from H-Empire)

Readers of ADHS may be interested in this post which appeared on H-Empire:

CFP: "Commodities of Empire" international workshop, London, July 13-14,
2007

The Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies (Open University) and
the Caribbean Studies Centre (London Metropolitan University) have
launched a collaborative research project entitled 'Commodities of
Empire'. Details of this project can be found on our website:
http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/ferguson-centre/commodities-of-empire/index.h
tml

We are organising an international workshop in London, 13/14 July 2007,
and would like to hear from anybody interested in participating. We
would particularly like to hear from researchers wishing to attend from
Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America who are working on any
historical aspects of the global movement of commodities (i.e.
industrial crops, foodstuffs and stimulants).

For more details, please contact either Sandip Hazareesingh
(s.k.hazareesingh@open.ac.uk) or Jonathan Curry-Machado
(j.currymachado@londonmet.ac.uk).

Dr Jonathan Curry-Machado
Research Fellow
Caribbean Studies Centre
London Metropolitan University

Does "fairtrade" hurt coffee, tea, and cocoa produced in underdeveloped countries?

Two University of Melbourne academics claim that "fairtrade" benefits the "fairtrade" branding organization and those producers who pay fees to it while hurting the bulk of producers of coffee, tea, and cocoa in underdeveloped countries. The professors recommend "free trade" competition as the only sustainable alternative. See the article in the Australian, April 28, 2007, here. By the way, the Australian newspaper makes "fairtrade" one word in contrast to the American usage "fair trade."

Chocolate purists alarmed

A proposed change in the definition of chocolate offered by the US Food and Drug Administration has alarmed chocolate purists. The proposal (hidden in Appendix C of a long government document) would allow other vegetables fats to replace cacao fat, also known as cocoa butter. For more, see the Washington Post, 27 April 2007, story here. This story was one of the most viewed Post stories for its date, a sign of the American obsession with chocolate.

Cadbury's upmarket dark chocolate

Historically European chocolate makers have scorned British chocolate as having little cocoa and a great deal of vegetable fat. Now Cadbury is joining the worldwide trend among mass market chocolate makers in producing ultra-dark chocolate. For instance, its current dark chocolate (Bournville) contains 36% cocoa, while its new Deeply Dark chocolate will contain 60% cocoa solids. For more, see here. By the way, in addition to the shift to dark chocolate the other question that chocolate makers must confront is the concern among many ethical consumers that virtual child slave labor produces cocoa in West Africa.

Brief history of chocolate

James Runcie, author of the novel called The Discovery of Choclolate, offers a brief history here.

Natural history of cacao (book)

Allen M. Young, The chocolate tree: a natural history of cacao (revised and expanded edition; Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2007).

Stuart McCook's Chocolate, Coffee and Globalization

Stuart McCook, a Latin Americanist and historian of science, teaches a course on chocolate, coffee and globalization at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. For more, see here.

Single-origin chocolate goes mainstream

According to the AP, single-origin chocolate has gone mainstream. Single-origin chocolate follows the example of vintage wines by identifying the place where the cocoa beans (actually cacao) were grown and which supposedly have a distinctive flavor and aroma. Once available in only a few places from a few chocolate makers, one now can find single-origin Hershey's at Wal-Mart. For more, see here.

Quaker chocolate makers in Britain and war (article)

Gilles Teulié, "'What is the good of having principles…' Quaker theology and Queen Victoria’s war chocolate," in Gilles Teulié, ed., Religious writings and war (Les carnets du Cerpac, 3) (Montpellier: Université Paul- Valéry, Montpellier III, 2006).

Dark, bittersweet gourmet chocolate in California

The AP hooks a story about the rise of gourmet chocolate to a company headed by John Scharffenberger, a former vintner, and Robert Steinberg who eleven years ago launched the first new American chocolate company (Scharffen Berger) in a half century. Their company is one of many California chocolatiers (for instance, Ghirardelli, Nestle USA) that by 2000 made the West Coast state the center of American chocolate and so displacing Pennsylvania, home of Hershey and Godiva. By 2004 California had 136 chocolate makers compared with Pennsylvania's 122. As with coffee, the growth for chocolate is at the premium end of the market. For instance, while the Food and Drug Administration requires milk chocolate to contain at least 10 percent cacao, Scharffen Berger’s milk chocolate contains 41 percent and its darkest dark chocolate 82 percent. Impressed by the success of the new company, Hershey has bought it out! For more, see here.

Why expensive chocolates at Valentine's Day?

The New York Times, 10 February 2007, asks why people give expensive imported chocolates at Valentine's Day? The article begins with the story of a box of chocolates priced at a rate of $2000 per pound. For more, see here.

Alleged child slavery in Ivory Coast cocoa industry

To dramatize alleged child slavery in the Ivory Coast cocoa industry, a Dutch journalist asked to be jailed for consuming chocolate. For more, see here.

Chocolate and business ethics (review)

Bernie D. Jones, review of Lowell J. Satre, Chocolate on Trial: Slavery, Politics, and the Ethics of Business (Ohio UP, 2005), in Law and History Review 25/1 (Spring 2007), available online here.

Cannabis chocolate makers guilty

The campaign in the UK to legalise cannabis for therapeutic use suffered a setback this week when a couple who supplied chocolate bars laced with the drug to multiple sclerosis sufferers were found guilty of a criminal offence.

Find the full story here.

Hershey and Cuban sugar (article)

Thomas R. Winpenny, "Milton S. Hershey Ventures into Cuban Sugar," Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society 105/1 (2003): 2-15.

Anthropological perspectives on coffee and chocolate

For the syllabus of a 2003 anthropology course at Emory University about coffee and chocolate, see here.

Rowntree chocolate industry: gender and imperialism (dissertation)

Emma Robertson, "'The romance of the cocoa bean': Women, gender and imperialism in the Rowntree chocolate industry" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of York [UK], 2004).

Chocolate museum in Indiana

The South Bend (Indiana) Chocolate Company has opened a chocolate museum at its headquarters. The South Bend Chocolate Company has a small network of chocolate cafes that feature hot chocolate drinks as well as selling chocolate candies and desserts. For more, see here.

Venezuela's organic chocolate revolution

In a story entitled "Venezuela's Chocolate Revolution," the BBC reports the revival of the cocoa industry by organic farmers in a country recently known more for its oil and leftist politics. Organic farmers get almost four times as much for their cocoa than do conventional farmers who grow non-organic cocoa. Chocolate makers in Europe and the USA buy organic cocoa for prestigious, high-priced "single bean" chocolate analogous to single malt whiskies. To add to their profits, Venezuelan organic farmers have begun making their own chocolate from their beans.

For more, see here.

American chocolate wars (book)

Joël Glenn Brenner, The emperors of chocolate: inside the secret world of Hershey and Mars (New York: Random House, 1998; paperback reprint, 2000). Starts with the rivalry of Forrest Mars and the better known Milton Hershey. See also Michael D'Antonio, Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006); James D. McMahon, Jr., Built on chocolate: the story of the Hershey Chocolate Company (Los Angeles: General Publishing Group, 1998); Mary Davidoff Houts and Pamela Cassidy Whitenack, Hershey (Charleston, SC : Arcadia Publishing, 2000); Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe, The true history of chocolate (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996, paperback reprint, 2000); Mort Rosenblum, Chocolate: a bittersweet saga of dark and light (New York: North Point Press, 2005).

chocolate and imperial tastes (article)

Marcy Norton, "Tasting Empire: Chocolate and the European Internalization of Mesoamerican Aesthetics," American Historical Review 111/3 (June 2006): 660-691.  Richly illlustrated including a color picture on the AHR cover.  Norton (assistant professor, George Washington University, DC) is completing a book on the histories of tobacco and chocolate, 1492-1700, to be published by Cornell University Press in 2007.

Chocolate and brain power

Dr. Bryan Raudenbush, of Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, performed an experiment suggesting that chocolate boosts brain power. Reuters coverage for CNN here.

"Chocolate contains many substances that act as stimulants, such as theobromine, phenethylamine, and caffeine," Dr. Bryan Raudenbush from Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia noted in comments to Reuters Health.

"These substances by themselves have previously been found to increase alertness and attention and what we have found is that by consuming chocolate you can get the stimulating effects, which then lead to increased mental performance."

Sugar and Confectionary (book)

Wendy A. Woloson, Refined Tastes: Sugar, Confectionery, and Consumers in Nineteenth-Century America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2002).

French chocolate (book, articles)

Susan J. Terrio, Crafting the Culture and History of French Chocolate (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000). She also wrote "Craft, Class and Chocolate: Using Cultural Anthropology as a Critical Resource in the Study of French Civilization," French Cultural Studies 11/2 (June 2000): 165-180; "Crafting Grand Cru Chocolates in Contemporary France," American Anthropologist 98/1 (1996): 67-79.

Chocolate anthopologist in news

In Jason DeParle's report on Douglas Feith's reception at Georgetown University, Susan Terrio, "who has appointments in anthropology and French and whose résumé lists several writings about French chocolate makers," is singled out for both the civility of her protest and her discipline's distance from that "bureaucratic culture" of the Pentagon which would, presumably, account for her opposition to Feith's two-year appointment. And, perhaps, Terrio's resume has been quoted for comic effect. Story here.

Choco-phant

Sri Lanka’s celebrity elephant, Raja, has fallen ill after eating too many sweets and chocolates given to him as gifts in part of the Buddhist new year celebrations.

Read more.

Britons have addiction covered

Britons are the biggest chocoholics in Europe, munching through an average 10kg (22lb) per year, figures show. The national sweet tooth cost an average £72 per person last year, compared to the Italians, who spent £18, the market analysts Datamonitor said.

The Independent reports.

Britain is now also top of the European league for cocaine use and is fast approaching levels seen in America, according to the main EU drug agency. Alarmingly, this trend includes the use of the class-A drug among children of secondary school-age, which has doubled in a year.

The Independent reports.

Chocolate in Mesoamerica (Book)

Cameron L. McNeil, ed., Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao (University Press of Florida, 2006).

Chocolate linked to lower blood pressure

Leave it to the Dutch to help demonstrate the health benefits of chocolate. A study of older men in The Netherlands, known for its luscious chocolate, indicated those who ate the equivalent of one-third of a chocolate bar every day had lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of death.

The New York Times reports.

History of Cacao (Book)

Maricel Presilla, The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes (Ten Speed Press, 2001).

Chinese people get a taste for 'healthy' chocolate

Chocolate has become a high-ranking member on the list of must-buy gifts among the Chinese for the upcoming Lunar New Year. Even though the per person annual consumption of chocolate in China is still very low, about 60 grams or the equivalent of a bar of chocolate, according to www.cfiin.com, a website run by the China Food Industry Association.

Read more.

Milton Hershey and Milk Chocolate (Book)

Michael D'Antonio, Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006).

Chocolate, Coffee, and Globalization

Chocolate, Coffee, and Globalization  (history course at University of Guelph,  Canada)

This course explores the social, cultural, and environmental shape of globalization through the study of two tropical commodities: coffee and cacao. While coffee originated in Africa and cacao in tropical Latin America, both commodities are now produced throughout the tropics, and consumed globally. We will explore the commodity chains that link producers in tropical Latin America, Africa, and Asia with consumers around the world, particularly in Europe and North America. The course will begin with the domestication of these plants, and follow their evolution from traditional goods with religious significance, to expensive luxuries available to only the wealthiest Europeans, to the inexpensive, commonplace foods they are today. The course will draw on perspectives from history, anthropology, and the environmental sciences.

Stuart McCook teaches in the Department of History.

Candy bar or health stick?

Researchers have produced more evidence that dark chocolate may help to reduce the risk of serious heart disease. The BBC reports.

French Chocolate (Book)

Susan J. Terrio, Crafting the Culture and History of French Chocolate (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).

Hershey (Biography)

Michael D'Antonio, Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams (Simon & Schuster, forthcoming, 2006).  Chocolate industry.

Bolivian Chocolate (Article)

Robyn Eversole, "The Chocolates of Sucre: Stories of a Bolivian Industry," Enterprise & Society: The International Journal of Business History 3/2 (2002): 209-246.

Chocolate (Book)

Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe, The True History of Chocolate (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1996).

American Chocolate (AHA paper)

Kathleen Banks Nutter (Stony Brook University), "'Chocolate Is a Fighting Food!' The Marketing of American Chocolate during World War II and the Cold War," American Historical Association conference, Philadelphia, January 2006.

Question: witches broom fungus and frosty pod rot? Answer: the two greatest threats to the world’s chocolate supply

Among certain related fungi, a love for chocolate apparently runs in the family, according to scientists with the [U.S.] Agricultural Research Service. The scientists have found that the two most serious fungi infesting the world’s cocoa plants are actually “sisters,” taxonomically speaking.

Using DNA analysis, Cathie Aime, a molecular biologist at ARS’ Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., found that the two fungal pathogens causing witches’ broom and frosty pod rot are close relatives that really should be classified in the same genus. Wilbert Phillips-Mora of CATIE in Costa Rica assisted Aime in the research.

Witches’ broom, caused by the fungus currently known as Crinipellis perniciosa, and frosty pod rot, brought on by Moniliophthora roreri, are the two greatest threats to the world’s chocolate supply. Despite widespread fungicide applications, these diseases continue to invade new parts of South and Central America, discouraging the mostly small farmers who raise cacao trees.

Despite the pathogens’ notoriety, relatively little is known about the two fungi or their life cycles, making the challenge of their control even more difficult. The witches’ broom fungus lives inside the cacao plant, causing it to haphazardly send out deformed, broomlike shoots. Frosty pod looks more like a cottony mold covering the cacao tree’s seed-bearing pods.

A colleague of Aime’s, Harry Evans of CABI Bioscience in the United Kingdom, was one of the first mycologists to speculate that the two fungi might be closely related. But at the time, he lacked the molecular tools needed to conclusively determine the organisms’ connectedness.

For the current research, Aime sequenced several genes from the two cocoa pathogens. Almost immediately, she could see that witches’ broom and frosty pod were both members of the order Agaricales, the mushroom-forming fungi. Further RNA analysis revealed even more detailed evidence pointing to a close, sister-species relationship between the two. Aime has proposed how to reclassify the two fungi, which, it now appears, share the same ancestor.

To learn more, read the current issue of Agricultural Research magazine

Chocolate Cafes in USA

Time, 1 Aug. 05, p. 55, "Mmm, Chocolate Bars," discusses the new phenomenon of chocolate cafes or lounges. They are particularly popular with American women. In addition to independents, there are three major American chains: Ethel's Chocolate Lounges (run by Mars), Chocolate Cafes (South Bend Chocolate Company), and Haut-Chocolat Purple House (Vosges). The article references a book by Beth Kimmerle, Chocolate: The Sweet History.

Chocolate and African Exploitation (Book)

Lowell J. Satre, Chocolcate on Trial: Slavery, Politics, and the Ethics of Business (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2005).  Focus on the English firm of Cadbury Bros., Ltd., in the early 1900s.

Tobacco, Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate in Europe, 16th-19th Cents. (Book)

Annerose Menninger, Genuss im Kulturellen Wandel: Tabak, Kaffee, Tee und Schokolade in Europa (16.-19. Jahrhundert) (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2004).

Chocolate and Cacao (Book)

Mort Rosenblum, Chocolate: a Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light (New York: North Point Press, 2005).

Chocolate take-over

The Times Online reports (13 May 2005) that as an organic chocolate company set up to support the Mayan Indians of Belize, Green & Black’s became a byword for ethical and enterprising business. But the firm, which has developed a cult following for its upmarket confectionery, faced accusations of selling out to big business after it agreed to be bought by Cadbury Schweppes. Find the full story here.

Dark Chocolate May Lower Blood Pressure

Web MD reports (11 March 2005) that now here's a prescription that chocoholics will gladly follow: eat a healthy dose of dark chocolate every day to lower your blood pressure and reduce your risk of developing diabetes. Read the full story here.

History of Chocolate

Thread, New Zealand's fashion and culture magazine, has a brief history and chronology of chocolate that can be found here.

Africa's chocolate industry uses child slave labor

Southern Arizona's KVOA News reports (25 February 2005) that 70% of the cocoa used to make the chocolate consumed in the US comes from West Africa. The problem, however, is that critics say that Africa's cocoa industry uses young slave labor to harvest it. Find the full story here.

Largest Global Supplier of Sugar, Cocoa and Coffee Transforms Organic Marketplace

PR Newswire reports (18 March 2005) that the world's leading merchant of cocoa, sugar and coffee, has formed Corigins, a new US-based supplier of the highest quality, traceable ingredients to the rapidly expanding organic and natural foods sector. Corigins will have access to ED&F Man's global network of 4,000 employees in 90 countries, and will provide food manufacturers with ingredients such as certified organic sugar from Costa Rica, Fair Trade and organic cocoa from Ecuador, and natural and organic sugars from around the world. Find the full story here.

Cocoa and Chocolate (Book)

William Gervase Clarence-Smith, Cocoa and Chocolate, 1765-1914 (Routledge, 2000).

Cocoa in Nigeria (Dissertation)

Ezekial Ayodele Walker, "The Rise and Decline of Cocoa Production in Southwestern Nigeria from 1900 to 1993" (Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1999).

Where else can we cram a little more alcohol?: Whiskey cake adds spirit to Irish holiday

Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette reports (10 March 2005) that while green beer, corned beef and cabbage are traditional St. Patrick's Day fare, we might also consider spiking the tradition with Irish Whiskey Cake. Insiders insist, nevertheless, that it's the chocolate that makes the difference.  Find the full story and recipe here.

History of Cocoa

A history of cocoa can be found here. The cocoa tree (Theobroma Cacao), is a native of the dense tropical Amazon forests. First cultivated by the Mayas of Yucatan and the Aztecs of Mexico, the crop has increased in commercial value since Montezuma began consuming a cocoa bean preparation called "chocolatl" regularly.

Caffeine now a drug for all ages

For AZCentral.com, Alison Arnett reports (4 March 2005) on America's caffeine culture. Find the full story here.

City's School Children Celebrate As Manchester Becomes UK's 100th Fairtrade Town

A2mediagroup.com reports (1 March 2005) more than 100 children and teachers from schools all over the city will be at Manchester Town Hall on Thursday 3 March to celebrate Manchester's successful bid for Fairtrade City status. The event will be the first of a series of celebrations taking place over Fairtrade Fortnight as Manchester and neighbouring Salford jointly become the country's 100th Fairtrade zone. Find the full story here.

The Dark Side of Chocolate

For Fredericksburg's The Free-Lance Star, Jennifer Motl reports (13 February 2005) that poor West African farm children are still being exploited to make some of the chocolate that is bought and consumed in the United States. Read the full story here.

History of Chocolate

The Detroit Free Press reviews Mort Rosenblum's new book, Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light (New York: North Point Press, 2005). The book dates chocolate to a drink concocted by the Olmecs.