from Vienna who made such delicacies as chocolate mixed with powered orchid
bulbs to charmingly plump out her figure (Anonymous 1, 1997). The Marquis de
Sade, a chocoholic who became grotesquely obese during his long captivity,
when denied other outlets, he spent his time overindulging in all manner of
chocolate delicacies, of which he was always demanding more from his loyal
and long-suffering wife. ” asked…for a cake with icing, but I want it to be
chocolate,” he demanded in 1779, “and black inside from chocolate as the
devil’s ass is black from smoke. And the icing is to be the same (Maxwell,
1996).”
We have seen how chocolate progressed from a primitive drink and food
of ancient Latin American tribes, a part of their religious, commerce and social
life, to a drink favored by the elite of European society and the many different
uses European’s found for chocolate, including medicinal, aphrodisiac and
religious. To this day, chocolate is still very popular. By the 1990’s, annual
world consumption of cacao beans averages approximately 600,000 tons and
chocolate consumption is on the rise (Neft and ResSeguie, 1996). The United
States consumed an average of 11.5 pounds of chocolate per person per year
(Neft and ResSeguie, 1996). Theobroma cacao is still the “food of the gods.”
References
Anonymous 1. (1997). Xocoatl: Food of the gods. World Wide Web.
http://www.vivelavie.com/sotries970316/stories/chocolate.html
Anonymous 2. (1997). A brief history of chocolate. World Wide Web.
http://www.hhh.org/cloister/chocolate/history.html
Anonymous 3. (1997). Healthy calories. Economist. 344 (8028), 68-69.
Cadbury. (1997). Cadbury’s chocolate history and the growing of cocoa.
World Wid Web. http://www.cadbury.co.uk/html/facts/cocoa.htm
Empty, T. (1997). Emptys page of the history of chocolate. World Wide
Web. http://hp5.econ.cbs.dk/people/toha96ad/chocolate/history.html
Godiva. (1997). An age-old obsession: A brief history of chocolate.
World Wide Web. http://www/2.godiva.com/resources/history.html
Maxwell, K. (1996). The road to kisses. New York Review of Books. 43
(14), 23-25.
Neft, R. and ResSeguie, D. (1996). Clear accounts and thick chocolate.
World Wide Web. http://www.efn.org/~sundance/chocolate.html
Topik, S. C. (1996). From coin to commodity. World Trade. 9 (2), 80.
Van Epen, K. (1996). Sustainability — chocolate addict: The cacahuatl
eater by Jonathan Ott. Whole Earth Review. (89), 43.