November 16, 2022 • 46 mins
This rich, warming beverage can be sweet or bitter, spiced or simple, heavy or feathery light – but every iteration comes down to ground cacao. Anney and Lauren dip into the science and history of hot chocolate.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to favor protection of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie and I'm more in Vocal Bomb, and today
we have an episode for you about hot chocolate. Yes, yes,
oh yeah, huh huh. As we record this well, no,
as it comes out if you're listening to it the
day it comes out. The next day, November is Life Day?
(00:32):
Life Day? What's life Day? Annie? Life Day is a
celebration of life that was started by the Wookies on
kashik but people's adopted by the Empire at large. Involves
wearing red somehow, walking in space, and a lot of
other things that are inexplicable. What's other foods as well?
(00:53):
Including the shocks, the Banta shocks. Please Wookie cookies or
it's wookie pas excuse me that? I guess all right? Yeah,
sure that was definitely a statement that made complete human sense. Yes. Yes,
(01:14):
If you're listening and you're like what, then I guess
good for you. I don't know. Yeah, congratulations, it's a
Star Wars thing. It's a Star Wars holiday. Uh. It's
from the infamous Star Wars Holiday special from nine, which
I believe I've watched more than anybody on this planet. Um.
(01:37):
There isn't like a one that's very cute that Disney
put out as well, and it's become a whole thing.
It's kind of become a whole thing. There's a lot
of Star Wars things tend to tend to do. Oh yeah, yeah,
And uh, I do have a like very geeky other
reason that I always suggest hot chocolate when we talked
(01:58):
about Star Wars. One is featured in Life Day but
to one of my very very favorite Cannon facts that
has been Cannon before Disney bought Star Wars and after
Disney bought Star Wars, Luke Skywalker's very favorite drink is
hot chocolate, which I think is the cutest thing. He loves.
It is so sweet. That is like the dearest thing
(02:20):
about that silly dear boy. Oh my goodness, he loves
hot chocolate. And and one of my favorite fan fictions, uh,
long story short, he ends up like injured and Darth
Vader is taking care of him, and the Imperials are like,
why is Darth Vader He keeps making all these different
hot chocolates. Um, of course they don't know he's making
(02:44):
them try to win his son over, and he's like
messing with the machine, and he just has this sudden
realization like I can never turn my son to the
dark side because there's no way a sith is going
to drink hot chocolate and get so much joy out
of it. So I'm not going to try to do
this anymore. Let him be and accepted. It's adorable, that's amazing.
(03:07):
I did not know about that. So I'm we're all
learning things. We're all learning things today you are. And
then one final other thing, um is I think I've
said this before. One of my very favorite fan fiction
tropes is cinnamon Roll, which is just a sweetheart character.
Um and Luke has often written that way. Um So,
(03:29):
Samantha from Stuff I've Never Told You she created this
cocktail for me called the Cinnamon Roll, and it is
hot chocolate with coffee and rum and whiskey and cinnamon
and whipped cream. It's appropriate because it's like the fan
fiction theme. Also, he loves hot chocolate anyway, it's cute.
(03:56):
Uh So, Yes, this was an Annie suggestion. Yes, I
do love I love hot chocolate. I am very I
have very nostalgic. Yes, so, I think we've been trying
to do it forever. We have. We talked about it
a lot in one of our episodes. I can't remember
(04:17):
it was chocolate or cocow maybe white chocolate, because I
had like several instances and I bet you did too,
Like have we done this before? Yeah? Well, the thing
is is that the the history of drinking chocolate, like
it was a drink before it was really anything else.
And so anytime that we've talked about chocolate, which we've
done any number of times, you have to talk about that, like, yeah,
(04:40):
hot chocolate situation. M hm. Uh, I have to admit
that I'm only kind of like so so on hot chocolate.
I mean like it's fine, Uh, it's it's nice. I
do have some nice memories of it, but it's usually
way too sweet for me and like too too much,
like like like the amount of hot chocolate that I
(05:04):
want to drink is like a double espresso amount and
probably not with like all of this stuff. I also like,
like dairy isn't the best for me? Now that they're
like alternative milks that are often in play, that might
be a better exploration for me. And like, you know,
you can always control your own sweeten level at home. Um,
but yeah, certainly if someone else is making it. I'm like, oh,
(05:26):
I don't think. I don't think that's for me. That's
gonna be like if I drink that, you're gonna have
to deal with me. Yeah, it's like it's very much
a treat for me. And I did like the Swiss
Smiths packets when I was growing up. That was pretty rare.
I much prefer like I make the like kind of
dark chocolate with salts, that salt and chill the cinnamon,
(05:50):
and that's that's more where I'm at. So there's a
big world of taste of hot chocolate, but often what
you do get is overly sweet. I would agree, mm hmmm. Uh.
There's a hot chocolate race I've talked about. I've spoken
about this before the and you get a lot of
hot chocolate. It's nice. Again, I literally cannot imagine. I
don't like running, and I don't think that I want
(06:13):
hot chocolate while I'm running or is it after Okay,
So it's sort of like your post like some people
do chocolate mouse. This is like and one time I
ran this race and it was like so cold. They said,
if you don't want to run it, you can just
get the hot chocolate. They were literally like it's freezy,
it's in genuine which Yeah, National Hot Chocolate Day is
(06:35):
January thirty one, um said they do it around then.
I do often get the hot Chocolate song stuck in
my head, which is from the Polar Express, and I've
had it stuck in my head throughout doing this research.
I have not seen Polar Express, and I have no
idea what you're talking about, and I'm not gonna subject
you to it. But however, the holiday special yes, um
(06:57):
one day and then a real test. As I said,
you can see our episodes on chocolate, yes, white chocolate
and chocolate sustainability. Uh. And I think even mole and marshallows. Yeah,
absolutely sure. Uh also in a really weird way, um,
(07:18):
probably American cheese. Um. And I'll explain more of that
in a few minutes. Excellent, well post tastin how it
gets to our question hot chocolate. What is it? Well,
(07:40):
hot chocolate is a drink made with or flavored like
chocolate and consumed hot. There you go, yeah there. There
are a lot of different ways to achieve this, and
personal preferences about the taste and consistency of the final
product can differ quite a bit. But your your general
really looking at heating some kind of bas liquid, like
(08:02):
like water or some kind of milk into which you
you dissolve some kind of sweetener, and then stir in
some kind of chocolate product, be it a liquid, solid,
or powder. You might flavor this with any number of
other things to a compliment or or contrast with the roasty, floral, fruity,
bitter flavors of the chocolate. You might add decadent toppings
(08:26):
like whipped cream or marshmallows, and the result is warm
and rich and can range from like sweetened, creamy and
smooth to to sort of gritty and bracingly bitter, from
thin doing predibly thick. It's like a chocolate bar in
a mug, with the understanding that some bars of chocolate
(08:48):
are like milk chocolate and very sweet, and some contain
neither milk nor sugar. Yeah. Um, it's like soothingly invigorating. Um.
It's like drinking Hall of the Mountain King. Oh yeah, yeah,
does happen okay to me? It kind of like puts
(09:12):
a pep in your step. Yeah yeah, but in a
in a in a like familiar comforting way. Yeah. Uh.
We have talked pretty extensively about chocolate in the aforementioned
previous episodes. Yeah, the important basics for today are that
(09:33):
chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao plant
which have been dried, fermented, roasted, and ground. Uh. These
seeds contain a lot of fats, that's your cocoa butter,
and a lot of other stuff starches and proteins and
minerals and flavors, and that's your cocoa solids. Manufacturers will
separate out the cocoa butter from the solids and then
(09:55):
recombine them in in different um in different ways, and
sometimes with other stuff to make bars of chocolate which
have a bunch of cocoa butter or cocoa powder which
has very little cocoa butter. Hot chocolate is really an
impressively wide category of drinks. Um Like, you are usually
(10:18):
starting with a base liquid. But is that water or
some kind of milk. If it's milk, is it fresh
or powdered milk? Is it fatty or skim is it
dairy or otherwise? Uh, you're probably sweetening your hot chocolate,
but how and how much? And then we get into
the chocolate part. I mean, you know you can grind
prepared cocao beans or nibs, which are pieces of whole
(10:41):
beans uh, straight into hot liquid if you if you
want to um. Most of the time, though, you're either
melting in a chocolate bar or stirring in a cocoa powder. Um.
There's also a whole market of prepared instant cocoa. Back
to that in a second. Um. The interesting thing about
out all of this is that cocoa solids do not
(11:03):
dissolve in water. Uh Like. The best you can do
is like hydrate them enough to kind of suspend themselves
throughout your base liquid. But even then they'll settle out
fairly quickly. Um. Like you've probably experienced this as sediment
in the bottom of your cocoa cup. Furthermore, coca powder
is tricksy because it contains just enough like almost like
(11:27):
cocoa butter residue in each little particle of cocoa powder
that the particles are hydrophobic. Um. They push away from water,
you know, like oil and water do not mix, and
they contain just enough oil to do that. You've seen
this if you've ever like put a spoonful of coca
powder into a cup of milk and watched it just
immediately beat up into into like a like a fliptilla
(11:51):
of dry pockets of powder on the surface. Yeah. So
making a smooth cup of hot chocolate depends on tricking
the cocoa particles into cooperating with you. Uh. The fact
that you're heating them helps because that can can can
help melt the fats and allow the starches and proteins
and the particles the freedom to to loosen up and
(12:14):
blom onto water molecules and thus get hydrated and thus
suspend themselves in the liquid. Uh. You can also agitate
the mixture, you know, whipster whipster. Yeah, yeah, stir whip,
whipster whipster, yep, Holiday special. I still have no idea
(12:35):
what that's about. But but Annie made in D and
D items, that's totally the stir whip the whipster, the
whip whispers. Yeah yeah, it's like enchanted to like automatically
whisk stuff. I don't know anyway, Okay, you can you
can agitate the mixture, um, which can like physically bump
(13:02):
the fats around and let the water get at those
solids and hydrate them. Um. And this is part of
why traditional methods of making hot chocolate do include a
whipping or frothing the mix um, partially because this can
be such a pain. There is right a whole market
of instant cocoa, which can come in tubs or in
(13:22):
like little single serving UH foil lined packets, and those
will stir more easily into hot liquid. This is accomplished
by UM grinding down the cocoa really fine, UM adding
emulsifiers that can help the water molecules and fat molecules
play nice. Um. I've seen, I've seen how I I
(13:43):
didn't I didn't read the patent. I didn't read the
patent before we die in here. UM. But I strongly
suspect that much like UH, much like instant coffee. There's
been a few innovations surrounding that kind of technology, with
freeze drying perhaps anyway, um u intin cocoa often also
contains some kind of thickener um like kara gean that
(14:04):
will make the final product feel creamy and smooth in
your mouth, even if it doesn't contain a lot of fat. Um,
because when you put fat into a shelf stable product
like that, it's going to decrease the lifespan. So yeah, UM.
Some versions of instant cocoa have like fancy seasonings like
(14:25):
pumpkin spice or salt and caramel or something like that. Mint. Yeah.
I used to like sometimes I would get the fancy
packet and special day Oh yeah, oh the ones with
the little freeze dried marshmallows, Like they're not even real marshmallows,
but they're so good. I love, love, love, And we're
(14:49):
going to talk about this later in the history section.
How everybody wants to know about Like I was like
history of hot chocolate and they're like, what about those marshmallows?
Everybody was like, what about those? Indeed? Oh goodness? Um,
but yeah then then so so you've got you've got
your basic hot chocolate. Other flavorings can be involved, of course,
(15:13):
good chocolate and our cocoa already has a lot of flavors.
People at all kinds of other things though, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger, chili, pepper,
orange peel, and a seed, a little bit of salt,
maybe some rum merbourbon or almorato or whatever else you want. Um,
something to thicken it, maybe like some ground seeds or
nuts or corn flour or egg, and then toppings, whipped cream, marshmallows,
(15:38):
a scoop of ice cream, shavings of chocolate, sprinkles of seasonings.
It can be consumed as a breakfast beverage or as
you would to your coffee throughout the day or during
like designated snack times, or as an after dinner treat.
I can't tell you what to do, it's true. It's true.
Back when it would snow the rare occasion it would
(15:59):
snow here in Georgia when I was growing up, and
go out and play in the snow and you came in.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, that's good. That's good. Yes, Well,
speaking of a lot about the nutrition, Uh, you know
this one, this, this one's pretty solid solidly a treat.
I mean it obviously depends on what you make your
(16:20):
hot chocolate with. Um, if you've got a bunch of
sugars in there, that's that's treat territory. Um, you know
it can be. It can be fairly okay for you though,
if you know, you know, you watch watch those sugars.
Like it can be calorically dense with the cocoa, butter
and the fats from whatever milk you may or may
not be using. Um. Yeah, treats are nice treats are nice. Yeah,
(16:45):
and it seems we are not the only ones that
thinks so, because we do have some numbers for you,
we do UM. As of twenty nineteen, the global hot
chocolate market was estimated to be worth some three point
two billion dollars and growing. And interestingly, to me and
to a lot of people reporting on this, um, hot
chocolate seems largely immune to changes in demand. It's sort
(17:08):
of a constant and people drink it all year round
like that. There is a bit of a holiday bump,
but they're not really um yeah, I know right. I
found that very very interesting. I think this was like, um,
this is from a study of like two thousand people,
so you know, grain of salts, but people were pretty
much like, yeah, drink it whenever. Yeah. The industry, yes,
(17:32):
is expected to grow alongside disposable income around the world,
and analysts predicted the next step in hot chocolate evolution
is gourmet hot chocolates. And I saw in some places
called healthy hot chocolates quotes I would say, but you know, yes, here,
I guess yeah. That hot chocolate run that you do
(17:55):
is actually part of like an event series across the
United States over a dozen cities. Uh, throw one and right.
It's yeah, this's like corporately sponsored fun run that that
has over two hundred thousand participants a year. And you
get hot chocolate. Yes, and there's a chocolate fondue and
(18:16):
a sweet coat, a few fish and the metal is
like a chocolate bar. I'm such a child anyway. Yeah,
that's a good time if you're into that kind of thing.
Uh well, uh, you're You're not the only one, um,
certainly there There are also a few hot chocolate festivals
(18:41):
um uh. One in Vancouver is sort of spread throughout
the city over the course of a month between like
January and February, and participating local shops feature their own
take on the drink. They've been running since eleven. Uh.
This year there were forty four participating shops serving a
hundred and six different types of hot chocolate a hundred
(19:02):
and six years. Yes, yes, also now like like recently
within the past couple of years, I think um uh
ball Rona never heard that out loud. They sponsor a
similar thing in New York City, so yeah, um well,
listeners again, if you've been to any of these things,
(19:22):
oh my goodness, yes, please let us know and I
did want to say here before we get into the history,
I found it really fascinating in this one. UM and
Match had a great article about this where it was
kind of detailing all the different ways people enjoy hot
chocolate around the world. UM, and it was just so
fascinating to see how different cultures and traditions and histories
(19:43):
have fed into hot chocolate preparations and traditions around the world.
So just a lot of back and forth culturally. UM.
It was really really interesting. Most of these episodes are,
but that it was a graph. It was like a
little chart, and I was like, oh that's bad. Yeah, yeah,
Well right, we are going to get into that history.
(20:07):
But first we're going to take a quick break for
a word from our sponsors. We're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes,
thank you. And again see our chocolate episodes because there's
there's a lot of similarities and we talked about in
(20:28):
this and those and what we talked about here, because
as you said, Lauren, the history of drinking chocolate is
a long one, UM, and I'm going to be using
hot chocolate and drinking chocolate interchangeably throughout this. But it
was largely called drinking chocolate or even just chocolate for
a good chunk of it of its existence, um, because
(20:50):
we didn't really have a way to process uh cow,
so we drank it. Yeah right. Um. Archaeological evidence suggests
that chocolate was being cultivated and what is now Mexico
over four thousand years ago, and that folks were drinking
it back then. Um. In fact, yes, for most of
its history, chocolate has been consumed as a liquid of
(21:10):
some type. Um, eating chocolate in the form of bars
and candies like that. That's fairly recent and it didn't
really tank off until the eighteen hundreds when more technology
became available, which we are going to talk about a
little bit more later. Um. This is also there is
also in the term drinking chocolate started. The term started
(21:30):
popping up more commonly in print because before that it
was assumed, but it was for drinking exactly specify drinking chocolate.
It was just chocolate. Yep. Some sources credit the cultivation
of cocaw specifically to the all mexiblization in Mesoamerica in
fift BC somewhere around there. Um. And it spread quickly
(21:51):
in this region and was adopted by people's like the
Maya and because yeah, there was no way to refine chocolate.
People would from the cacao and drink it. Uh. And
the name for this liquid and some of these ancient
languages essentially translated to bitter water yeah um. And to
cut the bitterness, things like vanilla, chili or magnolia were
(22:14):
sometimes added into the mix. It was typically served frothy,
both hot and cold, um, usually out of a pot.
And it was beloved so much so yeah. It was
integral and many aspects of life or some of these civilizations. Um.
The Mayans and Aztecs believed that the God's gifted humanity
(22:36):
with cacao, and as part of that used it in
many ceremonies and rituals. According to some sources, the Aztecs
specifically may have viewed the beans as more valuable than
gold and might have used them as currency. Um. It
was thought to have aditional properties to from general fortifying
(22:56):
uh and sit with me now yeah um, and pretty
much everything in between, including as a fuel for warriors.
And I read somewhere like the cocoa butter was put
on wounds, so it was okay yeah yeah. At the time,
women primarily made hot chocolate, and they guarded the recipes
(23:19):
for special hot chocolates because of women's roles in making
hot chocolate and the beliefs some held that hot chocolate
was a vehicle for spells and magic. Some women who
made hot chocolate were persecuted as witches for making the
drink and murdered. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah um. Spanish colonizers
(23:40):
like her Nan Cortez observed chocolate in the Americas in
fift undreds and quickly understood the potential that it had
for Europe. It did take a minute, like colonizers did
not like hot chocolate at first, when Jesuit even wrote
that the foamy consistency was like feces, but eventually, eventually
(24:00):
it caught on. Yes, and Cortez transported some cocow beans
and tools used to make this hot chocolate back to Europe. Um.
And there's a bit of a legend that a former
botanists who turned into a pirate named William Hughes returned
from the Americas with detailed instructions and tips on making
(24:21):
drinking chocolate, which at the time called for maze, milk, sugar,
cocou and even things like ambergris and nutmeg on occasion,
and he called it the American nectar who. A new
device appeared around this time, the millennial, which is a
type of whisk that you you you operate by placing
the head of the device into the liquid that you
(24:43):
want to whisk, and then roll the handle between your palms,
thus rotating the head within the liquid. UM. Previous to this,
hot chocolate was kept incorporated and and and frothy by
pouring it back and forth between a couple of pots.
Researchers think that this device might have been developed by
Spanish colonizers who wanted to drink hot chocolate, but also
(25:04):
wanted to sort of like separate themselves from the indigenous
culture a little bit like, Oh, I don't want to
do it the way that you do it. I do
it this fancy way anyway, um whatever the providence um,
Millennios would develop over the centuries into these really beautiful
carved wooden pieces um, sometimes with like moving parts and
all kinds of interesting carved nooks and crannies to to
(25:26):
help frothier chocolate. Yes, um, but as all this is
going on, Europeans continue to be kind of hesitant around
hot choking when it arrived, and I think it took like,
um a century almost um when they started adding sugar
into it, and then they were like, okay, because you know,
(25:50):
this makes it sweeter less bitter also makes it more expensive,
and it was already at a pretty steep price point
for a lot of people. Um. The importation of cocao
was heavily taxed in Europe, and the hot chocolate was available,
especially in Spain where you could buy it um from
like street vendors. It was just financially out of reach
(26:11):
for most people, especially when compared to cheaper tea and coffee.
So maybe you see this menu, it's got like a
hot chocolate, very expensive tea and coffee much cheaper. That's
what people would go go for. So hot chocolate became
something of the saddest symbol at this time in Europe.
Um and the well off did enjoy it quite a bit,
quite a bit. One famous example is King Louis the fourteenth,
(26:35):
who received chocolate as a wedding gift from his bride
and appointed a royal chocolate teer who made hot chocolate
with the stamp of the Barnachy on it. UM. I'm
not sure how that works, but that's what I read.
So somehow the stamp of the monarchy was involved on this.
Maybe maybe I'm like, maybe I like the serving set
or something. Yeah, that's what I thought too. Um. Mary
(26:57):
Antoinette allegedly bought her own chocolate maker to court as well. Uh.
They love the rich had for hot chocolate also resulted
in one of my very favorite rabbit holes that I
didn't really have time to go down, but I would
love to. In these very ornate, expensive chocolate pots. Oh yeah,
oh yeah. Some of these included a hole in the lid.
(27:20):
You'd place here at your millennio in the pot and
then place the lid down over it and then froth um.
Some of these had like had like inlaid ivory um.
The pots themselves were sometimes made of silver or like
gilded porcelain um. Right, you might get a set with
your family crest done on it. Yeah yeah, look up
(27:42):
pictures there. They're pretty glorious. They are. But the price
and bitterness weren't the only reasons that Europe was a
bit weary of hot chocolate. The church Capital City Church
worried that it wasn't appropriate for children to drink it. Actually,
they kind of debated about it for everybody, but especially children. Um.
(28:06):
While at the same time, doctors were touting it as
you know, this medicinal thing that could help children. They
even recommended using it to mask the taste of bitter medicines. Um.
Ultimately the doctor's one out in the heavy quotes, because
you know, the drink became viewed as a kid friendly
but not necessarily for the health reasons. The doctor prescribed
(28:30):
prescribed to it. Um. European religious folk have Yeah, they
have long argued about hot chocolate. I think we talked
about that in one of our chocolate episodes. As legend
has it, one bishop was sent poisoned chocolate after attempting
to stop women from drinking it at a Mexican church.
Because it will see it is like a you know,
you drink your hot chocolate in church. It's kind of
(28:51):
a ritualistic, you know, like a gathering elements of um.
And at least one pope I think multiple popes would
at least one weigh in on weather drinking hot chocolate
during fasting was acceptable. There's a lot of like, well
we could drink that, we could still drink this, right
but right, but still but still the hot chocolate. Yeah, um, well, uh,
(29:14):
despite whatever any of the popes had to say about it.
The popularity of this drink did spread UM. In places
like London. You could get you have like a hot
chocolate at like a posh coffee house. UM. And a
dedicated chocolate house opened in sixteen fifty seven, apparently just
a tiny bit. Like A couple of decades later, William
(29:35):
the third was super fond of hot chocolate UM and
had a dedicated chocolate kitchen built into the Hampton Court Palace. Wow.
Can you imagine going to the like contractors, I need
It's just a chocolate. This is crucial. Don't mess it up.
(29:58):
This is the heart of everything. Um. When European colonists
arrived to the America, as they often tended towards flavors
and foods that reminded them of Europe. Uh So chocolate
was somewhat of an exception in this case because it
was new to most Europeans because they hadn't been able
to afford it in Europe. UM. But this wasn't the
(30:20):
case in North America. Given the origin of cocao, It's
much closer. UM. The closeness and relative affordability of sugar
from the Caribbean, largely provided through the forced labor of
enslaved people's UM. So it just became this thing where
it's like, oh, I can afford this now. Um. People
adopted it pretty quickly. George Washington allegedly often drank warm
(30:44):
chocolate cream for breakfast, as it was called. I think
there's a recipe book you can buy from Mount Vernon
that has this recipe in it. UM. But at the time,
this drink often consisted of warmed milk and or water,
grated chocolate, and sugar, sometimes with additions like brandy because
of course, chili powder, vanilla, or allspice. It was viewed
(31:07):
as something, uh like a health drink border and what
we might call a performance drink or energy drink in
our modern parlance. Yeah, like a high calorie food that
didn't spoil. I'm assuming that was when milk wasn't a
part of the equation. UM. But I read that in
several places too, that it could keep for a long time,
so it was popular in that way too. UM. In
(31:29):
seventeen sixty one, Benjamin Franklin recommended hot chocolate for smallpox.
So still, yeah, a lot of these health things attached
to it. It was easy to transport, and so it
was a popular option. For soldiers. Um. In fact, there's
a long history of cacao rations and hot chocolate and
American soldiers from the Revolutionary War to World War Two,
and a lot of it had to do with boosting morale.
(31:51):
That was frequently the reasoning given behind why it should
be provided. The first US chocolate factory was established in
Massachusetts in seventeen But okay, um, what we've been talking
about so far is not hot chocolate as most of
us here in the US at least would know it. Um.
(32:12):
It was a thicker, frothier, less sweet, more chocolate e beverage,
probably a little bit like oilier because what you were
dealing with was, yeah, suspension of these cocoa solids in
your milk or your water. Um. And and then those
the cocoa butters would have been a lot more prominent. Right.
It was often essentially a sometimes sweetened, sometimes not melted chocolate,
(32:38):
with the texture a bit much thicker. UM. This changed
in the eighteen hundreds with Conrad Johanna van Houten's invention
of the cacao press that could make cocoa powder. Um.
So very basically, these powders were the result of removing
most of the cocao butter from the beans and then
drying and processing the remaining sids. Yeah. Uh. This fundamentally
(33:01):
changed the hot chocolate landscape, not only making it easier
to make, but even more affordable to Yeah. And this
is also pretty much where we got the modern concept
of the chocolate bar from um, because it wasn't really
possible until we could more more effectively separate out the
cocoa butter from the cocoa solids. Another thing that that
(33:24):
this dude and or some of his contemporaries innovated was
alkalizing the cocoa to make it less acidic. Um. That
that makes it taste less bitter and also makes it
look darker in color. And can I go on like
a sort of science sidebar here please? Okay? Alright, So
(33:46):
a thing, a thing that I couldn't quite work out, um,
is weather. This alkalized sometimes called Dutch processed cocoa um,
actually disperses better into water than untreated cocoa. Okay, so
so right. Alkalied cocoa is is treated to make the
cocoa less acidic um, and the common belief has been
(34:08):
that this also makes it somehow more soluble or at
the very least better at dispersing in water, but researchers
modern lee working in chocolate production have reported that like,
the only way it could really do that is if
you're if you're basically making like little molecules of soap
(34:28):
um by making the the the alkali substance interact with
fatty acids in in the cocoa mixture. Uh. And that
isn't what you would want because it would taste soapy. Um.
But I'm also wondering whether untreated cocoa, being more acidic
would make the particles more likely to to clump together
(34:49):
and resist hydration, kind of the way that like adding
an acid to milk makes the particles clumped together to
eventually get you know, yogurt or cheese or whatever. Um. Anyway,
I could not find anything about that, uh, pure conjecture. Uh.
And certainly however, um. One thing that I do know
is that because the Dutch process makes cocoa darker in color,
(35:14):
it tricks you into thinking it tastes richer or like
otherwise more flavor flavorful, even though it's like technically less flavorful.
Oh humans, yeah, so easily tricked yep, yep, we are
that's uh, that's just part of part of the package.
(35:35):
M m well, speaking of the package. Uh, hot chocolate
innovation did not stop there. M h. In the nineteen fifties,
the Santa Dairy Engineers Company was looking to pivot from
making powdered creamer that they've been contracted to provide to
soldiers during the cream warm So when the war ended,
the company instead started focusing on developing a powdered hot chocolate. Okay,
(36:02):
they combined powdered creamer, sweeteners, and cocoa powder, put it
into packets, and voila instant hot chocolate. Um. At first,
they largely sold to hotels and airlines, but it was
frequently stolen item and very like hoarded. So you'd go
to a hotel and you take all of them. Uh.
(36:22):
So the companies started selling them in stores under the
name Swiss Smiths in ninet, I know, in order to
increase the shelf life, they switched to a non fat creamer,
and yeah, the instant hot chocolate industry took off. Mm hmm.
(36:42):
This also happens to be when I'm guessing related when
hot chocolate pot production pretty much died, they were like, oh,
I how people could just make it instantly. They Yeah,
and if we had had time, there's a whole world
of like seven thousand dollar hot chocolate pods. Not since
(37:04):
our Spoon episode, Yes, I've seen so many like like
completely niche, wonderfully beautifully niche corners of the internet dedicated
to this type of specialty product. Yes, oh my gosh,
oh my gosh. I had no idea. Um And Okay, Also,
(37:24):
as I mentioned at the top, people seem very very
interested when the marshmallows got added into the equation of chocolate.
It is like literally one of the first results I got.
Um So briefly, around about nineteen seventeen, marshmallow companies were
advertising all the ways marshmallows could be used to ratchet
up their popularity. We talked about that a lot, you know,
(37:46):
when the companies released, like the magazines that have all
of these recipes. Yeah, yeah, um, including one Lauren for
cold littuce, mayonnaise and marshmallows. And I can't abide by that.
I like all of those things and I don't want that.
(38:07):
But yeah, one of the ways of using these marshmallows,
of the recipes they came up with, was as a
topping to hot chocolate, and there are thermodynamics involved in
scientists have looked into them. Okay, yes, yes, putting thermodynamics
right here. One more note about about this this marketing material,
(38:30):
because it was a company called and Jealous Marshmallows specifically,
which is a buffy fan. I just had to mention. Um.
This was also where we got the the idea of
using marshmallows as a topping for sweet potato castrole. Okay, okay,
but back to the thermodynamics of marshmallows on top of
hot chocolate. Okay, so um. Popular Science magazine posed this
(38:55):
super interesting question, when you put marshmallows on top of
hot cocoa, does it cool down the cup by absorbing
some of that heat that's melting the marshmallows, or to
the marshmallows help keep it warm by insulating the surface
of the hot cocoa from ambient airflow. Mm hmmm, I
(39:18):
have no answer for you. They like consulted like a
thermod thermodynamics researcher, and the dude was like, well, you know,
without really doing some experiments, I can't tell you. Wow,
Well get on it. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know,
the thing is right like they are going to cool
down the cocoa like in the immediate term. But whether
(39:41):
or not they insulate it over a long term enough
to make up for that fact in some kind of
meaningful way is really the question. It's very important question,
very important question. I'll say when I put, when I
get fancy and put like actual marshmallows in my hot chocolate,
I've feel like they melt and then they kind of
(40:03):
there's a flavored dynamic going on, but they kind of
slow you down and drinking it, and they have like
that layer on top. I have no idea if that
has anything to do with heat. Um, But there's something
is happening here. Something is happening here. Um. I will
also say, because what I suspect people mean when they
(40:24):
are searching like how did marshmallows get there? Talking about
like the freeze dried right that coming up with Smiths packets. Yeah, yes, surprisingly,
very little to be found about that. I would assume
it happened pretty quickly and like the late sixties seventies, um,
because that's when that kind of stuff was happening. Yeah. Now,
now I don't remember from our marshmallow episode, and I
(40:45):
didn't look it up when like the freeze dried marshmallows
in cereal thing happened and all of that, But I
believe it was sometime in like the late sixties or
early seventies. Oh gosh, Okay, well, well, there's no way
of knowing right now. I'm telling you I specifically searched
for it and I couldn't find it. Um Or It's
(41:10):
just like, oh, well, maybe one of you listeners know
he's right in Yeah, And this brings us to our
TikTok fact of the day, which I guess is a
new thing. It's becoming pretty common now. Eric Torres Christia
posted a TikTok in twenty nineteen of a coco bomb
(41:31):
or hot chocolate bomb. So basically, to make these, you
pour hot milk or water over the sphere of chocolate
and it opens up to reveal marshmallows and it makes
hot chocolate. Um. I'd heard of this. I've never actually
seen it in action, but I had heard of it.
He wasn't the first to do it at all. It
was featured on Oprah's Favorite Things in um, but he
(41:52):
certainly popularized it when his post went viral, and the
video has over two point six million views. I bet
that's I bet it's gone up since then. Sure, so yeah, TikTok.
You know these things go viral. Yeah, and then you
can't find feta cheese, and then I still haven't made
(42:15):
that dang pasta. Oh I need to. It's really good.
M Well, I think this is what we have to say,
what we have to say about hot chocolate for now,
I think it is. Um. We do have some listener
mail for you, though, and we are going to get
into that as soon as we get back from one
more quick break for a word from our sponsors, and
(42:44):
we're back. Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you, and we're
back with listener. Wow. That's the song at the end
of the holiday special. I wanted to do be authors,
just one more round friends, then gather around friends. But anyway,
(43:05):
you haven't seen it, so we're gonna have to fix this. Lauren,
all right, yeah, yeah, no, I hear you, I hear you.
I need to watch the holiday special and twenty minutes
of asking, my goodness, what's happening, I forgot to say, listeners,
if you have any hot chocolate recipes, please right in. Oh,
(43:26):
always to hear about your preferences. Yeah, oh, and if
you do a holiday special thing which I am preparing
for mine. Oh yeah yeah. If you have life day plans,
let us know. M. But in the meantime, we continue
to torment your listeners by describing pictures that you cannot
see and are adorable. Um, but you all came through
(43:48):
so much and you send us these super cute pictures
of your pets in costume adorable. All right, So we're
starting with Evan. Evan wrote, here's Archer. He plays short
stop for the San Diego Padres. No ball I can
get past him. Archer was compensated for his modeling with
(44:08):
a large carriage. An Archer. He looks, I mean he
fits the part a little, a little outfit like baseball
outfit baseball. He's got a jersey, he's got the little cap.
He looks. He looks very serious about his job. He's
he's he's a bit, he's a he's a bigger, bigger dog,
(44:29):
and he's a hack and good Doggo. That is what
I can tell you about this. Yes, I wouldn't mess
with him. He like, I don't think I could get
a ball past him at all. No, heck u. Janelle wrote, Hello, ladies,
love your podcast. I wanted to share my food themed
Halloween costumes for my two doodle friends. And okay, attached
(44:55):
are two doodle dogs of some kind and they're dressed
as cobs of corn and it's it looks it looks
like the kernels were maybe made with like a with
like a pool noodle that's been cut up. Yeah. Um.
And then it's got the husks on their on their
(45:16):
butts and they're doing a really everyone involved in this
these photographs is doing a really good job. That's excellent, fantastic.
I mean, what can we say, but this is just brilliant, brilliant.
It's so cute. It's a beautiful thing. Oh my gosh,
(45:36):
I love it. I love it. Um so yes, thank you,
thank you, Thank you to all of you who have
been sending these pictures. Thanks to these two listeners, um
and yes, keep them coming. If you would like to
contact us, you can you can email us at hello
at saber pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
(45:57):
saber pod and we do have to hear from you.
Favorite is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
from my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeart Radio, app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to favor protection of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie and I'm more in Vocal Bomb, and today
we have an episode for you about hot chocolate. Yes, yes,
oh yeah, huh huh. As we record this well, no,
as it comes out if you're listening to it the
day it comes out. The next day, November is Life Day?
(00:32):
Life Day? What's life Day? Annie? Life Day is a
celebration of life that was started by the Wookies on
kashik but people's adopted by the Empire at large. Involves
wearing red somehow, walking in space, and a lot of
other things that are inexplicable. What's other foods as well?
(00:53):
Including the shocks, the Banta shocks. Please Wookie cookies or
it's wookie pas excuse me that? I guess all right? Yeah,
sure that was definitely a statement that made complete human sense. Yes. Yes,
(01:14):
If you're listening and you're like what, then I guess
good for you. I don't know. Yeah, congratulations, it's a
Star Wars thing. It's a Star Wars holiday. Uh. It's
from the infamous Star Wars Holiday special from nine, which
I believe I've watched more than anybody on this planet. Um.
(01:37):
There isn't like a one that's very cute that Disney
put out as well, and it's become a whole thing.
It's kind of become a whole thing. There's a lot
of Star Wars things tend to tend to do. Oh yeah, yeah,
And uh, I do have a like very geeky other
reason that I always suggest hot chocolate when we talked
(01:58):
about Star Wars. One is featured in Life Day but
to one of my very very favorite Cannon facts that
has been Cannon before Disney bought Star Wars and after
Disney bought Star Wars, Luke Skywalker's very favorite drink is
hot chocolate, which I think is the cutest thing. He loves.
It is so sweet. That is like the dearest thing
(02:20):
about that silly dear boy. Oh my goodness, he loves
hot chocolate. And and one of my favorite fan fictions, uh,
long story short, he ends up like injured and Darth
Vader is taking care of him, and the Imperials are like,
why is Darth Vader He keeps making all these different
hot chocolates. Um, of course they don't know he's making
(02:44):
them try to win his son over, and he's like
messing with the machine, and he just has this sudden
realization like I can never turn my son to the
dark side because there's no way a sith is going
to drink hot chocolate and get so much joy out
of it. So I'm not going to try to do
this anymore. Let him be and accepted. It's adorable, that's amazing.
(03:07):
I did not know about that. So I'm we're all
learning things. We're all learning things today you are. And
then one final other thing, um is I think I've
said this before. One of my very favorite fan fiction
tropes is cinnamon Roll, which is just a sweetheart character.
Um and Luke has often written that way. Um So,
(03:29):
Samantha from Stuff I've Never Told You she created this
cocktail for me called the Cinnamon Roll, and it is
hot chocolate with coffee and rum and whiskey and cinnamon
and whipped cream. It's appropriate because it's like the fan
fiction theme. Also, he loves hot chocolate anyway, it's cute.
(03:56):
Uh So, Yes, this was an Annie suggestion. Yes, I
do love I love hot chocolate. I am very I
have very nostalgic. Yes, so, I think we've been trying
to do it forever. We have. We talked about it
a lot in one of our episodes. I can't remember
(04:17):
it was chocolate or cocow maybe white chocolate, because I
had like several instances and I bet you did too,
Like have we done this before? Yeah? Well, the thing
is is that the the history of drinking chocolate, like
it was a drink before it was really anything else.
And so anytime that we've talked about chocolate, which we've
done any number of times, you have to talk about that, like, yeah,
(04:40):
hot chocolate situation. M hm. Uh, I have to admit
that I'm only kind of like so so on hot chocolate.
I mean like it's fine, Uh, it's it's nice. I
do have some nice memories of it, but it's usually
way too sweet for me and like too too much,
like like like the amount of hot chocolate that I
(05:04):
want to drink is like a double espresso amount and
probably not with like all of this stuff. I also like,
like dairy isn't the best for me? Now that they're
like alternative milks that are often in play, that might
be a better exploration for me. And like, you know,
you can always control your own sweeten level at home. Um,
but yeah, certainly if someone else is making it. I'm like, oh,
(05:26):
I don't think. I don't think that's for me. That's
gonna be like if I drink that, you're gonna have
to deal with me. Yeah, it's like it's very much
a treat for me. And I did like the Swiss
Smiths packets when I was growing up. That was pretty rare.
I much prefer like I make the like kind of
dark chocolate with salts, that salt and chill the cinnamon,
(05:50):
and that's that's more where I'm at. So there's a
big world of taste of hot chocolate, but often what
you do get is overly sweet. I would agree, mm hmmm. Uh.
There's a hot chocolate race I've talked about. I've spoken
about this before the and you get a lot of
hot chocolate. It's nice. Again, I literally cannot imagine. I
don't like running, and I don't think that I want
(06:13):
hot chocolate while I'm running or is it after Okay,
So it's sort of like your post like some people
do chocolate mouse. This is like and one time I
ran this race and it was like so cold. They said,
if you don't want to run it, you can just
get the hot chocolate. They were literally like it's freezy,
it's in genuine which Yeah, National Hot Chocolate Day is
(06:35):
January thirty one, um said they do it around then.
I do often get the hot Chocolate song stuck in
my head, which is from the Polar Express, and I've
had it stuck in my head throughout doing this research.
I have not seen Polar Express, and I have no
idea what you're talking about, and I'm not gonna subject
you to it. But however, the holiday special yes, um
(06:57):
one day and then a real test. As I said,
you can see our episodes on chocolate, yes, white chocolate
and chocolate sustainability. Uh. And I think even mole and marshallows. Yeah,
absolutely sure. Uh also in a really weird way, um,
(07:18):
probably American cheese. Um. And I'll explain more of that
in a few minutes. Excellent, well post tastin how it
gets to our question hot chocolate. What is it? Well,
(07:40):
hot chocolate is a drink made with or flavored like
chocolate and consumed hot. There you go, yeah there. There
are a lot of different ways to achieve this, and
personal preferences about the taste and consistency of the final
product can differ quite a bit. But your your general
really looking at heating some kind of bas liquid, like
(08:02):
like water or some kind of milk into which you
you dissolve some kind of sweetener, and then stir in
some kind of chocolate product, be it a liquid, solid,
or powder. You might flavor this with any number of
other things to a compliment or or contrast with the roasty, floral, fruity,
bitter flavors of the chocolate. You might add decadent toppings
(08:26):
like whipped cream or marshmallows, and the result is warm
and rich and can range from like sweetened, creamy and
smooth to to sort of gritty and bracingly bitter, from
thin doing predibly thick. It's like a chocolate bar in
a mug, with the understanding that some bars of chocolate
(08:48):
are like milk chocolate and very sweet, and some contain
neither milk nor sugar. Yeah. Um, it's like soothingly invigorating. Um.
It's like drinking Hall of the Mountain King. Oh yeah, yeah,
does happen okay to me? It kind of like puts
(09:12):
a pep in your step. Yeah yeah, but in a
in a in a like familiar comforting way. Yeah. Uh.
We have talked pretty extensively about chocolate in the aforementioned
previous episodes. Yeah, the important basics for today are that
(09:33):
chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao plant
which have been dried, fermented, roasted, and ground. Uh. These
seeds contain a lot of fats, that's your cocoa butter,
and a lot of other stuff starches and proteins and
minerals and flavors, and that's your cocoa solids. Manufacturers will
separate out the cocoa butter from the solids and then
(09:55):
recombine them in in different um in different ways, and
sometimes with other stuff to make bars of chocolate which
have a bunch of cocoa butter or cocoa powder which
has very little cocoa butter. Hot chocolate is really an
impressively wide category of drinks. Um Like, you are usually
(10:18):
starting with a base liquid. But is that water or
some kind of milk. If it's milk, is it fresh
or powdered milk? Is it fatty or skim is it
dairy or otherwise? Uh, you're probably sweetening your hot chocolate,
but how and how much? And then we get into
the chocolate part. I mean, you know you can grind
prepared cocao beans or nibs, which are pieces of whole
(10:41):
beans uh, straight into hot liquid if you if you
want to um. Most of the time, though, you're either
melting in a chocolate bar or stirring in a cocoa powder. Um.
There's also a whole market of prepared instant cocoa. Back
to that in a second. Um. The interesting thing about
out all of this is that cocoa solids do not
(11:03):
dissolve in water. Uh Like. The best you can do
is like hydrate them enough to kind of suspend themselves
throughout your base liquid. But even then they'll settle out
fairly quickly. Um. Like you've probably experienced this as sediment
in the bottom of your cocoa cup. Furthermore, coca powder
is tricksy because it contains just enough like almost like
(11:27):
cocoa butter residue in each little particle of cocoa powder
that the particles are hydrophobic. Um. They push away from water,
you know, like oil and water do not mix, and
they contain just enough oil to do that. You've seen
this if you've ever like put a spoonful of coca
powder into a cup of milk and watched it just
immediately beat up into into like a like a fliptilla
(11:51):
of dry pockets of powder on the surface. Yeah. So
making a smooth cup of hot chocolate depends on tricking
the cocoa particles into cooperating with you. Uh. The fact
that you're heating them helps because that can can can
help melt the fats and allow the starches and proteins
and the particles the freedom to to loosen up and
(12:14):
blom onto water molecules and thus get hydrated and thus
suspend themselves in the liquid. Uh. You can also agitate
the mixture, you know, whipster whipster. Yeah, yeah, stir whip,
whipster whipster, yep, Holiday special. I still have no idea
(12:35):
what that's about. But but Annie made in D and
D items, that's totally the stir whip the whipster, the
whip whispers. Yeah yeah, it's like enchanted to like automatically
whisk stuff. I don't know anyway, Okay, you can you
can agitate the mixture, um, which can like physically bump
(13:02):
the fats around and let the water get at those
solids and hydrate them. Um. And this is part of
why traditional methods of making hot chocolate do include a
whipping or frothing the mix um, partially because this can
be such a pain. There is right a whole market
of instant cocoa, which can come in tubs or in
(13:22):
like little single serving UH foil lined packets, and those
will stir more easily into hot liquid. This is accomplished
by UM grinding down the cocoa really fine, UM adding
emulsifiers that can help the water molecules and fat molecules
play nice. Um. I've seen, I've seen how I I
(13:43):
didn't I didn't read the patent. I didn't read the
patent before we die in here. UM. But I strongly
suspect that much like UH, much like instant coffee. There's
been a few innovations surrounding that kind of technology, with
freeze drying perhaps anyway, um u intin cocoa often also
contains some kind of thickener um like kara gean that
(14:04):
will make the final product feel creamy and smooth in
your mouth, even if it doesn't contain a lot of fat. Um,
because when you put fat into a shelf stable product
like that, it's going to decrease the lifespan. So yeah, UM.
Some versions of instant cocoa have like fancy seasonings like
(14:25):
pumpkin spice or salt and caramel or something like that. Mint. Yeah.
I used to like sometimes I would get the fancy
packet and special day Oh yeah, oh the ones with
the little freeze dried marshmallows, Like they're not even real marshmallows,
but they're so good. I love, love, love, And we're
(14:49):
going to talk about this later in the history section.
How everybody wants to know about Like I was like
history of hot chocolate and they're like, what about those marshmallows?
Everybody was like, what about those? Indeed? Oh goodness? Um,
but yeah then then so so you've got you've got
your basic hot chocolate. Other flavorings can be involved, of course,
(15:13):
good chocolate and our cocoa already has a lot of flavors.
People at all kinds of other things though, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger, chili, pepper,
orange peel, and a seed, a little bit of salt,
maybe some rum merbourbon or almorato or whatever else you want. Um,
something to thicken it, maybe like some ground seeds or
nuts or corn flour or egg, and then toppings, whipped cream, marshmallows,
(15:38):
a scoop of ice cream, shavings of chocolate, sprinkles of seasonings.
It can be consumed as a breakfast beverage or as
you would to your coffee throughout the day or during
like designated snack times, or as an after dinner treat.
I can't tell you what to do, it's true. It's true.
Back when it would snow the rare occasion it would
(15:59):
snow here in Georgia when I was growing up, and
go out and play in the snow and you came in.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, that's good. That's good. Yes, Well,
speaking of a lot about the nutrition, Uh, you know
this one, this, this one's pretty solid solidly a treat.
I mean it obviously depends on what you make your
(16:20):
hot chocolate with. Um, if you've got a bunch of
sugars in there, that's that's treat territory. Um, you know
it can be. It can be fairly okay for you though,
if you know, you know, you watch watch those sugars.
Like it can be calorically dense with the cocoa, butter
and the fats from whatever milk you may or may
not be using. Um. Yeah, treats are nice treats are nice. Yeah,
(16:45):
and it seems we are not the only ones that
thinks so, because we do have some numbers for you,
we do UM. As of twenty nineteen, the global hot
chocolate market was estimated to be worth some three point
two billion dollars and growing. And interestingly, to me and
to a lot of people reporting on this, um, hot
chocolate seems largely immune to changes in demand. It's sort
(17:08):
of a constant and people drink it all year round
like that. There is a bit of a holiday bump,
but they're not really um yeah, I know right. I
found that very very interesting. I think this was like, um,
this is from a study of like two thousand people,
so you know, grain of salts, but people were pretty
much like, yeah, drink it whenever. Yeah. The industry, yes,
(17:32):
is expected to grow alongside disposable income around the world,
and analysts predicted the next step in hot chocolate evolution
is gourmet hot chocolates. And I saw in some places
called healthy hot chocolates quotes I would say, but you know, yes, here,
I guess yeah. That hot chocolate run that you do
(17:55):
is actually part of like an event series across the
United States over a dozen cities. Uh, throw one and right.
It's yeah, this's like corporately sponsored fun run that that
has over two hundred thousand participants a year. And you
get hot chocolate. Yes, and there's a chocolate fondue and
(18:16):
a sweet coat, a few fish and the metal is
like a chocolate bar. I'm such a child anyway. Yeah,
that's a good time if you're into that kind of thing.
Uh well, uh, you're You're not the only one, um,
certainly there There are also a few hot chocolate festivals
(18:41):
um uh. One in Vancouver is sort of spread throughout
the city over the course of a month between like
January and February, and participating local shops feature their own
take on the drink. They've been running since eleven. Uh.
This year there were forty four participating shops serving a
hundred and six different types of hot chocolate a hundred
(19:02):
and six years. Yes, yes, also now like like recently
within the past couple of years, I think um uh
ball Rona never heard that out loud. They sponsor a
similar thing in New York City, so yeah, um well,
listeners again, if you've been to any of these things,
(19:22):
oh my goodness, yes, please let us know and I
did want to say here before we get into the history,
I found it really fascinating in this one. UM and
Match had a great article about this where it was
kind of detailing all the different ways people enjoy hot
chocolate around the world. UM, and it was just so
fascinating to see how different cultures and traditions and histories
(19:43):
have fed into hot chocolate preparations and traditions around the world.
So just a lot of back and forth culturally. UM.
It was really really interesting. Most of these episodes are,
but that it was a graph. It was like a
little chart, and I was like, oh that's bad. Yeah, yeah,
Well right, we are going to get into that history.
(20:07):
But first we're going to take a quick break for
a word from our sponsors. We're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes,
thank you. And again see our chocolate episodes because there's
there's a lot of similarities and we talked about in
(20:28):
this and those and what we talked about here, because
as you said, Lauren, the history of drinking chocolate is
a long one, UM, and I'm going to be using
hot chocolate and drinking chocolate interchangeably throughout this. But it
was largely called drinking chocolate or even just chocolate for
a good chunk of it of its existence, um, because
(20:50):
we didn't really have a way to process uh cow,
so we drank it. Yeah right. Um. Archaeological evidence suggests
that chocolate was being cultivated and what is now Mexico
over four thousand years ago, and that folks were drinking
it back then. Um. In fact, yes, for most of
its history, chocolate has been consumed as a liquid of
(21:10):
some type. Um, eating chocolate in the form of bars
and candies like that. That's fairly recent and it didn't
really tank off until the eighteen hundreds when more technology
became available, which we are going to talk about a
little bit more later. Um. This is also there is
also in the term drinking chocolate started. The term started
(21:30):
popping up more commonly in print because before that it
was assumed, but it was for drinking exactly specify drinking chocolate.
It was just chocolate. Yep. Some sources credit the cultivation
of cocaw specifically to the all mexiblization in Mesoamerica in
fift BC somewhere around there. Um. And it spread quickly
(21:51):
in this region and was adopted by people's like the
Maya and because yeah, there was no way to refine chocolate.
People would from the cacao and drink it. Uh. And
the name for this liquid and some of these ancient
languages essentially translated to bitter water yeah um. And to
cut the bitterness, things like vanilla, chili or magnolia were
(22:14):
sometimes added into the mix. It was typically served frothy,
both hot and cold, um, usually out of a pot.
And it was beloved so much so yeah. It was
integral and many aspects of life or some of these civilizations. Um.
The Mayans and Aztecs believed that the God's gifted humanity
(22:36):
with cacao, and as part of that used it in
many ceremonies and rituals. According to some sources, the Aztecs
specifically may have viewed the beans as more valuable than
gold and might have used them as currency. Um. It
was thought to have aditional properties to from general fortifying
(22:56):
uh and sit with me now yeah um, and pretty
much everything in between, including as a fuel for warriors.
And I read somewhere like the cocoa butter was put
on wounds, so it was okay yeah yeah. At the time,
women primarily made hot chocolate, and they guarded the recipes
(23:19):
for special hot chocolates because of women's roles in making
hot chocolate and the beliefs some held that hot chocolate
was a vehicle for spells and magic. Some women who
made hot chocolate were persecuted as witches for making the
drink and murdered. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah um. Spanish colonizers
(23:40):
like her Nan Cortez observed chocolate in the Americas in
fift undreds and quickly understood the potential that it had
for Europe. It did take a minute, like colonizers did
not like hot chocolate at first, when Jesuit even wrote
that the foamy consistency was like feces, but eventually, eventually
(24:00):
it caught on. Yes, and Cortez transported some cocow beans
and tools used to make this hot chocolate back to Europe. Um.
And there's a bit of a legend that a former
botanists who turned into a pirate named William Hughes returned
from the Americas with detailed instructions and tips on making
(24:21):
drinking chocolate, which at the time called for maze, milk, sugar,
cocou and even things like ambergris and nutmeg on occasion,
and he called it the American nectar who. A new
device appeared around this time, the millennial, which is a
type of whisk that you you you operate by placing
the head of the device into the liquid that you
(24:43):
want to whisk, and then roll the handle between your palms,
thus rotating the head within the liquid. UM. Previous to this,
hot chocolate was kept incorporated and and and frothy by
pouring it back and forth between a couple of pots.
Researchers think that this device might have been developed by
Spanish colonizers who wanted to drink hot chocolate, but also
(25:04):
wanted to sort of like separate themselves from the indigenous
culture a little bit like, Oh, I don't want to
do it the way that you do it. I do
it this fancy way anyway, um whatever the providence um,
Millennios would develop over the centuries into these really beautiful
carved wooden pieces um, sometimes with like moving parts and
all kinds of interesting carved nooks and crannies to to
(25:26):
help frothier chocolate. Yes, um, but as all this is
going on, Europeans continue to be kind of hesitant around
hot choking when it arrived, and I think it took like,
um a century almost um when they started adding sugar
into it, and then they were like, okay, because you know,
(25:50):
this makes it sweeter less bitter also makes it more expensive,
and it was already at a pretty steep price point
for a lot of people. Um. The importation of cocao
was heavily taxed in Europe, and the hot chocolate was available,
especially in Spain where you could buy it um from
like street vendors. It was just financially out of reach
(26:11):
for most people, especially when compared to cheaper tea and coffee.
So maybe you see this menu, it's got like a
hot chocolate, very expensive tea and coffee much cheaper. That's
what people would go go for. So hot chocolate became
something of the saddest symbol at this time in Europe.
Um and the well off did enjoy it quite a bit,
quite a bit. One famous example is King Louis the fourteenth,
(26:35):
who received chocolate as a wedding gift from his bride
and appointed a royal chocolate teer who made hot chocolate
with the stamp of the Barnachy on it. UM. I'm
not sure how that works, but that's what I read.
So somehow the stamp of the monarchy was involved on this.
Maybe maybe I'm like, maybe I like the serving set
or something. Yeah, that's what I thought too. Um. Mary
(26:57):
Antoinette allegedly bought her own chocolate maker to court as well. Uh.
They love the rich had for hot chocolate also resulted
in one of my very favorite rabbit holes that I
didn't really have time to go down, but I would
love to. In these very ornate, expensive chocolate pots. Oh yeah,
oh yeah. Some of these included a hole in the lid.
(27:20):
You'd place here at your millennio in the pot and
then place the lid down over it and then froth um.
Some of these had like had like inlaid ivory um.
The pots themselves were sometimes made of silver or like
gilded porcelain um. Right, you might get a set with
your family crest done on it. Yeah yeah, look up
(27:42):
pictures there. They're pretty glorious. They are. But the price
and bitterness weren't the only reasons that Europe was a
bit weary of hot chocolate. The church Capital City Church
worried that it wasn't appropriate for children to drink it. Actually,
they kind of debated about it for everybody, but especially children. Um.
(28:06):
While at the same time, doctors were touting it as
you know, this medicinal thing that could help children. They
even recommended using it to mask the taste of bitter medicines. Um.
Ultimately the doctor's one out in the heavy quotes, because
you know, the drink became viewed as a kid friendly
but not necessarily for the health reasons. The doctor prescribed
(28:30):
prescribed to it. Um. European religious folk have Yeah, they
have long argued about hot chocolate. I think we talked
about that in one of our chocolate episodes. As legend
has it, one bishop was sent poisoned chocolate after attempting
to stop women from drinking it at a Mexican church.
Because it will see it is like a you know,
you drink your hot chocolate in church. It's kind of
(28:51):
a ritualistic, you know, like a gathering elements of um.
And at least one pope I think multiple popes would
at least one weigh in on weather drinking hot chocolate
during fasting was acceptable. There's a lot of like, well
we could drink that, we could still drink this, right
but right, but still but still the hot chocolate. Yeah, um, well, uh,
(29:14):
despite whatever any of the popes had to say about it.
The popularity of this drink did spread UM. In places
like London. You could get you have like a hot
chocolate at like a posh coffee house. UM. And a
dedicated chocolate house opened in sixteen fifty seven, apparently just
a tiny bit. Like A couple of decades later, William
(29:35):
the third was super fond of hot chocolate UM and
had a dedicated chocolate kitchen built into the Hampton Court Palace. Wow.
Can you imagine going to the like contractors, I need
It's just a chocolate. This is crucial. Don't mess it up.
(29:58):
This is the heart of everything. Um. When European colonists
arrived to the America, as they often tended towards flavors
and foods that reminded them of Europe. Uh So chocolate
was somewhat of an exception in this case because it
was new to most Europeans because they hadn't been able
to afford it in Europe. UM. But this wasn't the
(30:20):
case in North America. Given the origin of cocao, It's
much closer. UM. The closeness and relative affordability of sugar
from the Caribbean, largely provided through the forced labor of
enslaved people's UM. So it just became this thing where
it's like, oh, I can afford this now. Um. People
adopted it pretty quickly. George Washington allegedly often drank warm
(30:44):
chocolate cream for breakfast, as it was called. I think
there's a recipe book you can buy from Mount Vernon
that has this recipe in it. UM. But at the time,
this drink often consisted of warmed milk and or water,
grated chocolate, and sugar, sometimes with additions like brandy because
of course, chili powder, vanilla, or allspice. It was viewed
(31:07):
as something, uh like a health drink border and what
we might call a performance drink or energy drink in
our modern parlance. Yeah, like a high calorie food that
didn't spoil. I'm assuming that was when milk wasn't a
part of the equation. UM. But I read that in
several places too, that it could keep for a long time,
so it was popular in that way too. UM. In
(31:29):
seventeen sixty one, Benjamin Franklin recommended hot chocolate for smallpox.
So still, yeah, a lot of these health things attached
to it. It was easy to transport, and so it
was a popular option. For soldiers. Um. In fact, there's
a long history of cacao rations and hot chocolate and
American soldiers from the Revolutionary War to World War Two,
and a lot of it had to do with boosting morale.
(31:51):
That was frequently the reasoning given behind why it should
be provided. The first US chocolate factory was established in
Massachusetts in seventeen But okay, um, what we've been talking
about so far is not hot chocolate as most of
us here in the US at least would know it. Um.
(32:12):
It was a thicker, frothier, less sweet, more chocolate e beverage,
probably a little bit like oilier because what you were
dealing with was, yeah, suspension of these cocoa solids in
your milk or your water. Um. And and then those
the cocoa butters would have been a lot more prominent. Right.
It was often essentially a sometimes sweetened, sometimes not melted chocolate,
(32:38):
with the texture a bit much thicker. UM. This changed
in the eighteen hundreds with Conrad Johanna van Houten's invention
of the cacao press that could make cocoa powder. Um.
So very basically, these powders were the result of removing
most of the cocao butter from the beans and then
drying and processing the remaining sids. Yeah. Uh. This fundamentally
(33:01):
changed the hot chocolate landscape, not only making it easier
to make, but even more affordable to Yeah. And this
is also pretty much where we got the modern concept
of the chocolate bar from um, because it wasn't really
possible until we could more more effectively separate out the
cocoa butter from the cocoa solids. Another thing that that
(33:24):
this dude and or some of his contemporaries innovated was
alkalizing the cocoa to make it less acidic. Um. That
that makes it taste less bitter and also makes it
look darker in color. And can I go on like
a sort of science sidebar here please? Okay? Alright, So
(33:46):
a thing, a thing that I couldn't quite work out, um,
is weather. This alkalized sometimes called Dutch processed cocoa um,
actually disperses better into water than untreated cocoa. Okay, so
so right. Alkalied cocoa is is treated to make the
cocoa less acidic um, and the common belief has been
(34:08):
that this also makes it somehow more soluble or at
the very least better at dispersing in water, but researchers
modern lee working in chocolate production have reported that like,
the only way it could really do that is if
you're if you're basically making like little molecules of soap
(34:28):
um by making the the the alkali substance interact with
fatty acids in in the cocoa mixture. Uh. And that
isn't what you would want because it would taste soapy. Um.
But I'm also wondering whether untreated cocoa, being more acidic
would make the particles more likely to to clump together
(34:49):
and resist hydration, kind of the way that like adding
an acid to milk makes the particles clumped together to
eventually get you know, yogurt or cheese or whatever. Um. Anyway,
I could not find anything about that, uh, pure conjecture. Uh.
And certainly however, um. One thing that I do know
is that because the Dutch process makes cocoa darker in color,
(35:14):
it tricks you into thinking it tastes richer or like
otherwise more flavor flavorful, even though it's like technically less flavorful.
Oh humans, yeah, so easily tricked yep, yep, we are
that's uh, that's just part of part of the package.
(35:35):
M m well, speaking of the package. Uh, hot chocolate
innovation did not stop there. M h. In the nineteen fifties,
the Santa Dairy Engineers Company was looking to pivot from
making powdered creamer that they've been contracted to provide to
soldiers during the cream warm So when the war ended,
the company instead started focusing on developing a powdered hot chocolate. Okay,
(36:02):
they combined powdered creamer, sweeteners, and cocoa powder, put it
into packets, and voila instant hot chocolate. Um. At first,
they largely sold to hotels and airlines, but it was
frequently stolen item and very like hoarded. So you'd go
to a hotel and you take all of them. Uh.
(36:22):
So the companies started selling them in stores under the
name Swiss Smiths in ninet, I know, in order to
increase the shelf life, they switched to a non fat creamer,
and yeah, the instant hot chocolate industry took off. Mm hmm.
(36:42):
This also happens to be when I'm guessing related when
hot chocolate pot production pretty much died, they were like, oh,
I how people could just make it instantly. They Yeah,
and if we had had time, there's a whole world
of like seven thousand dollar hot chocolate pods. Not since
(37:04):
our Spoon episode, Yes, I've seen so many like like
completely niche, wonderfully beautifully niche corners of the internet dedicated
to this type of specialty product. Yes, oh my gosh,
oh my gosh. I had no idea. Um And Okay, Also,
(37:24):
as I mentioned at the top, people seem very very
interested when the marshmallows got added into the equation of chocolate.
It is like literally one of the first results I got.
Um So briefly, around about nineteen seventeen, marshmallow companies were
advertising all the ways marshmallows could be used to ratchet
up their popularity. We talked about that a lot, you know,
(37:46):
when the companies released, like the magazines that have all
of these recipes. Yeah, yeah, um, including one Lauren for
cold littuce, mayonnaise and marshmallows. And I can't abide by that.
I like all of those things and I don't want that.
(38:07):
But yeah, one of the ways of using these marshmallows,
of the recipes they came up with, was as a
topping to hot chocolate, and there are thermodynamics involved in
scientists have looked into them. Okay, yes, yes, putting thermodynamics
right here. One more note about about this this marketing material,
(38:30):
because it was a company called and Jealous Marshmallows specifically,
which is a buffy fan. I just had to mention. Um.
This was also where we got the the idea of
using marshmallows as a topping for sweet potato castrole. Okay, okay,
but back to the thermodynamics of marshmallows on top of
hot chocolate. Okay, so um. Popular Science magazine posed this
(38:55):
super interesting question, when you put marshmallows on top of
hot cocoa, does it cool down the cup by absorbing
some of that heat that's melting the marshmallows, or to
the marshmallows help keep it warm by insulating the surface
of the hot cocoa from ambient airflow. Mm hmmm, I
(39:18):
have no answer for you. They like consulted like a
thermod thermodynamics researcher, and the dude was like, well, you know,
without really doing some experiments, I can't tell you. Wow,
Well get on it. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know,
the thing is right like they are going to cool
down the cocoa like in the immediate term. But whether
(39:41):
or not they insulate it over a long term enough
to make up for that fact in some kind of
meaningful way is really the question. It's very important question,
very important question. I'll say when I put, when I
get fancy and put like actual marshmallows in my hot chocolate,
I've feel like they melt and then they kind of
(40:03):
there's a flavored dynamic going on, but they kind of
slow you down and drinking it, and they have like
that layer on top. I have no idea if that
has anything to do with heat. Um, But there's something
is happening here. Something is happening here. Um. I will
also say, because what I suspect people mean when they
(40:24):
are searching like how did marshmallows get there? Talking about
like the freeze dried right that coming up with Smiths packets. Yeah, yes, surprisingly,
very little to be found about that. I would assume
it happened pretty quickly and like the late sixties seventies, um,
because that's when that kind of stuff was happening. Yeah. Now,
now I don't remember from our marshmallow episode, and I
(40:45):
didn't look it up when like the freeze dried marshmallows
in cereal thing happened and all of that, But I
believe it was sometime in like the late sixties or
early seventies. Oh gosh, Okay, well, well, there's no way
of knowing right now. I'm telling you I specifically searched
for it and I couldn't find it. Um Or It's
(41:10):
just like, oh, well, maybe one of you listeners know
he's right in Yeah, And this brings us to our
TikTok fact of the day, which I guess is a
new thing. It's becoming pretty common now. Eric Torres Christia
posted a TikTok in twenty nineteen of a coco bomb
(41:31):
or hot chocolate bomb. So basically, to make these, you
pour hot milk or water over the sphere of chocolate
and it opens up to reveal marshmallows and it makes
hot chocolate. Um. I'd heard of this. I've never actually
seen it in action, but I had heard of it.
He wasn't the first to do it at all. It
was featured on Oprah's Favorite Things in um, but he
(41:52):
certainly popularized it when his post went viral, and the
video has over two point six million views. I bet
that's I bet it's gone up since then. Sure, so yeah, TikTok.
You know these things go viral. Yeah, and then you
can't find feta cheese, and then I still haven't made
(42:15):
that dang pasta. Oh I need to. It's really good.
M Well, I think this is what we have to say,
what we have to say about hot chocolate for now,
I think it is. Um. We do have some listener
mail for you, though, and we are going to get
into that as soon as we get back from one
more quick break for a word from our sponsors, and
(42:44):
we're back. Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you, and we're
back with listener. Wow. That's the song at the end
of the holiday special. I wanted to do be authors,
just one more round friends, then gather around friends. But anyway,
(43:05):
you haven't seen it, so we're gonna have to fix this. Lauren,
all right, yeah, yeah, no, I hear you, I hear you.
I need to watch the holiday special and twenty minutes
of asking, my goodness, what's happening, I forgot to say, listeners,
if you have any hot chocolate recipes, please right in. Oh,
(43:26):
always to hear about your preferences. Yeah, oh, and if
you do a holiday special thing which I am preparing
for mine. Oh yeah yeah. If you have life day plans,
let us know. M. But in the meantime, we continue
to torment your listeners by describing pictures that you cannot
see and are adorable. Um, but you all came through
(43:48):
so much and you send us these super cute pictures
of your pets in costume adorable. All right, So we're
starting with Evan. Evan wrote, here's Archer. He plays short
stop for the San Diego Padres. No ball I can
get past him. Archer was compensated for his modeling with
(44:08):
a large carriage. An Archer. He looks, I mean he
fits the part a little, a little outfit like baseball
outfit baseball. He's got a jersey, he's got the little cap.
He looks. He looks very serious about his job. He's
he's he's a bit, he's a he's a bigger, bigger dog,
(44:29):
and he's a hack and good Doggo. That is what
I can tell you about this. Yes, I wouldn't mess
with him. He like, I don't think I could get
a ball past him at all. No, heck u. Janelle wrote, Hello, ladies,
love your podcast. I wanted to share my food themed
Halloween costumes for my two doodle friends. And okay, attached
(44:55):
are two doodle dogs of some kind and they're dressed
as cobs of corn and it's it looks it looks
like the kernels were maybe made with like a with
like a pool noodle that's been cut up. Yeah. Um.
And then it's got the husks on their on their
(45:16):
butts and they're doing a really everyone involved in this
these photographs is doing a really good job. That's excellent, fantastic.
I mean, what can we say, but this is just brilliant, brilliant.
It's so cute. It's a beautiful thing. Oh my gosh,
(45:36):
I love it. I love it. Um so yes, thank you,
thank you, Thank you to all of you who have
been sending these pictures. Thanks to these two listeners, um
and yes, keep them coming. If you would like to
contact us, you can you can email us at hello
at saber pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
(45:57):
saber pod and we do have to hear from you.
Favorite is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
from my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeart Radio, app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots more good things are coming your way.
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