Chocolate

Sophie and Michael Coe’s The True History of Chocolate is an interesting mix of ancient South American history and the introduction of cocoa and chocolate into European society, a combination that makes it a book tailored for our class. Overall, the narrative does a nice job of encompassing the aspects of taste, history, production, consumption, and social ramifications that we have discussed throughout our classes. For example the research of the etymology of the word chocolate was well supported and interesting and provided insight into how the Spanish conquerors and Aztec civilization interacted, and it then led nicely into the sections on how chocolate consumption changed upon reaching Europe. While the chapters entitled “Chocolate Conquers Europe” and “Chocolate for the Masses” do echo Robbins’ argument that the commodity has been given a “hero status,” I believe they are actually good labels for the sections because of the anecdotal style of writing used throughout the book. In those chapters, the authors show how the art of chocolate drinking and consumption spread from country to country, as well as the technological innovations that were developed (Van Houten and cocoa powder) to make it easier for everyone to consume the product. With this book, which is somewhat of a mix between popular historical writing and hardcore anthropology, I believe the Coes accomplished their goal of writing an interesting, informative, and very readable tale of chocolate and its rise to popularity and mass consumption while at the same time not glossing over the issues of colonialism, slavery and exploitation that are so much a part of the history of chocolate. However with all that said, I agree with Tim that some aspects of the book do not fit into our definition of a commodity history or satisfy the questions we have asked in class discussion. For starters, while I really enjoyed the discussion over the Aztecs and the debunking of their bad reputation, the section is overemphasized for a book that claims to focus on the history of chocolate. Instead of providing an in-depth analysis of the ancient society, I believe the parts that honed in on chocolate use by the elites and warrior classes would have sufficed.  Furthermore, more discussion on the economics of the slave trade and forced labor would have provided us with a way to compare this narrative with the arguments of Mintz and Shivelbusch about the development of capitalism, etc. Nonetheless, if the focus of these histories is to highlight the flow of commodities and their changes as they move through different societies and classes, I think this book does a wonderful job in that regard.