Meet Felicity! This is my doll Felicity. I named her Felicity because she looks very much like my friend Felicity in 1774. I even got her the same dress as Felicity. A few weekends ago I sent her on an adventure in colonial Boston! She learned how to make hot chocolate! No sillies, in 1774 cocoa powder was not invented yet. No microwaves either. You had to make drinking chocolate from scratch. It is soooooo good and worth the effort. I will let Felicity tell you all about it.
"Good day from Boston! I am here at Captain Jackson's Chocolate Shop learning where my favorite drink comes from. Chocolate has been made in Boston since 1682.
Chocolate comes from the cocoa tree (cacao). About 3000 years ago (or 1500 BCE Susanna's/your time) the cocoa tree was domesticated in the Amazon region of South America.
The Aztec king Montezuma drank chocolate many times a day in a show of strength and power.
This chocolate was made from ground cocoa beans, chile pepper and water.The Spanish sent the recipe back home to Spain where they added honey, or possibly cane sugar, and the newly discovered vanilla plus some cinnamon and black pepper. This is basically how we make it today in the 1770s! Watch how it's done.
First you need a rainforest and the cocoa pod.
Inside the pod are beans.
The beans are sent from Central and South America to chocolate mills in the colonies.
The beans are roasted like coffee beans in a long handled pan over the open fire. This takes 45 minutes to one hour plus cooling time. The chocolate maker does this in his mill.
The shells are sifted off. This is called winnowing. It's done in a winnowing basket. You want to get off the indigestible chaff. This is done outside on a windy day.
That gives you cocoa nibs. The chocolate maker says they are very, very bitter.
Then you grind the cocoa nibs in a mortar and pestle.
Next you put the ground cocoa nibs on a mano and rub and rub. This creates heat and friction to grind the cocoa nibs into a paste.
Then the chocolate is placed into a mold. That is allowed to set and then turned out. You have a brick of 100% pure dark chocolate. This is sent to the consumer. The real Felicity's father sells chocolate in his shop.
It isn't tasty yet. You must add things to it to make it taste good.
Your/your cook/your mother/your slave/ grinds or shaves the chocolate brick and mixes it with hot water. Then she adds the tasty parts.
We add some of this thing wrapped in blue paper. It's not salt but... sugar. You knew that right? My namesake has one of those.
The peel of a fruit that's also a color. (Hmm can't taste that at all) cinnamon, nutmeg, anise (a spice used in Italian cooking that tastes like licorice) and a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper. (Mrs. Washington's cook uses annatto for color).
All that goes in a special chocolate pot. The pot has a stirring stick to stir up the spices and make the chocolate frothy. It is then served in small chocolate cups, something like the ones Italians use to drink their strong, bitter coffee they call espresso. The servants/moms then serve the chocolate to the family and guests for breakfast or any time coffee or tea was served.
Try making chocolate yourself. Use a stone ground chocolate or heritage chocolate.
Watch a video from George Washington's Mount Vernon about the process
"Good day from Boston! I am here at Captain Jackson's Chocolate Shop learning where my favorite drink comes from. Chocolate has been made in Boston since 1682.
Chocolate comes from the cocoa tree (cacao). About 3000 years ago (or 1500 BCE Susanna's/your time) the cocoa tree was domesticated in the Amazon region of South America.
The Aztec king Montezuma drank chocolate many times a day in a show of strength and power.
This chocolate was made from ground cocoa beans, chile pepper and water.The Spanish sent the recipe back home to Spain where they added honey, or possibly cane sugar, and the newly discovered vanilla plus some cinnamon and black pepper. This is basically how we make it today in the 1770s! Watch how it's done.
First you need a rainforest and the cocoa pod.
.jpg/450px-Chocolate_in_its_Rawest_Form_(27583224425).jpg) |
| chocolate in rawest form from Wikipedia |
Inside the pod are beans.
 |
| chocolate beans Chocolatier Nestlé of Broc , Switzerland, Canton of Fribourg. (Wikpedia) |
The beans are sent from Central and South America to chocolate mills in the colonies.
The beans are roasted like coffee beans in a long handled pan over the open fire. This takes 45 minutes to one hour plus cooling time. The chocolate maker does this in his mill.
 |
| From beans to drink. Chocolate making tools |
The shells are sifted off. This is called winnowing. It's done in a winnowing basket. You want to get off the indigestible chaff. This is done outside on a windy day.
That gives you cocoa nibs. The chocolate maker says they are very, very bitter.
Then you grind the cocoa nibs in a mortar and pestle.
Next you put the ground cocoa nibs on a mano and rub and rub. This creates heat and friction to grind the cocoa nibs into a paste.
Then the chocolate is placed into a mold. That is allowed to set and then turned out. You have a brick of 100% pure dark chocolate. This is sent to the consumer. The real Felicity's father sells chocolate in his shop.
It isn't tasty yet. You must add things to it to make it taste good.
Your/your cook/your mother/your slave/ grinds or shaves the chocolate brick and mixes it with hot water. Then she adds the tasty parts.
We add some of this thing wrapped in blue paper. It's not salt but... sugar. You knew that right? My namesake has one of those.
The peel of a fruit that's also a color. (Hmm can't taste that at all) cinnamon, nutmeg, anise (a spice used in Italian cooking that tastes like licorice) and a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper. (Mrs. Washington's cook uses annatto for color).
All that goes in a special chocolate pot. The pot has a stirring stick to stir up the spices and make the chocolate frothy. It is then served in small chocolate cups, something like the ones Italians use to drink their strong, bitter coffee they call espresso. The servants/moms then serve the chocolate to the family and guests for breakfast or any time coffee or tea was served.
Try making chocolate yourself. Use a stone ground chocolate or heritage chocolate.
Watch a video from George Washington's Mount Vernon about the process
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