Making the Mediterranean Reflection Week 2

I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about chocolate this week, especially the ways in which its use has changed over time.  These changes have been numerous, and appeared in many aspects of chocolate consumption, but I am particularly fascinated by the way the beverage has been perceived and used: first as a drink used for spiritual purposes in Latin America, then brought to Europe and taken medicinally, then for pleasure, and then finally coming into use as a sweet for children.  The other aspect of chocolate’s history that is most interesting to me is the way it eventually came to be at odds with coffee, which became the symbol of the capitalist working class, while chocolate became a symbol of elite idleness. 

Spanish colonization was the process which brought knowledge of chocolate to the new world.  In the Americas, the beverage was consumed as a part of religious ceremonies, but when it was brought back to Europe, according to Sophie and Michael D. Coe (2013), chocolate was stripped of its Mesoamerican spiritual meaning.  There, it was appropriated into the medical theories that existed at the time, namely the humeral system.  As discussed in class, chocolate was said to have cold and humid properties, making it suitable for drinking in hot weather or if one had a fever.  However, chocolate soon became a fashionable beverage to drink for pleasure in Baroque Europe, and could be seen in the hands of the decadent dukes of Tuscany, the Sun King Louis the XIV, and in Spanish court, bull fights, and auto-da-fés.  In the 19^th century, the Dutch developed the modern process of chocolate production, and started to create chocolate that was in bar form.  Switzerland also developed milk chocolate in this era, and it became a treat for children that was thoroughly separated from its previous use as a luxury for adults and a symbol of power. 

While all of these changes in the uses of chocolate were occurring, coffee was also being introduced to Western Europe.  In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, capitalism and middle class values began to penetrate society in Northwestern Europe.  This meant that traits like speed, efficiency, and mental acuity were praised.  Thus, coffee began to rise in popularity among the middle class, who were living an active life and drank the beverage in the morning for its sobering and intellectually stimulating effects on the mind.  Chocolate, on the other hand, was now perceived as a drink of the idle aristocracy who could lounge in bed in the mornings and drink their chocolate before their slow day. 

Today in Italy, I haven’t seen much chocolate, other than the bars we sampled in class on Thursday, and maybe I haven’t been paying very close attention, but I do not recall seeing it offered as a beverage in any cafes.  It seems that coffee has been pronounced the sound winner between the two beverages in modern Italy.  I wonder when exactly this occurred, and who the people are that continue to take chocolate as a beverage.  I know that there is a lot of evidence of Westernization and Americanization of “traditional” Italian practices today.  For example, the typical long lunch in the middle of the day is becoming less and less common because of Italy’s role in the global capitalist economy, but there is still some evidence of this tradition, particularly in rural areas.  I wonder if chocolate is drunk by many residents of rural areas today, or if it ever caught on as a popular beverage among anyone but the upper classes at all, or if it is most represented in sweets like the Nutella that is craved by so many Italian children.