Monday, September 7, 2009

The True History of Chocolate


The True History of Chocolate covered over thousands of years of history with the simple connection of chocolate. Although it was many years, the book was not very long and for the most part was very interesting. Learning that chocolate was originally served only in liquid form, hot or cold was a lot different from now where most of us think of Hershey's chocolate bars when one says chocolate. Starting with the Olmecs and Mayans was also different, then moving on to the Aztecs and eventually Europe.
This book covered not only chocolate, but the slave trade, the fall of the different mesoamerican empires and the conqistadors that conquered the Aztecs. Moving on from there was the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Reason. It was fun to see how chocolate adapted and survived through all the different years and now is thriving. Also, I learned the different chemicals in chocolate and why it used to be used for medicinal purposes and different ways to grow it, under certain and very specific climates. Overall this book covered years of history and taught me lots of new facts about chocolate and I probably never would have known.
Evita

12 comments:

  1. Sounds like a fun read...It's interesting to hear how chocolate survived so much history and is still very prevalent (and well loved!) today.

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  2. It is very interesting that the author tied chocolate into the history of the world! It seems like this would be a very fun book to read.
    - Harriet Beecher Stowe

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  3. This book sounds very interesting. I'm curious to know how chocolate was used thousands of years ago,so i might look into reading it in my free time.

    -Marilyn Monroe

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  4. Im defiantly reading this book in my free time, or even when i don't have free time, ill just multitask. This was a very well written summary and i liked how the book showed how much chocolate has changed the world.
    I also liked how the book talks about the medicinal uses of chocolate. Do you remember what they are?

    -Siddhattha gotama

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  5. This sounds like a great book. It would be fascinating to read about the history of one of my favorite things to eat.
    -Napoleon Bonaparte

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  6. This book sounds really good especially because I love chocolate. Learning how chocolate has been a large part of history sounds really interesting. What is really intriguing, is how unique a topic chocolate is to write a historical book about.

    -Queen Isabel

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  7. Its amazing how chocolate can be used as a means to connect history over multiple centuries. Sounds like a great book.

    Ramses the Great

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  8. I did not know chocolate was so important in history. I would like to read this book
    -Pocahontas

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  9. This book sounds so good! It would be cool to read about how chocolate has been around for so long
    -Harriet Tubman

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  10. This book sounds very interesting. I didn't know that chocolate was used in medicine.
    -Mary Magdaline

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  11. the medicinal use of the chocolate is no longer prevelent in todays society. It was used during the times when it was believed there were 4 humors the body was made up of and therefore in order to fix those one needed, hot and cold medicine and something else... I don't remember but because it was liquid it was special and because it could be heated or cooled it was also special.

    ---Evita

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  12. It's not really related to World History, so I couldn't put it on the book, but there's an interesting book called the Elements of Murder which deals with, basically, chemicals and history. One of the chapters was about the Romans and how they were so desperate for sweets that they used to leave wine in metal containers to leach out lead salts which were sweet. That might explain a bit about the wackier parts of Roman history. Chocolate is a much better way to go. :D

    Evita -- nice job answering everyone's questions!

    Mrs. McCabe

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