*Rowan Jacobsen* # Progressive Summary # Definitions # Chapter Notes ## Prologue The Maya thought the cacao tree was the most marvelous tree in the world. The tree can survive in the most unforgiving environments, and provide the building blocks of culture- food, intoxication, flavor, beauty. Cacao is "a $130 billion industry built on the backs of 50 million impoverished labourers in the tropics." ## Interlude - By Any Other Name Cacao (or cocoa for English) refers to the beans. Chocolate refers to anything we consume - as drink or solid. Bar smith - the term that chocolate philosopher Mark Christian uses to refer to small chocolate makers ## 1 - Food of the gods - Vermont, 2009 Scientific name is Theobroma cacao - "food of the gods" Before 2000s, most chocolate was known as either dark or milk. Dark was for fancy Europeans, milk was for everyone else. Cacao was a commodity like sugar. No one cared where it came from. In the 2000s, a small category called "specialty cacao" began to be traded. French chocolatier Bonnat had was founded in 1884. For its centennial, it launched 8 bars called Grand Crus, borrowing the term from the wine industry, indicating they came from the best regions. It was supposed to be a one-off, but the bars were so popular that its arch-rival Valrhona followed with its own line of Grand Crus the following year. Soon other chocolate makers followed. But there wasn't enough quality beans to meet the demand. --- In the 1500s, cacao was so valued in Mesoamerica that one bean could get you a tamale, three an avocado, four a salamander, and eight a prostitute. Columbus was the first European to discover it on 15 August, 1502. He was off the coast of Honduras when he came across a Maya canoe loaded with cloth, axes, corn, clubs, beer and what looked like almonds. When the almonds spilled out, the merchants leaped after them as if "eyes had rolled out", in the words of Ferdinand, Columbus' son. Columbus ignored this clue to cacao's value. The next Europeans to encounter cacao were the conquistadors who went to Tenochtitlán in 1519. ## 2 - Call of the Wild - Beni, Bolivia, 2010 ## 3 - The Golden Pod, Beni, Bolivia, 1991-95 ## Interlude - First Families ## Ghosts of the Maya Mountains, Belize, 1993-95 ## 5 - Rainforest Delight, Beni and La Paz, Bolivia, 1997-2000 ## 6 - Tranquility - Beni, Bolivia, 2001-03 Criollo is from Mexico. In the # Quotes # References