Category Everyday Science

               The cultivation of the cocoa tree began over 3,000 years ago by the Mayan, Toltec, and Aztec people. They were experts in making ceremonial beverages using cocoa beans. They also used the cocoa bean as currency. The Mayans considered chocolate to be the food of the gods.

               In Europe Spain was the first country to produce chocolate. However, at that time chocolate was enjoyed as a beverage. Chocolates in solid form were first made by Italian and French confectioners. Later, Italians started making them into rolls and slices. In 1819, Francois-Louis Cailler became the first person to produce chocolates in a factory.

               It was in 1876 that the first white chocolate was made by Daniel Peter of Switzerland. He added dried milk to make milk chocolate. Later, many varieties of chocolates were made all over the world.

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               Coffee as a beverage was quite popular among the Arabs during the 15th century. However, it is believed that coffee was first introduced in Yemen, during the 10th century.

               The ancient Ethiopians used to carry balls made of crushed coffee beans and fat during long journeys. It was only in 1644 that coffee became popular in parts of Europe, beginning with France. Britain’s first coffee-house, The Angel, opened in Oxford in 1650.

               Originally, coffee of the best quality came from Yemen’s Mocha and Aden regions. However, in the early 17th century, plants were introduced from there into the Dutch colony of Java in Indonesia, and into French colonies in the Indian Ocean.

               During the 18th century, coffee arrived in the Americas. The Arabs were exceptionally keen on coffee making. They mixed coffee and water, heated several times to boiling point, and left the ground beans to settle before drinking. This made the coffee taste richer. It was in France, during the 18th century, that the first proper coffee making utensil was developed. It was a two sectioned device, which could separate the ground beans and hot water, to produce a smoother drink.

               Later, the device became popularly known as cafeteria. In 1806, Count Rumford devised the true coffee percolator.

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               The interesting story about the origin of tea goes like this- once the Chinese emperor Shen Nung was relaxing under a tree, while his servants were boiling water for him to drink. The emperor, who was a renowned herbalist, noticed that some leaves from the tree fell into the water accidentally. Shen Nung told his servants that he would like to try the flavour of that accidentally created drink. The tree was Camellia sinensis, which is native to the foothills of the Himalayas, and the drink made was what we now call tea.

               It is believed that the Chinese first gathered the leaves from the wild, and only in AD 350 did they started cultivating tea plants. Soon, tea became popular in the Far East. There was even a popular tea ceremony in Japan during the 15th century. The Dutch and Portuguese popularized tea among the Europeans in the 16th century.

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            From 3000 BC onwards Indians started refining sugar. Many imperial convoys used to visit India in order to learn how sugar is produced. It is said that the soldiers of Alexander the Great, who invaded India in 327 BC, were the first Europeans to taste sugar.

            The exact origin of sugar is still under dispute. Some theories say it was first found in the Bay of Bengal, and others say the Solomon Islands were where it was first found. However, Indians were the first to cultivate sugar cane.

            During the 5th century BC, the Arabs started making loaves out of sugar from India. It was around AD 800, when Arabs conquered Spain, that sugar was commercialized in parts of Europe. Later, sugar became a part of the kitchens of the wealthy Europeans. Soon, the European powers started cultivating sugar cane in their colonies.

            By the 18th century, all economic classes started using sugar in their day-to-day cooking. Initially, it was used in sweetening dishes. Later, sugar became an essential part of drinks and food like coffee, tea, cakes and biscuits.

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               Salt was a precious commodity among the ancient Jews, Greeks, Chinese and Hittites. The Assyrians were the first people to use salt in the military practice of salting the earth. Later, this was adopted by many others.

               It was in the present-day Austrian town of Hallstatt, near Salzburg (Salt Town), during the 1st millennium BC, that the very first salt mine in Europe was established. In Britain, the deliberate production of salt was first practiced in the early Iron Age by the Celts.

               Salt, obviously, had high demand, and became a powerful commodity in the entire world economy easily. Some of the world’s earliest trade routes linked sources of salt to human settlements. Moreover, salt resources gradually became the ultimate factor in determining the location of the world’s great cities. Liverpool is an excellent example. It rose from being just an English port, to become the prime port for its salt export.

               The nomads of Central Asia were the ones who first tried out milk. However, they used to drink milk from mares (a female horse) as cows were not yet domesticated. Gradually, the herdsmen learnt to milk sheep, goats, and donkeys soon after 9000 BC.

               Cow’s milk was a common drink in Neolithic Britain. Ancient Europeans preferred soured milk. They found that concentrating milk by evaporating it would help to preserve the milk longer. They used different kinds of sweeteners too.

               Until 1852, when an American named Gail Borden introduced canned condensed milk for the first time, sweetened milk was not widely accepted. Borden’s canned version gradually caught on, especially with soldiers in the American Civil War.

               It was the French biologist Louis Pasteur who introduced the process called pasteurization, a method to kill bacteria in food and drinks especially milk. It’s said that during his investigations into the souring process of wine and beer, Pasteur developed this process.

               In 1860 he pasteurized milk for the first time. The process became popular only after 1890s.

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