Chocolate Wars
Thesis: Chocolate has had a rich history and the growing of chocolate was for taste and most of all money, this is the main reason why chocolate is a major industry of the world from when it was discovered by the Spanish all the way up to today; however there is major problems with growing chocolate in today’s world and many externalities that may cause chocolate to become a rich mans food for the foreseeable future.
I recently bought a Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bar at CVS on the corner of Lane and High in Columbus. There was a lot of chocolate in the store that day being a couple days after Valentines Day, the store is still chocked with the sweet substance. Chocolate is so easily obtainable, so cheap here in the United States it is almost unbelievable. Chocolate can be put with almost any other thing one can think of from peanut butter filled treats to a recipe calling for squid covered in chocolate. Chocolate has had a meteoric rise over the last 500 years; here is an explanation of where it came from, how it made it big in the world, how it was put into mass production, how it is produced now. Finally, I will tell how chocolate, which is made from the bean of a tropical plant, has made it into my hands in Columbus, Ohio in the middle of Winter at CVS.
Chocolate is made from the seed of a tropical plant known as the cocoa plant. The beans of the cocoa plant were first used in drinks by the Mayans and then the Aztecs. Both cultures thought the plant came from the heavens and was given to them from the gods. Both cultures brewed a frothy, cold, unsweetened drink called xocoatl meaning “bitter water“. The Aztecs thought the drink to be a health elixir and even an aphrodisiac. Eventually this bean became almost a type of currency and a demand from conquered tribes. At one point xocoatl was such a prestigious drink that Emperor Montezuma of the Aztecs drank it from golden goblets, which were thrown away after just one use!(Chocolate...