Chocolate - Small Batch, The Artisanal Culinary Movement

The Artisanal Culinary Movement; A movement towards Small Batch

Author: Marisa Mudge - The Chocolate Distribution Company , May 2015

The Anthropology of Contemporary Culture in 2006 featured an article claiming the emergence of an artisanal culinary movement in the United States. (Ness, 2006)  Among the food categories named are cheese, salt, bread, pickles, quick serve restaurants, chocolate, beer, olive oil and ice cream.  The article then identifies 10 cultural components driving the artisanal culinary movement. Below are the 10 key drivers with a brief explanation:

1.      A desire to experience things that are human scale or in tiny batches.  The author illustrates the point by comparing Morton’s salt, a large industrial scale produced product to small batch sea salt production.

2.      Consumers are developing a preference for things that are handmade. This notion is a departure from the past when mechanically manufactured products were more desirable and a handmade product were a sign of poverty.

3.      Foods that are raw and untransformed.  This aspect can be traced to the hippie movement of the 1960’s when a philosophy of no transformation is the best transformation prevailed.

4.      Unbranded foods have gained prestige over brands.  The example is used of cheese from a farmers market is considered better because it is unbranded.

5.      Personalized purchasing experience.  Consumers want to see the faces and know the stories of the people producing the products they purchase.

6.      Traceability, foodies want to know where food came from and how it arrived.  Farm to Table. 

7.      Authenticity; The James Beard website praises "an artisanal movement that’s bringing back flavors of a world untainted by Wonder-bread and Kraft singles."

8.      Locally grown or made. The article references a quote from Sally Bany, co-owner and brand manager for the west coast chocolate company, Moonstruck.

"We add chili pepper to it and it becomes a conversation piece for the sales person. ‘Have you tried this particular chocolate. It has these flavors because it’s grown in this region.’ People learn where in the world it came from, the variety and taste characteristics."

9.      Connoisseurship; knowledge and awareness of small batch products has become a sign of sophistication.

10.  Simplified. Artisanal small batch products are perceived as being simple and in their purist form.  (McCracken, 2006)

Chocolate-“Food of the Gods”-In the Beginning

Chocolate-“Food of the Gods”

Made from the cocoa bean that is found in pods from the cacao tree, the earliest documented record of chocolate was over fifteen hundred years ago in Central America. (Wilbur Chocolate, nd) With its’ tropical climate of high temperatures year round and high rain fall, Central America provides the ideal climate for the cacao tree,  or “food of the gods” per its Latin name, the Obroma Cacao. The origins of chocolate are believed to have begun with the ancient Mayan and Aztec civilizations, who made a spicy chocolati drink from roasted cocoa beans. The Aztec drink was described as “finely ground, soft, foamy, reddish, bitter with chilli water, aromatic flowers, vanilla and wild honey” from roasted chocolate beans.  (Wilbur Chocolate, nd) The Aztecs considered the drink a luxury, and consumed it in large quantities. The Maya brewed a spicy, similar drink by roasting and pounding the seeds of the cacao tree with maize and capsicum peppers and then letting the mix ferment. Both drinks were considered ceremonial, and the Aztecs considered it an aphrodisiac. It is reported that Montezuma, the Aztec emperor drank the drink fifty times a day from a golden goblet, and is quoted  to saying “the divine drink, which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food.” in regards to the chocolate drink.

When the Spanish invaded Central America, they found more than just gold. Don Cortes, a Captain General and Governor of Mexico returned to Spain in 1528 with his galleons filled with cocoa beans and equipment for making the chocolati drink. The drink soon gained popularity in Spain. (Maya, 2011)

An Italian traveler to Central America, Francesco Carletti, learned how to make the drink from watching the Indians preparing the beans and making the drink. He brought the recipe and equipment back to Italy and by 1606 chocolate was well established in Italy. In 1615, Anne, daughter of Phillip 2 of Spain married King Louis 13 of France, and brought the chocolate recipe with her. The drink was well accepted in the French Court, as they believed it had medicinal benefits as well as nutritional merit. The custom of drinking chocolate made its way to England in around 1520, and the first chocolate house opened in London in 1657. (Wilbur Chocolate, nd)

The first chocolate factories opened in Spain, where the dried beans from Central America were transported to, stored, and turned to chocolate powder that was then exported throughout Europe. 

Sir Hans Sloane, an English doctor, is believed to be the first to bring from Central America back to Europe a recipe for chocolate blended with milk to create milk chocolate. The original Cadbury milk chocolate recipe was based on Sir Hans Sloane’s recipe. (MacDougall, 2003)

When the pilgrims came to North America, they brought their chocolate powder and recipes with them. Quakers, became well entrenched in chocolate, with some of the most well-known names in chocolate being tied to Quakers. Fry, Rowtree and Cadbury were all chocolate manufacturers known to have Quaker roots. (Office at West Hills Friends, nd) In the mid 1600’s bakers in Europe began to add chocolate powder to cakes, beginning the start of eating chocolate in solid form. In 1828, Johannes van Houten, a Dutch chemist, invented the method of extracting the bitter tasting fat or “cocoa butter” from the roasted beans, leading the way for solid chocolate manufacturing. In 1847 Joseph Fry (of Fry & Sons) is credited with producing and selling the worlds’ first chocolate bar, mixing sugar with cocoa powder and cocoa butter. (Quakers In the World, nd) In 1875, Daniel Peters, a Swiss manufacturer combined cocoa powder, cocoa butter, sugar, and dried milk powder to produce the first milk chocolate in solid form. (annmariekostyk.com, 2011)