Synopsis
Delicious indulgence or cause of migraines? Aphrodisiac or medicine? Religious symbol or Mesoamerican currency? Written by a pair of anthropologists, this delightful book tells the complete history of everyone's favorite indulgence, including the real facts of the pre-Spanish history of chocolate.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2000-10-01 | | Edition Description: | Reprint |
| Size | | Height: | 9.0 in | | Width: | 6.0 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 17.6 oz |
Publisher's Note
Theobromo caco . . . chocolate . . . "the food of the gods." Delicious indulgence or cause of migraines? Aphrodisiac or medicinal tonic? Religious symbol or Mesoamerican currency? This delightful tale of one of the world's favorite foods draws upon botany, archaeology, socio-economics, and culinary history to present a complete and accurate history of chocolate. The story begins some three thousand years ago in the jungles of lowland Mexico and Central America with the tree Theobroma cacao and the complex processes necessary to transform its bitter seeds into what is now known as chocolate. This was centuries before chocolate was consumed in generally unsweetened liquid form and used as currency by the sophisticated Maya, and the Aztecs after them. The Spanish conquest of Central America introduced chocolate to Europe, where it became first the stimulating drink of kings and aristocrats and then was popularized in coffeehouses. Industrialization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries made chocolate a food for the masses--until its revival in our own time as a luxury item. The True History of Chocolate is the first book to present the real facts of the pre-Spanish history of chocolate--and it does so with great authority, since the authors share an unrivaled knowledge of the history of pre-Columbian civilizations and their cuisine. We discover how chocolate got its name and how it was used as a medicine, and we find that the Spanish learned of chocolate through the Maya, not the Aztecs. From Maya hieroglyphs to the kingdom of the Hershey Bar, this is a fascinating history, beautifully told, and enhanced with quotations, illustrations, and old recipes--a book for chocolate-lovers everywhere. 97 illustrations, 13 in color.
Industry Reviews
"Sophie D. Coe died before completing her engaging history of chocolate, which has been finished by her husband. The book covers archaeological information about the presumed use of chocolate from the Olmec to the Aztecs....All of this seems amusingly like our own times, and the Coes tell the story well."
Atlantic Monthly - Phoebe-Lou Adams (07/19/1996)
"...[S]cholarly and sound, with few surprises....While Michael Coe deserves thanks for his dedication to the late Sophie Coe's worthy undertaking, one wishes, as he does, that she had been able to finish it herself."
Times Literary Supplement - Sidney W. Mintz (08/09/1996)
"...what the Coes have achieved is to strip away...the myths and misunderstandings, and to reconstruct from often very obscure sources, with some exciting archeological fieldwork and hieroglyphic deciphering, the remarkable passage of chocolate from its origins in the lowland jungles of southern Mexico to 'Hershey's Kisses' and Cadbury's 'chocolate box,' and to reestablish its genealogy over three millennia."
New York Review of Books - Kenneth Maxwell (09/19/1996)
"At last a true classic in the repertoire of chocolate books. Based on flawless academic research, 'The True History of Chocolate' is a delightfully readable, and aptly illustrated book. At a stroke, Sophie Coe and her husband Michael have made this book the point of departure for all future studies on chocolate....The Coes set the record straight on many points."
Literary Review - Chantal Coady (09/19/1996)
"'The True History of Chocolate' goes beyond scholarly excellence. Every inch of unraveled data is set in a bright halo of journalistic energy...and this definitive history of chocolate must certainly be regarded as a textbook....One cannot imagine a single fact about chocolate that is missing from this extraordinarily researched book."
Los Angeles Times Book Review - Rose Dosti (08/25/1996)
"...[T]he Coes track a prudent and punctilious path....[T]he lore they offer also includes pleasantly bemusing facts and speculations....A carefully researched biography of chocolate as a pleasure and a product."
Stasio
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