WEBVTT - Why are Humans so Obsessed with Chocolate? 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:02.160 I guess what, well, what's that mango? So you know 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:05.480 I love spicy food, right, and I love chocolate, but 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:08.719 I don't really love this trend of spicy and chocolate. 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:11.680 I am with you on this because I love spicy 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:13.920 food and I love chocolate too, but I don't want 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.760 any chili powder like in my hot chocolate or chocolate 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:18.440 or any of that stuff. I know, why why are 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.840 people always mixing those flavors? But I was looking into 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:24.599 it and I found possibly the worst example of super 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.360 spicy chocolate. There's a company that's sparred up in two 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:34.440 thousands sixteen called pepper Bomb your mom. Yeah, I mean 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:36.800 it was I guess a joke that you could play 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:39.519 on people where you'd buy a chocolate coated Carolina reaper 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:43.240 for and then send it to a loved one, or 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:45.040 I guess the opposite. I was going to say, that 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:46.760 is not something you want to send to a loved one. 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:49.800 I know, Carolina roopers are so spicy. Actually, we've talked 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.160 about these before. Aren't they even spicier than like ghost peppers? Yeah? 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:55.040 They are. So. I'm not sure if it's like the 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:57.560 threat of lawsuits that close this business or the fact 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:00.520 that too many moms complained about it, but pepper bomb 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:04.000 your mom sadly doesn't send out pepper bombs anymore. Like 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:06.800 I do want to get into the more tempting part 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:09.920 of that recipe, which is the chocolate, why humans are 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:12.560 so obsessed with it, whether it's really as healthy as 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.240 all these reports would have us believe, and why doesn't 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:17.840 taste more like tropical custard the way the beans do. 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:42.680 Let's dig in either. Podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:44.840 I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:47.080 good friend Mangut show ticketer and on the other side 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:50.360 of the soundproof glass, munching his way through a Whitman's sampler, 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:53.880 that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Actually, by the way, 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:56.360 that sampler looks like it's meant for more than one person, 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:58.760 wouldn't you say? Mango? Yeah, yeah, definitely, it's gotta be 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:01.120 like thirty forty oce a chocolate sitting there. I know. 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:03.800 I actually tried to grab a piece earlier and Tristan 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.640 slapped my hand away. Apparently he's busy branking all the 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.359 different chocolates for his blog. Oh really, his blog, well, 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:12.080 that's at least that's something to look forward to, so 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.080 I'll leave it be there. So you know what's funny 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:17.360 is right before a hurricane Sandy, the night before the 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.080 storm hit, like Lizzie sent me to a convenience store 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:22.280 to get some last minute supplies, and we were pretty 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:24.639 stocked up, but just in case, I went to pick 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.080 up some like extra toilet paper and water and I 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:30.359 think batteries. But the weather was bad, so like there 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:32.880 were only two other guys in the store inline and 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:35.360 the first guy had the shopping cart filled with beer 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.440 and condom that's all, yeah, and uh. And then I 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:42.000 was there with like TP and and water in my 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.519 hands and uh. And then this other guy had the 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:47.800 shopping cart that was just filled with chocolate, just like 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.520 bags and bags of candy. And I remember like glancing 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:53.560 around and like being a little confused and thinking, well, 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:56.440 we all have different definitions of being prepared. Sounds like 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.760 everybody was ready for very different nights. That's pretty great, 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:02.160 all right. Well, I know we're going to get into 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:04.840 the ancient history of chocolate, but it is kind of 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:08.120 amazing that chocolate is the world's favorite candy. In fact, 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:10.919 chocolate based candies far out sell fruit based candies and 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:14.519 almost every country on the planet. Now, Denmark's love of 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.040 Harribo gummies makes it one of the few exceptions to 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:18.959 the rule. And and I have to respect that they're 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.119 pretty good. But this year alone, nearly eight million tons 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.760 of chocolate is expected to be sold and consumed worldwide. Now, 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:29.079 that amounts to over a hundred billion dollars in revenue 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:31.680 for one year. That's crazy. So how much of that 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:35.080 is thanks to like American chocoholics. Actually not as much 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:37.400 as you might think. So even though the average American 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:40.560 eats about ten pounds of chocolate every year, actually only 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:44.160 ranked twentie in terms of national chocolate consumption. And that's 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:47.640 according to data released by euro Monitor. You know euro Monitor, Yeah, 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:50.720 I get the newsletter. So we are we consume our 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:52.680 own body weight and chocolate every ten years or so, 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:56.480 and that's still only good enough for twentieth place. That's 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.760 really confusing. How much chocolate are these other countries eating. Well, 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:02.560 it's probably no surprise that Switzerland ranks number one, and 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:05.720 each person there consumes on average about twenty pounds of 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:08.440 chocolate every year, and so that's twice as much as 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:11.240 the average American and then Germany and Austria are tied 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:13.960 for second. They have about I don't know, say seventeen 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.080 to eighteen pounds per year. England and Ireland come in 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:19.400 right after those. And then you go to the other 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:21.599 end of the spectrum, and these are places where chocolate 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.520 really doesn't dominate the sweet market, and China is an 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.720 example of that. So the average Chinese citizen eats less 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:29.760 than half a pound of chocolate a year, So that 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:33.160 means people in Switzerland eat forty times as much chocolate 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:37.320 as those in China. That's amazing. So this is completely 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:39.800 off topic, but I can't stop thinking about it. Did 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.320 you realize that cocaw beans are related to okra? And 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.400 actually did durian as well? That's super smelly fruit, Like 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:48.600 they're all from the same family. And I kind of 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:50.520 want to tell my kids, like, I'm so sorry I 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:52.520 couldn't pick you up any chocolate from the store, but 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:54.960 I got its cousin a bag of okra for you. 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:58.760 But you were talking about chocolate consumption, where did the 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.839 actual coca producing countries fall on that list? Actually, just 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.880 to go back to that, that would mean that chocolate 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.960 is technically a vegetable then right, Yeah, that's true. All right. 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:12.480 So the actual coco producing countries, Africa and South American 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.839 countries account for the vast majority of the world's cocaw production, 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:18.520 and that's the type of seed pod that's used to 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.839 make chocolate. But despite being the first and most crucial 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:24.719 link in the chocolate supply chain, these countries actually don't 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.719 consume very much chocolate at all. In fact, the highest 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:30.880 chocolate consumption rate in all of South America is actually 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:33.480 in Chili, and the average person there eats less than 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.560 four pounds of chocolate per year, and the numbers are 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.960 even lower in Africa, So the entire continent consumes fewer 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:43.520 than four percent of all the chocolate sold worldwide. Wow. 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:45.560 And so I'm guessing the low consumption rate in these 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:49.240 countries is introduced like cultural preferences, like it is in China. 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:52.400 I mean, ancient civilizations in South America are pretty much 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:54.920 invented chocolate. So it's not like the people there don't 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.080 have a taste for it. Yeah, that's that's really not 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:58.760 what it is. I mean, it comes down to the 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.800 low average income of several of these countries. And when 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:03.360 you think about it, if you're living on a few 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:05.960 dollars or even less than a dollar a day, then 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:08.600 it just doesn't make sense in the budget to spend 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.200 on a luxury item like chocolate. Sure. So, I actually 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:14.720 saw this report from Oxfam about the economics of the 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:18.360 chocolate tread and how skewed it is, especially for cocao farmers. 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.360 And apparently if you divide up the cost of producing 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:23.920 a chocolate bar from start to finish, the farmer who 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:28.159 cultivated the rock cocow only gets about three Meanwhile, about 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:30.320 fort pent of the price we pay for a chocolate 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.440 bars profit for the retailer. Wow. Alright, So so three 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.000 percent of people who actually grow it and harvest it 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.680 and you know, kind of provide that main ingredient for 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:42.400 chocolate and then to those who sell the final product. 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:44.520 Is that what you're saying? Wow, that does does seem 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:47.279 pretty skewed. Yeah. So, I actually remember this video that 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:49.480 made the rounds a few years ago where this reporter 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.760 for this international news site visits some cocao farmers on 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.400 the Ivory Coast, and the Ivory Coast is the world's 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:58.960 largest producer of cocaw beans. It turns out, roughly, I 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.279 want to say like one point five million tons of 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:05.159 it every year, but process chocolate isn't really available, so 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.320 when you do find it, it's really exorbitant. Like I 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:10.320 think a bar costs about a third of what the 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.280 average worker makes in a single day, which means that 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:16.360 many farmers who cultivate cocao have actually never tasted the 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.800 final product. I mean it kind of makes you want 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:21.680 to go there and give them a taste of this stuff. Yeah, 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:24.720 and and so the video right, like the this reporter 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:27.800 gives a chocolate bar to a local farmer named Alphonse, 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:30.520 and he takes his first fight and you see his 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:33.520 face just light up. He's like, I didn't know cocao 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:35.800 was so yummy. And then he and the reporter hop 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:37.920 on a motorbike to share the chocolate with other farmers, 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:41.200 and when he passes the chocolate bar around, Alphonse tells 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:47.840 the other farmers, this is why white people are so healthy. Wow. Well, 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:50.160 I know there's more we wanted to cover about cacao 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.040 production and some of the other challenges that it involves. 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:55.640 But since you brought up these health benefits of chocolate, 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:57.400 I do think we should take a few minutes to 0:07:57.440 --> 0:07:59.200 do I don't know some kind of a true false 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.440 breakdown of what there it actually is good for your health. Yeah, 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:04.320 I mean, chocolate is one of those things like red wine, 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:07.040 that you always hear about has all these surprising health benefits, 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.200 but then you never get a good sense of how 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:11.320 much of that is backed by science and how much 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:13.520 is just wishful thinking by people who really want to 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:16.000 eat a lot of chocolate. I mean, like, I feel 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:18.400 like I usually hear that dark chocolate is healthier because 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.080 it has less sugar and more cacao than milk chocolate, 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.160 And you know, that makes a lot of sense, but 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:25.160 at the end of the day, it's still just a 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.040 comparison between two kinds of chocolate, so you're still kind 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.720 of left wondering is chocolate itself healthy. Well, I'm glad 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:34.680 you mentioned that distinction between dark and milk chocolate, because 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.480 that difference in sugar and kikaw is is really where 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.760 these claims about chocolate's health benefits kind of live or die. 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.600 And and that's because kow products contain a high amount 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:47.160 of plant derived flavor als. So I think you should 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:49.120 explain what flavor als are. It's just the word I 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:51.439 made up just sounded good of it. Now for real 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.120 that they're actually the biological compounds that occur in in 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.360 some foods. It's not not just chocolate, but unprocessed coco 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.000 is an example of that. And since flavor als possess 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.040 us you know, antioxidant and blood vessel relaxing and these 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:07.160 anti inflammatory qualities, they're they're often associated with markers of 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.880 good health like you know, balance cholesterol or blood pressure 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:14.400 or various other measures like this. So all those reports 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.200 about how eating chocolate promotes heart health, that's basically because 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:19.280 of the flavon als. Yeah, that's where that comes from. 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.040 But but again the blanket statement that chocolate is good 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.040 for your health is a little misleading. You know, but 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:27.800 because of his higher flavoral count, cocow has a much 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.480 better case for being healthy than chocolate does, I guess. 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:32.640 But you know, even then, it's not like a cow 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:35.719 is the only source of plant derived flavor als or 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:38.520 even the best one really. In fact, you can usually 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.679 find more flavor als and tea or grape juice or wine, 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:44.720 and you know, several other fruits than you would and say, 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:48.760 co cow, say co cow. Have you seen the Brooklyn 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.920 nine nine where that guy Terry starts eating cocow nives 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:55.360 and because there's so much healthier for you than chocolate, 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:57.000 and then he keeps eating and keep seating him and 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:02.560 something he's like floated by by the middle from okay. So, 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:05.559 so there may be some indirect health benefits for eating chocolate, 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:07.920 but you'd basically get the same or better results from 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:10.920 other foods, right, Yeah, And in most cases the results 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:13.440 probably would be better with tea or berries than it 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.120 would with with chocolate. And and that's largely because the 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:20.080 heating process involved in standard chocolate manufacturing it actually burns 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:22.640 away much of the flavor all concentration that you would 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:26.000 find in those fresh cocao seeds. So you know, if 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:28.840 you want to eat the healthiest chocolate that you can find, 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:31.160 you should go for the dark chocolate with at least 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:34.640 seventy or eighty percent cacao, and the flavor all concentration 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.079 will be much higher than in any milk chocolate bar, 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:42.199 which contains about cocao or less but twenty fat and 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:46.440 forty to fifty sugar. Well, I usually prefer the bitter 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:49.040 taste of dark chocolate to like the overly sweet taste 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:52.040 of milk chocolate. Fit I'm kind of surprised there isn't 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:54.200 more of a middle ground, like something that melts in 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.319 your mouth like milk chocolate does, but also taste less sugary. 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.440 I have to say, as a fan of milk chocolate, 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:01.480 all of this is kind of disappointing to me. But 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:04.559 I do have good news for you, though, Mango, because 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:07.520 researchers out of Temple University in Philly have actually found 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.000 a new way to cut the fat content from chocolate 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:14.439 by using nothing other than electricity, Like they shocked the 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:16.920 fat away with one of those crazy exercise belts. I 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:18.440 kind of wish for that was what they were doing, 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:20.720 but now it's not not exactly that. So you do 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.440 remember Willie Wonka on the Chocolate factory and they're walking 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.840 alongside the chocolate river and they're all those industrial pipes 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.199 sucking up the chocolate. Right, definitely, Augustus Gloup falls in. 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:32.880 It's pretty funny that you like that movie, right, Yeah, 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:34.839 I loved it, man, it's such a great movie. Well, 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:37.040 it's actually there's something we can learn from that because 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:40.320 the chocolate makers really are dependent on this pipe system 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.240 to move liquid chocolate from one stage of production to 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:46.040 the next, and the problem is that the thicker and 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.760 more viscous a liquid is, the higher the chance it 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:52.680 will clog up the pipes. Augustus gloup and since cutting 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:56.320 the fat content results in a denser and less smooth chocolate, 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:59.920 producing low fat chocolate typically leads to a lot of blockages. 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.760 So explain how electricity helps with a Well, there's this 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:07.560 phenomenon called electoral reology, and it's basically when an electric 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.200 field is used to turn a semi solid like jello 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.240 into a liquid state or vice versa. So in the 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.520 case of chocolate, the field from the electrified pipes causes 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:20.360 its chunky cacao particles and milk solids to really to 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:22.920 line up in these chains and and this makes the 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:26.240 chocolate flow through the pipes much more easily. So so 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:28.640 not only will the new process lead to fewer clogs, 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:30.840 it will actually allow chocolate tears to use ten to 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.720 less butter per batch. And the best part is that, 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.400 according to the authors of the study, the resulting chocolate 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:41.640 delivers a stronger cacao flavor and significantly less fat, which 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:43.440 sounds like a dream come true not to me, to 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:45.520 be honest with you, I kind of want the more butter, 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:48.679 but you know, there are a few health benefits of 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.440 chocolate that go beyond the physical. So, for one thing, 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:55.320 chocolate contains caffeine, which obviously has a stimulating effect on 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.679 the brain, but there are also these other feel good 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:00.640 chemicals in there too. There's phenal ethylamy, which is a 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.400 stimulant that raises the endorphin level in the brain, and 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:06.760 there's also something called an end of mind, which is 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:10.079 similar to one of the active chemicals in marijuana. Alright, 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.840 so between it's caffeine and those other field good chemicals 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.840 you mentioned, chocolate is clearly a mood enhancer. And this 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.160 is real. There's even a study from Oxford that found 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:20.920 that even just looking at a picture of chocolate was 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:24.480 enough to trigger cravings and mood boost and some chocolate veins. 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:28.480 And uh, don't forget eating chocolate is also a surefire 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:31.240 way to restore a little happiness after about with the dementier, 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.040 which is, you know, at least the case in Harry Potter. 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:35.480 I thought you might figure out a way to put 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:37.640 in a Harry Potter reference. That's that's a really helpful 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:40.920 tip though. Well, now that we've covered the health benefits 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.000 of chocolate, both real and imaginary, I do feel like 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:46.400 we should take a closer look at how humans became 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.520 obsessed with the sweet stuff in the first place. Absolutely, 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:51.400 But before we dive in, let's take a quick break. 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:06.440 You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.880 the origins of mankind's love affair with chocolate. All right, Mango, 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:11.760 So I know you did some digging into the early 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:13.520 years of chocolate. So do you want to walk us 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.120 through You know what you found in the process. Sure, 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:18.320 So the best place to start is with the cacao 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.760 tree and its beans. And for anyone who's wondering, cocao 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:23.840 and cocoa are the same thing. You can use the 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.920 terms interchangeably because they both refer to the same exact bean. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.720 But even though Africa is now the world's largest cocoa producer, 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:33.680 the trees aren't native to the region. They were actually 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:36.320 brought over as a cash crop to aid the struggling region. 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:39.280 And the true starting point of chocolate's long history is 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.880 in Mexico, Central and South America, and that's where the 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:45.680 equatorial climate provide the best place for the native cocow 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:48.520 tree to thrive. Or is it just another quick note 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:50.840 on the terminology here. So the cow beans that these 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:54.160 trees produced, they're really seeds though, right, yeah, they're they're 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:56.320 not actually beans in the same way that like coconut 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:59.120 milk is and milk. So we're just gonna go with it. 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:03.320 But the trees produced these big yellowish seed pods that 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.120 kind of look like nerve footballs, and each pod contains 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.000 about forty beans, which are what's actually used to make chocolate. 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.000 So once you crack open the pods they cost the 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:16.120 beans are released, along with this sweet, sticky pulp that 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.840 supposedly taste something between like a cross of lemonade and 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:23.640 apple custard. Actually sounds really good. Yeah, But the beans 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:25.320 of the pulp are left to ferment for a few 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:27.920 days before being dried and roasted, and from there the 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:30.520 cocoa beans can be ground up and then made into 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:32.760 a chocolate beverage. All right, So if that's what was 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.800 done first, who were the very first people to drink chocolate? 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:38.720 So most of the evidence points to the ancient Almex. 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:41.880 They were actually the earliest known civilization to appear in Mexico, 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:45.160 and archaeologists have found pieces of Olmec pots and vessels 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:50.280 from around that contained traces of theobromine. This is a 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.560 stimulant found in chocolate, and in fact, the Latin name 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.680 for the cacao tree is theobromine cocao, which translates to 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:59.640 chocolate food of the Gods, which actually ends up being 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:01.920 a pretty fitting names since it's believed that the Almex 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:04.280 used the ground beans to make a special drink for 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.120 religious ceremonies. It's always funny to think about the first 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:11.640 people to discover something like chocolate, like, oh my god, 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:14.440 this tastes so good. I gotta go tell everybody about 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:16.800 this thing that I don't have a name for. But 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:20.000 but but why is there uncertainty about who invented drinking chocolate? 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:21.440 I mean, from what you've said, it sounds like the 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:23.920 Old Max kind of have this wrapped up. Yeah, but 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:26.640 pottery with traces of cacao have been found in southern 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.520 Ecuador as well, so those are believed to date back 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:33.160 at least years so the sho are Indians who lived 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.000 in the region also have a potential claim to this 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:37.920 chocolate drinking. The truth is this tainted pottery and a 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:39.800 lot of places, and that leaves a lot of room 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.600 for interpretation. And since the Old Max don't actually have 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:45.080 any written history to go on, some of the theories 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:48.000 surrounding them could be off. For instance, some researchers think 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:51.720 that the Olmes used only the tropical flavor cow pulp 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.440 to make the drink rather than the bitter beans. I 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:55.880 can't say I blame I mean, when you say it 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.160 tastes of like what did you say, apple custard, lemonade 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:00.480 or something like that, that sounds a lot better than 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.680 like bitter bean water something. Yeah, but bitter bean water 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.199 the gods right, right, right. But regardless of who came 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:09.560 up with the idea first, we do know for certain 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:12.040 that the Mayans ran with it. Like their written history 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:15.119 includes numerous mentions of chocolate based drink made from the 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.760 cacao seeds and uh, because myyons had yet to develop 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.520 a good roasting technique to mellow the flavors, it was 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.760 probably pretty bitter. So so what was in it exactly? 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.720 Was just ground beans and water or what? Yeah, sometimes 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:30.000 seasonings would be out of, like vanilla or honey or 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.200 chili pepper. So how did the Mayans think about chocolate 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:35.399 they did they consider it the food of the gods? 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:37.159 Or were they a little more level headed about the 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:39.600 way they approached it. No, I mean they were full 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:42.840 on crazy for chocolate. They leave the drinks offerings to 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:45.680 their gods. And they're also paintings recovered from the time 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:49.200 that show cocaw and mythological scenes. It was also a 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:51.920 kind of a way to settle important legal matters or 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:54.560 even seal the deal on the marriage. For example, like 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:57.879 early records of Mayan marriages show that in some places 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.040 a woman had to prepare a cocaw drink to prove it. 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:03.520 You can get that thick, frothy consistency just right. I mean, 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:05.760 it does kind of make sense, because could you ever 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.120 see yourself loving somebody who can't properly froth a pot 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:10.879 of chocolate. I don't even know what that means, but 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:15.560 I can't imagine it. But cocaw wasn't actually restricted to 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.919 just the loftier sides of life. There were ceremonies and 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.040 celebrations that used to and it was also an early 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.919 form of currency. Yeah, so in the fifth century CEE, 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.159 the Aztecs used it to buy food and other goods. 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.639 For example, you can actually get a whole turkey for 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:34.440 about a hundred cocaw beans. It feels like a pretty 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:36.520 good deal. And I don't know what the exchange rate 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:40.000 isn't cow beans, but but I'd buy it. Yeah. Well, 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.879 what's amazing is that it bread some early counterfeiting schemes 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.760 as well. Counterfeiting of beans is that we're talking about, 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:47.920 how do you counterfeit of bean? You just like take 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.080 a rock and paint it or something. Yeah, well, if 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:54.320 you want a turkey bad enough anything. So, researchers have 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:56.800 actually found these counterfeit beans at multiple dig sites in 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.320 both Mexico and Guatemala, and at first glance they just 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:04.520 look like these incredibly well preserved cocao beans. But once 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.040 they actually touched them, the researchers realized that they were 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:10.000 just made of clay, which is pretty ridiculous. I mean, 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:12.919 but if kakao was that valuable, I would have to 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.119 think that it was a delicacy that was reserved for 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.679 the super wealthy. I mean, people were going through the 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:20.840 trouble of making these phony clay beans. What was it 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:23.760 really hard to come by them or what? Yeah, I mean, 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:26.320 it seems like the minds had taken a really generous 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:28.760 approach to cocaw in their day. They they thought of 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:30.719 it as food from the gods, as we mentioned, so 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.199 they thought it was meant for everyone to eat. So 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:35.680 man families, even the ones who weren't well off, would 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:37.760 prepare batches of their favorite drink ahead of time, and 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:40.560 then they'd enjoy it at every meal. And the Aspects, 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.800 on the other hand, considered cocaw to be this upper 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:46.159 class luxury and almost a status symbol. And I mean 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:48.480