WEBVTT - Why Are Humans So Obsessed With Chocolate? 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:00.600 Guess what will? 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:01.360 What's that mango? 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:03.960 So? You know I love spicy food, right, and I 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.320 love chocolate, but I don't really love this trend of 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:08.680 spicy and chocolate. 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:10.959 I am one hundred percent with you on this because 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.200 I love spicy food and I love chocolate too, but 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:15.680 I don't want any chili powder like in my hot 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:17.720 chocolate or chocolate or any of that stuff. 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.200 I know, why why are people always mixing those flavors? 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.000 But I was looking into it and I found possibly 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:25.400 the worst example of super spicy chocolate. 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:26.239 Oh yeah, there's a. 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:29.880 Company that spared up in twenty sixteen called pepper bomb 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:30.600 your mom. 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:33.640 Like an insult? 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.280 Yeah, I mean it was I guess a joke that 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:38.240 you could play on people where you'd buy a chocolate 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:41.239 coated Carolina Reaper for nine to ninety nine and then 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:44.280 send it to a loved one, or I guess the opposite. 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:45.960 I was gonna say, that is not something you want 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:46.800 to send to a loved one. 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.000 I know, Carolina reapers are so spicy. 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:51.720 Actually, we've talked about these before. Aren't they even spicier 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:53.160 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 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:57.560 threat of lawsuits that close this business, or the fact 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:00.480 that too many moms complained about it. But uh, pepperbomb, 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.960 your mom sadly doesn't send out pepper bombs anymore. Sadly, 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:06.800 I do want to get into the more tempting part 0:01:06.840 --> 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 --> 0:01:15.280 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 --> 0:01:35.640 Let's dig in. 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:42.920 Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.000 Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my good 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:47.160 friend mang show Ticketer. And on the other side of 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:50.440 the soundproof glass munching his way through a Whitman sampler, 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:53.920 that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Actually, by the way, 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.360 that sampler looks like it's meant for more than one person, 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:57.000 wouldn't you say? 0:01:57.000 --> 0:01:57.280 Mango? 0:01:57.440 --> 0:01:58.880 Yeah, yeah, definitely, it's gotta be. 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:00.960 Like thirty forty ounces chocolate sitting there. 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:01.120 I know. 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:03.800 I actually tried to grab a piece earlier and Tristan 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.640 slapped my hand away. Apparently he's busy branking all the 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:09.000 different chocolates for his blog. 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:11.320 Oh really his blog. Well that's at least that's something 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:13.200 to look forward too, so I'll leave it be there. 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:16.560 So you know what's funny is right before a hurricane Sandy, 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.200 the night before the storm hit, like Lizzie sent me 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:21.400 to a convenience store to get some last minute supplies, 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:24.080 and we were pretty stocked up, but just in case, 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.160 I went to pick up some like extra toilet paper 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:29.720 and water and I think batteries. But the weather was bad, 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:31.600 so like there were only two other guys in the 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.360 store in line, and the first guy had the shopping 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:38.600 cart filled with beer and condom, that's all. Yeah. And 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:41.880 then I was there with like tpee and water in 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.519 my hands, and and then this other guy had this 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:47.840 shopping cart that was just filled with chocolate, just like 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:50.560 bags and bags of candy. And I remember like glancing 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:53.519 around and like being a little confused and thinking, well, 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:55.720 we all have different definitions of being prepared. 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.800 Like everybody was ready for very different nights. That's pretty great, 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:02.160 all right. Well, I know we're going to get into 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:04.880 the ancient history of chocolate, but it is kind of 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:08.160 amazing that chocolate is the world's favorite candy. In fact, 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:10.959 chocolate based candies far out sell fruit based candies in 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:14.519 almost every country on the planet. Now, Denmark's love of 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.120 harribogummies makes it one of the few exceptions to the 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:19.520 rule in and I have to respect that they're pretty good. 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:22.720 But this year alone, nearly eight million tons of chocolate 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:25.960 is expected to be sold and consumed worldwide. Now that 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:29.200 amounts to over one hundred billion dollars in revenue for 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:29.800 one year. 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.280 That's crazy. So how much of that as thanks to 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:33.840 like American chocoholics. 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:36.240 Actually not as much as you might think. So even 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:39.120 though the average American eats about ten pounds of chocolate 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:41.920 every year, we actually only ranked twentieth in terms of 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.600 national chocolate consumption. And that's according to data released by 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:47.880 euro Monitor. You know euro Monitor, Yeah, I. 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:48.640 Get their newsletter. 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:52.040 So we consume our own body weight and chocolate every 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:54.800 ten years or so, and that's still only good enough 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.000 for twentieth place. Yep, that's really confusing. How much chocolate 0:03:58.040 --> 0:03:59.200 are these other countries eating. 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.400 Well, it's probably no surprise that Switzerland ranks number one, 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:05.680 and each person there consumes on average about twenty pounds 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:08.320 of chocolate every year, and so that's twice as much 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.000 as the average American, and then Germany and Austria are 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:13.520 tied for second. They have about I don't know, say 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:16.960 seventeen to eighteen pounds per year. England and Ireland come 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.160 in right after those. And then you go to the 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.160 other end of the spectrum, and these are places where 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:24.400 chocolate really doesn't dominate the sweet market, and China is 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.520 an example of that. So the average Chinese citizen eats 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:29.680 less than half a pound of chocolate a year, So 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.599 that means people in Switzerland eat forty times as much 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:35.480 chocolate as those in China. That's amazing. 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.799 So this is completely off topic, but I can't stop 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:41.480 thinking about it. Did you realize that cacao beans are 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:45.200 related to okra and actually to durian as well. That's 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.719 super smelly fruit, Like they're all from the same family. 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:49.599 And I kind of want to tell my kids, like, 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:51.919 I'm so sorry I couldn't pick you up any chocolate 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:54.239 from the store, but I got its cousin a bag 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.760 of okra for you. But you were talking about chocolate consumption, 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.159 where do the actual cacau producing countries fall on that list? 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:03.520 Actually, just to go back to that, that would mean 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:07.400 that chocolate is technically a vegetable then, right, Yeah, that's true. 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.919 All right, So the actual cacaw producing countries, Africa and 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:14.440 South American countries account for the vast majority of the 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:17.920 world's cacao production, and that's the type of seed pod 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.919 that's used to make chocolate. But despite being the first 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:23.840 and most crucial link in the chocolate supply chain, these 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.240 countries actually don't consume very much chocolate at all. In fact, 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:30.360 the highest chocolate consumption rate in all of South America 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:33.080 is actually in Chili, and the average person there eats 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:36.000 less than four pounds of chocolate per year, and the 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.640 numbers there are even lower in Africa, so the entire 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:42.120 continent consumes fewer than four percent of all the chocolate 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:43.160 sold worldwide. 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:45.400 Wow. And so I'm guessing the low consumption rate in 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.080 these countries isn't due to like cultural preferences like it 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:51.520 is in China, right, I mean, ancient civilizations in South 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.080 America are pretty much invented chocolate, So it's not like 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:55.120 the people there don't have. 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:57.280 A taste for it. Yeah, that's that's really not what 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:59.040 it is. I mean, it comes down to the low 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:01.840 average income of several of these countries, And what do 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:03.400 you think about it? If you're living on a few 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:06.000 dollars or even less than a dollar a day, then 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:08.599 it just doesn't make sense in the budget to spend 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.000 on a luxury item like chocolate. Sure. 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:14.080 So, I actually saw this report from Oxfam about the 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:16.520 economics of the chocolate trade and how skewed it is, 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:18.360 especially for Cocow farmers. 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.120 And apparently if you divide up the cost. 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.359 Of producing a chocolate bar from start to finish, the 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:27.880 farmer who cultivated the rock Cocow only gets about three percent. Meanwhile, 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:29.880 about forty three percent of the price we pay for 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:31.880 a chocolate bar is profit for the retailer. 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.120 Wow. All right, So so three percent of the people 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:36.800 who actually grow it and harvest it and you know, 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:39.520 kind of provide that main ingredient for chocolate, and then 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:42.479 forty three percent to those who sell the final product. 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.120 Is that what you're saying? Wow, that does seem pretty skewed. 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:47.560 Yeah. So, I actually remember this video that made the 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:49.919 rounds a few years ago where this reporter for this 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.480 international news site visits some Cocow farmers on the Ivory Coast, 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:56.440 and the Ivory Coast is the world's largest producer of 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.400 coco beans. It turns out roughly, I want to say, 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.000 like one point five million tons of it every year. 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:05.960 But processed chocolate isn't really available, so when you do 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:09.120 find it, it's really exorbitant. Like I think a bar 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:11.360 costs about a third of what the average worker makes 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:13.880 in a single day. Wow, which means that many farmers 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:17.240 who cultivate cocao have actually never tasted the final product. 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:19.120 I mean it kind of makes you want to go 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:21.760 there and give them a taste of this stuff. Yeah. 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:25.160 And so the video right, like this reporter gives a 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:28.880 chocolate bar to a local farmer named Alphons, and he 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:31.200 takes his first bite and you see his face just 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.400 light up. He's like, I didn't know cacao was so yummy. 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:36.440 And then he and the reporter hop on a motorbike 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:38.560 to share the chocolate with other farmers, and when he 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.920 passes the chocolate bar around, Alphons tells the other farmers, 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:45.760 this is why white people are so healthy. 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.560 Wow. Well, I know there's more we wanted to cover 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.400 about cacao production and some of the other challenges that 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.120 it involves, But since you brought up these health benefits 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:57.040 of chocolate, I do think we should take a few 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:58.640 minutes to do I don't know, some kind of a 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.480 true false breakdown of what there it actually is good 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:02.080 for your health. 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:04.360 Yeah, I mean, chocolate's 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 --> 0:08:09.400 but then you never get good sense of how much 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:11.480 of that is backed by science and how much is 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:13.720 just wishful thinking by people who really want to eat 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.040 a lot of chocolate. I mean, like, I feel like 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:18.480 I usually hear that dark chocolate is healthier because it 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.520 has less sugar and more caca than milk chocolate, and 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:23.720 you know, that makes a lot of sense, but at 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:25.680 the end of the day, it's still just a comparison 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:28.120 between two kinds of chocolate, so you're still kind of 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:29.120 left wondering. 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.240 Is chocolate itself healthy. Well, I'm glad you mentioned that 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.520 distinction between dark and milk chocolate, because that difference in 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.800 sugar and cacaws is really where these claims about chocolate's 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:41.880 health benefits kind of live or die. And that's because 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:45.400 cacao products contain a high amount of plant derived flavonols. 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.520 So I think you should explain what flavanols are. 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:50.480 It's just a word I made up, just sound good 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.760 of it. Now for real that they're actually the biological 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:56.080 compounds that occur in some foods. It's not not just chocolate, 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.160 but unprocessed cacao is an example of that. And since 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.800 flavonol's possess you know, antioxidant and blood vessel relaxing and 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:07.040 these anti inflammatory qualities, they're they're often associated with markers 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.439 of good health like you know, balance cholesterol or blood 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:12.800 pressure or various other measures like this. 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:16.160 So all those reports about how eating chocolate promotes heart health, 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.000 that's basically because of the flavonols. 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.400 Yeah, that's where that comes from. But again, the blanket 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:23.280 statement that chocolate is good for your health is a 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.480 little misleading, you know. But because of his higher flavon 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:28.760 all count cacow has a much better case for being 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.720 healthy than chocolate does, I guess. But you know, even then, 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.000 it's not like a cow is the only source of 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:38.000 plant derived flavonols or even the best one really. In fact, 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:40.640 you can usually find more flavonols in tea or grape 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:43.800 juice or wine, and you know, several other fruits than 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:46.720 you would and say cacal say cocw. 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:50.040 Have you seen the Brooklyn nine nine where that guy 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:54.080 Terry starts eating CaCO nibs now and because there's so 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:55.959 much healthier for you than chocolate, And then he keeps 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:59.600 heatium keeps he um, and suddenly he's like floated by 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.400 the middle from the cacw. Okay, So there may be 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.600 some indirect health benefits for eating chocolate, but you'd basically 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:08.800 get the same or better results from other foods. 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.839 Right, Yeah, And in most cases the results probably would 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:14.720 be better with tea or berries than it would with chocolate. 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.880 And that's largely because the heating process involved in standard 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.400 chocolate manufacturing it actually burns away much of the flavonol 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:24.800 concentration that you would find in those fresh cacao seeds. 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:27.480 So you know, if you want to eat the healthiest 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:29.920 chocolate that you can find, you should go for the 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.000 dark chocolate with at least seventy or eighty percent cacal, 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:35.920 and the flavanol concentration will be much higher than in 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:39.400 any milk chocolate bar, which contains about fifteen percent cacao 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.520 or less, but twenty to twenty five percent fat and 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:44.320 forty to fifty percent sugar. 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:47.520 Well, I usually prefer the bitter taste of dark chocolate 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:49.920 to like the overly sweet taste of milk chocolate. But 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:52.960 I'm kind of surprised there isn't more of a middle ground, 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:55.720 like something that melts in your mouth like milk chocolate does, 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:57.360 but also tastes less sugary. 0:10:57.480 --> 0:10:59.400 Well, I have to say, as a fan of milk chocolate, 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:01.960 all of this kind of disappointing to me. But I 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.280 do have good news for you, though, Mango, because researchers 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:07.679 out of Temple University in Philly have actually found a 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.160 new way to cut the fat content from chocolate by 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:13.920 using nothing other than electricity, Like. 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:15.880 They shock the fat away with one of those crazy 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:16.800 exercise belts. 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:18.440 I kind of wish that that was what they were doing, 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:20.800 but now it's not not exactly that. So you do 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:23.480 remember Willy Wonka and 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 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:27.920 sucking up the chocolate. 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:30.160 Right, Definitely, Augustus Gloop falls in. 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.000 It's pretty funny. You like that movie, right, Yeah? I 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.040 loved it, man, It's such a great movie. Well, it's 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.360 actually there's something we can learn from that because the 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.480 chocolate makers really are dependent on this pipe system to 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.920 move liquid chocolate from one stage of production to the next. 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.840 And the problem is that the thicker and more viscous 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.480 a liquid is, the higher the chance it'll clog up 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:52.760 the pipes a la Augustus gloop. And since cutting the 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.320 fat content results in a denser and less smooth chocolate, 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:00.199 producing low fat chocolate typically leads to a lot of blockages. 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:02.559 So explain how electricity helps with that. 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:07.000 Well, there's this phenomenon called electroreology, and it's basically when 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.560 an electric field is used to turn a semi solid 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:13.040 like jello into a liquid state or vice versa. So 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:15.760 in the case of chocolate, the field from the electrified 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:20.040 pipes causes its chunky CaCO particles and milk solids to 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:22.880 really to line up in these chains and this makes 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:26.000 the chocolate flow through the pipes much more easily. So 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:28.720 not only will the new process lead to fewer clogs, 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.280 it'll actually allow chocolate tears to use ten to twenty 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:34.760 percent less butter per batch. And the best part is that, 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.400 according to the authors of the study, the resulting chocolate 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:41.040 delivers a stronger cacal flavor and significantly less. 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:42.839 Fat, which sounds like a dream come true. 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:44.439 Not to me, to be honest with you, I kind 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:45.559 of want the more butter. 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:48.679 But you know, there are a few health benefits to 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.440 chocolate that go beyond the physicals. So, for one thing, 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.360 chocolate contains caffeine, which obviously has a stimulating effect on 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.719 the brain, but there are also these other feel good 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.640 chemicals in there too. There's phenol ethylemium, which is a 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.360 stimulant that raises the endorphin level in the brain. And 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:07.559 there's also something called nandimide, which is similar to one 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:09.199 of the active chemicals in marijuana. 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:12.199 All right, So between its caffeine and those other feel 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:15.439 good chemicals you mentioned, chocolate is clearly a mood enhancer, 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:17.800 and this is real. There's even a study from Oxford 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:20.040 that found that even just looking at a picture of 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.439 chocolate was enough to trigger cravings and mood boost in 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:24.520 some chocolate fiends. 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:28.760 And don't forget, eating chocolate is also a surefire way 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:31.240 to restore a little happiness after about with the dementia, 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.160 which is you know, at least the case in Harry Potter, I. 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:35.600 Thought you might figure out a way to put in 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.000 a Harry Potter reference. That's a really helpful tip, though 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:40.920 chocolate frogs. Well. Now that we've covered the health benefits 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.040 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 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:48.679 obsessed with the sweet stuff in the first place. 0:13:48.960 --> 0:14:03.920 Absolutely, But before we dive in, let's take a quick break. 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:06.480 You're listening to part Time Genius and we're talking about 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.920 the origins of mankind's love affair with chocolate. All right, Mengo, 0:14:10.000 --> 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 --> 0:14:15.640 through what you found in the process. 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.000 Sure, So the best place to start is with the 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:21.160 cacao tree and its beans. And for anyone who's wondering, 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:23.800 cacao and cocoa are the same thing. You can use 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.360 the terms interchangeably because they both refer to the same 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:29.520 exact bean. But even though Africa is now the world's 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.960 largest cocoa producer, the trees aren't native to the region. 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:34.960 They were actually brought over as a cash crop to 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.080 aid the struggling region. And the true starting point of 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.880 chocolate's long history is in Mexico, Central and South America. 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:44.760 And that's where the equatorial climate provide the best place 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:46.720 for the native cacao tree to thrive. 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:49.600 Or is it just another quick note on the terminology here. 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.120 So the cacao beans that these trees produce, they're really 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:53.920 seeds though, right, Yeah. 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:55.800 They're not actually beans in the same way that like 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:58.800 coconut milk is in milk, So we're just gonna go 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:02.480 with it. Yeah, But the trees produce these big yellowish 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.920 seed pods that kind of look like nerf footballs, and 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:09.000 each pod contains about forty beans, which are what's actually 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:11.680 used to make chocolate. So once you crack open the 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:15.080 pods they husk, the beans are released, along with this sweet, 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:18.720 sticky pulp that supposedly tastes something between like a cross 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:20.800 of lemonade and apple custard. 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:22.120 Actually sounds pretty good. 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:24.600 Yeah, But the beans and the pulp are left to 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:26.880 ferment for a few days before being dried and roasted, 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.400 and from there the cocoa beans can be ground up 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:30.760 and then made into. 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:32.800 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 --> 0:15:38.840 So most of the evidence points to the ancient Olemecs. 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.920 They were actually the earliest known civilization to appear in Mexico, 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:45.200 and archaeologists have found pieces of olemeck pots and vessels 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:49.280 from around fifteen hundred BCE that contain traces of theobromine. 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:52.960 This is a stimulant found in chocolate, and in fact, 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:55.720 the Latin name for the cacao tree is theobromine cacao, 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:59.160 which translates to chocolate food of the gods, which actually 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:01.400 ends up being a pretty fitting names since it's believed 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:03.560 that the Omes use the ground beans to make a 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:05.400 special drink for religious ceremonies. 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:07.560 It's always funny to think about the first people to 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:12.240 discover something like chocolate, like, oh my god, this tastes 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:14.840 so good. I gotta go tell everybody about this thing 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:17.400 that I don't have a name for. But why is 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.440 there uncertaint about who invented drinking chocolate? I mean, from 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:22.240 what you've said, it sounds like the Olemes kind of 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:23.240 have this wrapped up. 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.160 Yeah, But pottery with traces of cacao have been found 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.160 in southern Ecuador as well, so those are believed to 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:31.640 date back at least fifty five hundred years. So the 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.120 Shuar Indians who lived in the region also have a 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:36.920 potential claim to this chocolate drinking. The truth is there's 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:39.280 tinted pottery in a lot of places, and that leaves 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:41.960 a lot of room for interpretation, And since the Omes 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.560 don't actually have any written history to go on, some 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:47.080 of the theories surrounding them could be off. For instance, 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:50.640 some researchers think that the Olemes used only the tropical 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.840 flavorcaw pulp to make the drink rather than the bitter beans. 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:55.600 Well, I can't say I blame I mean, when you 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:57.680 say it tasted like what did you say, apple custard, 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:00.320 lemonade or something like that, that sounds a lot better 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:02.240 than like bitter bean water something. 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:05.600 Yeah, but bitter bean water. The gods right, right, right. 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.280 But regardless of who came up with the idea, first, 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:10.960 we do know for certain that the Mayans ran with it, 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:14.120 like their written history includes numerous mentions of chocolate based 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:18.080 drink made from the cacao seeds, and because Mayans had 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:20.880 yet to develop a good roasting technique to mellow the flavors, 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:22.560 it was probably pretty bitter. 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:25.879 So what was in it exactly was just ground beans 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:26.760 and water or what. 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:29.520 Yeah, Or sometimes seasonings would be outed, like vanilla or 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:30.679 honey or chili pepper. 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.760 So how did the Mayans think about chocolate? They did 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:35.679 they consider it the food of the gods or were 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:37.520 they a little more level headed about the way they 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:38.200 approached it? 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:40.960 No, I mean they were full on crazy for chocolate. 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:43.760 They leave the drink as offerings to their gods, and 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.120 there are also paintings recovered from the time that show 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:49.679 cacao and mythological scenes. It was also kind of a 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:52.639 way to settle important legal matters or even seal the 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.320 deal on a marriage wow for example, like early records 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:58.280 of Mayan marriages show that in some places a woman 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:00.200 had to prepare a cacao drink to prove that you 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.520 can get that thick, frothy consistency just right. I mean, 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:05.800 it does kind of make sense, because could you ever 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.120 see yourself loving somebody who can't properly froth a pot 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:09.720 of chocolate. 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:11.320 I don't even know what that means, but I can't 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:11.840