FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - cost of producing a goblet of Montezuma's cocoa beverage?

bobbie sellers

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 21:02:37 -0500,Matt Giwer, wrote

> wrote:
> > Cortes reported that Montezuma drank 50 goblets of (non-sweetened)
> > cocoa beverage before entering his harem.
>
> > a goblet of cocoa was expensive to make in pre-mechanized society.
> > Even if the laborers were nominally slaves, they had to be fed,
> > clothed, housed, etc. In fact, the houseservants of a sovereign are
> > normally well kept.
>
> > Is it possible to estimate an equivelant 2007 value of a goblet of
> > Monteuma's cocoa drink?
>
> One presumes what about the nature of the drink? Was it made from
> the bean? Did it contain leaves? How was it prepared? One presumes it
> was whatever they considered the best quality but we have no idea what
> they thought that was. If we are just talking the bean the preparation
> is trivial independent of the quality of the bean. Consider it like
> gourmet coffee. Other than civet coffee it is all the same process.
>
> And then who made it? The cost would be the cost of keeping that
> person employed or alive or whatever. Clearly it would cost more if a
> priest made it than a slave but it could have been a cheap apprentice
> priest and slave for display who had to be kept in expensive clothing
> to show of the emperor wealth.
>
> And a dozen other factors such as did the great beans grow in his
> backyard or in the farthest reaches of the empire?
>
> All of this means we may never know what it cost. And if my some
> miracle we found all the factors above translating that into dollars
> would be near impossible because the basis for the economy was entirely
> different. In a well-run economy slaves cost more than share-croppers.
> In a hierarchical system with great rewards at the top an apprentice
> priest may work for scraps for the opportunity.

From the chocolate FAQ:

1.1 What is chocolate? Where does it come from?

Chocolate is a food made from the seeds of a tropical tree called
the cacao. These trees flourish in warm, moist climates. Most of the
world's cacao beans come from West Africa, where Ghana, the Ivory Coast
and Nigeria are the largest producers. Because of a spelling error,
probably by English traders long ago, these beans became known as cocoa
beans.

-=-=-=-=-

1.2 What is the history of chocolate?

(Excerpted with permission from the Godiva WWW site)

* In 600 A.D. the Mayans migrated into the northern regions of South
America, establishing the earliest known cocoa plantations in the Yucatan.
It has been argued that the Mayans had been familiar with cocoa several
centuries prior to this date. They considered it a valuable commodity,
used both as a means of payment and as units of calculation.

* Mayans and Aztecs took beans from the "cacao" tree and made a drink they
called "xocolatl." Aztec Indian legend held that cacao seeds had been
brought from Paradise and that wisdom and power came from eating the fruit
of the cacao tree..

* The word "chocolate" is said to derive from the Mayan "xocolatl"; cacao
from the Aztec "cacahuatl". The Mexican Indian word "chocolate" comes from
a combination of the terms choco ("foam") and atl ("water"); early
chocolate was only consumed in beverage form.

In addition it has been said that the Aztec preparation included
corn meal.

As for how much it cost it was a luxury on the order of
a fine wine for the Aztec and use was reserved to the powerful.

later
bliss -- C O C O A Powered... (at california dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cocoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.