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

VtSkier

bobbie sellers wrote:
> 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.

How much of this can I believe since the quote doesn't even
get the geography right?