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

VtSkier

bobbie sellers wrote:
> On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 08:32:05 -0500,VtSkier, wrote
>
>> 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.
>
> snip of old sig file
>
>> How much of this can I believe since the quote doesn't even get the
>> geography right?
>
> What is wrong with the geography?

YUCATAN IS NOT IN THE NORTHERN PART OF SOUTH AMERICA!!!

> Cacao started as a New World crop and imperial colonizers moved it
> to Old World regions where it could be farmed with native labor. Most
> likely originally with slave labor just underpaid children most often
> today.
> Curious thing is that most of the African children involved in
> cacao cultivation have never tasted the end product. They couldn't
> afford Western prices in any event.
>
> 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.
>