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

Matt Giwer

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.

Actually several non-beans came to be called beans before Linnaeus, coffee
beans for example.

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