Persistence Payoff

Hey folks. More than four years ago I backed a kickstarter for a documentary called Persistence of Vision, directed by Kevin Schreck, the story of master animator Richard Williams' struggle and ultimate failure to create a masterpiece. Now, today, I can say that I have received my backer's copy of the DVD, and I am more than pleased. Thanks, Mr. Schreck. I'm happy to have played a small part.

Persistence of Vision (Official Page)

Why do we eat chocolate at all?

I'm serious. I ate some unsweetened baker's chocolate today. Because I have eliminated sugar from my diet, and I missed chocolate. Guess what? Unsweetened chocolate tastes bad. It's bad. Why did prehistoric Mesoamericans cultivate it? I guess because it smells good. Maybe. I've never smelled a living cacao pod. Maybe it smells good. So it smells good, you figure it must taste good. So you taste it. Doesn't taste good. Tastes pretty bad. But you don't give up. You decide to try to MAKE it taste good. It's a lot of work, but it pays off, I guess? Do you know how involved the process is, to get something edible out of a cacao pod? You cut off a ripe cacao pod and scoop out the beans and pulp. You set the beans and pulp out in a pile and let it sit for a week, so it can ferment. Then you dry the beans in the sun for another week. Then you roast the beans. Then you shell the beans to extract the nibs. Then you grind and liquefy the nibs to get "chocolate liquor" (the term for fermented, dried, roasted, ground, liquefied cacao nibs). Then you process the chocolate liquor to separate it into cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Lastly you add sugar, vanilla, and maybe some milk, and you FINALLY have something that people actually want to eat. That's a LOT of work. Supposedly the Mesoamericans did not add refined sugar, but made a drink or a porridge with it, adding chili, maize, peanut butter, vanilla, or sometimes honey. To consume chocolate was a privilege of the elite. The Spaniards, when they encountered it, did not like it. They made it palatable by adding refined sugar and milk. Surprise! It's candy. I remain mystified. Can anyone with real knowledge of the subject enlighten me?