 |
| Picture by the author. |
 |
| An excerpt from Ann Moore’s journal, recounting her visit to Fort Edward on February 12th, 1758, from the Friends Miscellany, page 320. |
It
is almost Christmas; the weather is cold, and the days are short. It is the perfect time for a hot drink,
whether you are inside or outside, or travelling through the winter woods. Did you ever wonder what our ancestors drank,
when they were out on a winter hunt in the woods; or on a scout between Fort
Edward and Ticonderoga, in 1758? Was it
coffee, tea or chocolate and how did they make it when they were travelling
through the woods?
I
got curious and so I decided to find out, and the answer surprised me! Here is what I found.
I
was surprised to find that during the late 18th to the early 19th
centuries, people drank more chocolate than tea, and more tea than coffee, at
least until the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution. In fact, it wasn’t until the middle of the 19th
century that coffee became the number one hot drink in the United States.
Price
matters, and drinking chocolate was less expensive than coffee or tea. In London, England, coffee per pound cost
between four shillings, nine pence and six shillings, which was less expensive
than tea per pound, which sold for between seven shillings, six pence and
sixteen shillings per pound2.
During the mid-1700s, unsweetened chocolate was sold in Williamsburg,
Virginia for about two shillings, six pence per pound, which was slightly more than
a free unskilled laborer or sailor earned in a day1, back then. As
the century advanced the price of chocolate decreased, in 1780, at Fort
Niagara, deep in the old Northwest Frontier, the price of chocolate was 8 pence
per pound3. Even in the wilds
of northern New York drinking chocolate was less expensive than tea, as can be
seen in Lieut. William Henshaw’s 1759 journal.
During this time, in the traditional pounds, shillings and pence system,
a pound equaled 20 shillings and there were 12 pence per shilling; so, Lieut.
Henshaw’s pound of tea cost 150 pence per pound, while his cake of chocolate, cost
42 pence.
 |
| An excerpt from the June 18th, 1759 entry in the “The Orderly Book of Lieut. William Henshaw”, written at Fort Edward, showing the relative prices of drinking chocolate and tea. From the Manuscript Records Of The French And Indian War, page 202. |
Eighteenth
century drinking chocolate was more of a food than a drink and it is not at all
the same as modern hot chocolate. It was
a richer, thicker, oilier, dark or semi-sweet drink that is in some ways like
Sherpa butter tea. Because it was less
expensive, and therefore more available to everyone during the 18th
century, it was a more common hot drink than either coffee or tea. Since it was considered more of a food than a
drink, it was often drank at breakfast, and sometimes added to coffee, wine or even
beer!
So
hot drinking chocolate for breakfast it is, as we travel through the winter
woods, but just how did they make it and how do we, modern folk, duplicate it?
 |
| An incident during a scout, from September 1st to September 3rd, 1757, near Fort Edward, from the Journal of Gen. Rufus Putnam, page 44. |
Late
18th and early 19th century chocolate “cakes”, which were
chipped, shaved or ground into boiling milk, water or a combination of both, to
make hot drinking chocolate, started out as cacao beans. At that time a chocolatier
had to ferment, sort, dry, roast, remove the cacao shells to get to the cocoa “nibs”
and winnow the nibs before he could pound, grind and roll the nibs into a thick
paste. Today, this thick paste, is
called chocolate liquor, and it is a combination of cocoa butter, which is about
52-54% of the paste, and cocoa solids, which make up about 46-48% of the paste. When sold in its solid form is called
“unsweetened chocolate” or “baking chocolate”, and it is 100% cacao. The “% Cacao” on a chocolate bar, tells you
how much of the bar came from a cacao bean, adding sugar and other flavorings
lowers the percentage of cacao. Usually late
18th and early 19th century chocolatiers would add sugar
to the chocolate paste, they might also add nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon, or other
flavorings to it as well. Once it had
cooled into a gritty, powdery cake it was ready to be sold and enjoyed.
In
1879 Rudolf Lindt invented the conching machine: today most chocolate is
conched, which gives chocolate it’s bright shiny finish and creamy, smooth feel. Before conching, in the late 18th
and early 19th centuries, chocolate would not have had a creamy,
smooth feel and it would have had a dull finish. Also, 18th century chocolate was
not milled as fine as modern chocolate and it would have had a grainy, gritty
texture. And, as for the taste, 18th
century chocolate tastes like modern day bittersweet or dark chocolate.
But,
in this day and age, how do you find modern chocolate that has been prepared
the way it was in 18th century, or at least in a similar manner?
 |
| Photo by the author. |
Jim
Gay, an interpreter for Colonial Williamsburg’s Department of Historic
Foodways, and a leading authority on historic chocolate; recommends Mars candy
corporation’s American Heritage Chocolate (click HERE for the American Heritage
Chocolate site). American Heritage
Chocolate can be purchased at their website or at different historical sites, like
Fort Ticonderoga or George Washington’s Mount Vernon. American Heritage Chocolate is made in small
batches with well researched recipes and flavorings; however, it is conched and
because of this it won’t have the same look as 18th century
chocolate. Chef and chocolate professor,
Michael Laiskonis, recommends Taza Chocolate, which is stone-ground on hand
carved granite millstones and mixed with sugar: it is not conched, which means
that it has a 18th century look and feel to it (click HERE for the
Taza Chocolate site)4.
 |
| Photos by the author. |
Fortunately
for me, the Wegmans Food Markets near my house carry Taza Chocolate; unfortunately
for me, Fort Ticonderoga, the nearest distributor of American Heritage
Chocolate, is about a seven-hour drive from where I live. If you find that these two chocolates are not
available near you, and you are impatient, or on a deadline, and you can’t wait
to try the deliciousness of 18th century drinking chocolate; you can
use unsweetened, or as it is also called, baking chocolate and to sweeten it
you can use turbinado sugar, which is a raw or minimally processed sugar.
 |
| Photo by the author. |
So
now that we know what chocolate to use, pick one of the recipes below, and cook
yourself a delicious cup of 18th century drinking chocolate
And
it wasn’t just late 18th and early 19th century travelers
in the wilderness that enjoyed a cup of drinking chocolate. The outdoorsman Horace Kephart included a
recipe for drinking chocolate made on the campfire, in
his book Camp Cookery, which was published in 1910 and later republished
as late as 1941. So modern explorers can
have a cup too.
 |
| Excerpts from Camp Cookery, pages 11 and 136. |
So,
drink up and enjoy!
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.
Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube,
and if you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either
site. I announce new articles on
Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at
Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1 “The Cost of Living, London, mid 1700s”, http://footguards.tripod.com/08HISTORY/08_costofliving.htm
2
Mary Miley Theobold, “A Cup of Hot Chocolate, S’good for What Ails Ya”
3
Farmer, Dennis and Carol; The Kings Bread, 2d Rising: Cooking At
Niagara, 1726 – 1815, p. 51
4 If
you are using Taza Chocolate in the recipes in this article, since Taza
Chocolate already contains sugar, taste your drinking chocolate before adding the
sugar mentioned in the recipe.
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