Coffee, Tea or … Chocolate? Part One ©

Picture by the author.

An excerpt from Ann Moore’s journal, recounting her visit to Fort Edward on February 12^th, 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 18^th to the early 19^th 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 19^th 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 18^th, 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 18^th 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 1^st to September 3^rd, 1757, near Fort Edward, from the Journal of Gen. Rufus Putnam, page 44.

Late 18^th and early 19^th 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 18^th and early 19^th 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 18^th and early 19^th centuries, chocolate would not have had a creamy, smooth feel and it would have had a dull finish.  Also, 18^th century chocolate was not milled as fine as modern chocolate and it would have had a grainy, gritty texture.  And, as for the taste, 18^th 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 18^th 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 18^th 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 18^th 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 18^th 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 18^th century drinking chocolate

And it wasn’t just late 18^th and early 19^th 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, 2^d 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.

Sources

American Antiquarian Society, Manuscript Records Of The French And Indian War, [American Antiquarian Society, Worcester Massachusetts, 1909], p. 202, https://books.google.com/books?id=hd5NAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA202&lpg=PA202&dq=indians+%22fort+edward%22+chocolate&source=bl&ots=SxYOyaFM_2&sig=ACfU3U2g5dwH9vJHWswh8nDlMHdg_yqirg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwicy_-7mbrmAhUPzlkKHWYODHIQ6AEwAnoECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=indians%20%22fort%20edward%22%20chocolate&f=false, accessed 12/17/19

Clayton, Cindy; “A Colonial treat: Old-time chocolate”, The Virginian-Pilot, January 18, 2009, https://www.pilotonline.com/news/article_55e318e2-911a-50d3-9421-, accessed 12/17/19

Comly, John and Isaac, Editors; Friends’ Miscellany, [Printed by J. Richards, Philadelphia, 1833], p 320 https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8gYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA320&dq=%22fort+edward%22+chocolate+journal&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjj1oXtnLrmAhVpAp0JHVSFBJ44RhDoATAJegQIARAC#v=onepage&q=%22fort%20edward%22%20chocolate%20journal&f=false, accessed 12/17/19

Dawes, Ephraim Cutler; Journal of Gen. Rufus Putnam, [Joel Munsell’s Sons, Albany, New York, 1886], p. 44, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Journal_of_Gen_Rufus_Putnam_Kept_in_Nort/3DkTAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=and+they+sd+that+as+one+of+them+was+some+way+off+boiling+some+cocolatt&pg=PA44&printsec=frontcover, accessed 12/25/19

Erickson, Mark St. John; “Historically delicious: Colonial Williamsburg expert creates chocolate like you've never seen or tasted before”, McClatchy Newspapers, October 13, 2008, https://www.catholic.org/news/hf/home/story.php?id=30044, accessed 12/22/19

Farmer, Dennis and Carol; The Kings Bread, 2^d Rising: Cooking At Niagara, 1726 – 1815, [Old Fort Niagara Association, Youngstown, New York, 1989]. p. 51

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Guittard Chocolate Company; “Glossary Of Terms”, [© 2019. Guittard Chocolate Company], https://www.guittard.com/in-the-kitchen/article/glossary-of-terms, accessed 12/28/19 

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Knox, John; An Historical Journal Of The Campaigns in North-America, For The Years 1757, 1758, 1759 And 1760, Volume 2, [W. Johnston, in Ludgate-Street, and J. Dodsley, in Pall Mall, London, 1769], page 11 https://books.google.com/books?id=6L1FAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%22john+Knox%22+%22hyson+tea%22&source=bl&ots=qrEcAGX97O&sig=ACfU3U1Y2TAtNHXkTl_OkBYYTr7LgICPVg&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjioeO429TmAhVimuAKHclZCbEQ6AEwAXoECA4QAQ#v=onepage&q=%22john%20Knox%22%20%22hyson%20tea%22&f=false, accessed 12/26/19

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