Chocolate from the tropics

For the chocolate drink to be transformed into a solid chocolate bar, special machinery first had to be developed. One of the most significant inventions that would turn chocolate into a solid bar was made by Rodolphe Lindt in Switzerland in 1879. Through a method that became known as “conching”, the pioneer of today’s iconic Lindt chocolates created a mechanized process which resulted in a creamier and more solid form of chocolate. (Fig. 6 & Fig. 7) Sugar had already been added to cocoa before Lindt’s invention, but conching produced a sweet and melting chocolat fondant that awarded chocolate the status of a sweet treat. See Brindle, Olsen and Snyder “From Stone Metates to Steel Mills. The Evolution of Chocolate Manufacturing.” In Chocolate : History, Culture, and Heritage, p. 616-619Chocolate had ended its long journey from South America to Europe in the form in which we would learn to love it.

Once chocolate production had become mechanized, it became possible to produce larger quantities, which in turn meant that more people were able to buy chocolate. To keep up with the increasing demand for chocolate, the production of cocoa beans had to be increased too. In the 19th century, many European powers, such as Great Britain, Portugal, France and Germany, therefore started to produce cocoa in their African colonies.See p 590 of Bertrand M. Gordon’s 2011 contribution “Commerce, Colonies and Cacao. Chocolate in England from Introduction to Industrialisation.” in Chocolate : History, Culture, and Heritage, 583-593. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. Figure 8 shows you a scene from cocoa cultivation in the British colony of Ghana.

Germany, for example, had claimed control over today’s Cameroon and Togo, in western Africa. Because the Germans, like everyone else, wanted to indulge in the sweet treat, Germany began to grow cocoa in their western African colonies. The people who worked the cocoa plantations were the African labourers, while the white Germans were their colonial masters. (Fig 9)See Marta Macedo’s 2016 article "Standard Cocoa: Transnational Networks and Technoscientific Regimes in West African Plantations." in Technology and Culture 57 (3): p, 576 Maybe you have already made the connection - the Germans surely did: the dark chocolate soon became associated with the African people who produced it.

The plaque that you see here came from this specific context. The German chocolate brand Sarotti created the three figurines in 1918 as a celebration of its 50th anniversary.See Silke Hackenesch’s 2014 article "Advertising Chocolate, Consuming Race? On the Peculiar Relationship of Chocolate Advertising, German Colonialism, and Blackness." in Food & History 12 (1): p 104 In the next steps, you will read more about why this specific figurine was chosen, and why the choice was so problematic.