[Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 23, Issue 15

[Rikke D. Giles]

On 2005.04.07 09:14, elisabetta at klotz.org wrote:
>  This is something that always baffled me. So one day some noble   
> Spainish person  woke up and there was hot chocolat in his cup?  
> Someone has to  import it, roast  it, grind it, prepare it...it's  
> not that easy. I've done it. It's  part of my  period chocolate  
> class. It is time consuming and hard to grind  cocao nibs,   
> especially by hand. And then to prepare it into chocolat takes a   
> lot of effort  also. There had to be servants who knew how to do  
> this. Or  specialists who were  trained in preparing chocolat.

Why not have the same people who made it for the Aztec nobility make  
it for them at first?  There was at least some travel of Amerindians  
from the New World to the Old, as slaves and curiosities if nothing  
else.  What better job for them?

'Master, this is what my master in Mexico drank, would you like it  
try it?'  'Well, if nobility drank it there... hey, it's good!'.

It's a very simplistic view of what really happened that I've  
presented above, I'm sure.  Another factor would be the novelty of  
both bringing Amerindians back and having them for servants and  
eating and drinking new things.

Aelianora de Wintringham
Barony of Dragon's Laire
Kingdom of AnTir