The Evolution of Hot Chocolate: From Ancient Mesoamerica to Modern England

The history of hot chocolate traces back thousands of years, originating in the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica. The Maya, around 2,500–3,000 years ago, were among the first to create a beverage from cocoa seeds, water, cornmeal, and chili peppers. This concoction, known as xocoatl in Mayan and caahuatl in Aztec, laid the foundation for what we now recognize as chocolate.

However, it wasn't until the 17th century that hot chocolate gained recognition in Europe. In 1631, Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma, a Spanish physician, published the first recorded recipe for chocolate in his book, Curioso tratado de la naturaleza y calidad del chocolate. This marked the beginning of chocolate's journey into European culture.

A pivotal moment in the evolution of hot chocolate occurred through the endeavors of Sir Hans Sloane, an esteemed figure of 18th-century England. Sloane, renowned for his medical expertise and clientele that included the Royal Family, embarked on a journey to Jamaica in 1697. It was during his time on the island that he encountered cocoa, albeit in a form he found displeasing: mixed with water. Determined to refine the beverage, Sloane experimented with different ingredients until he devised a recipe that incorporated milk, thus creating a more palatable version of hot chocolate.

Upon his return to England, Sloane introduced his innovative recipe to London, where it gained popularity, particularly within apothecaries, as a medicinal remedy. The concoction, blending cocoa with milk, soon became known as "Sir Hans Sloane's Milk Chocolate," laying the groundwork for the commercialization of hot chocolate.

Nicholas Sanders, a Soho grocer in the 1750s, is credited with further popularizing Sloane's creation, branding it as a medicinal elixir. This marked the emergence of the first branded milk chocolate, further cementing Sloane's reputation as the pioneer of modern hot chocolate.

The legacy of Sloane's invention endured into the 19th century, notably through the commercial efforts of the Cadbury Brothers, who brought "Sir Hans Sloane's Milk Chocolate" to a broader market. As hot chocolate continued to captivate palates, Sloane's name became synonymous with its invention.

Today, hot chocolate's popularity transcends borders, with the United States embracing it to the extent that it's readily available in coffee vending machines. From its humble origins in Mesoamerica to its transformation into a beloved beverage worldwide, hot chocolate stands as a testament to the ingenuity of those who sought to refine and innovate upon ancient traditions.
The Evolution of Hot Chocolate: From Ancient Mesoamerica to Modern England

Invention of Thomas Newcomen’s Engine

The atmospheric engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, and is often referred to simply as a Newcomen engine.

Five years earlier, Thomas Savery, an English inventor and engineer, in 1698 invented the first commercially used steam-powered device, a steam pump which is often referred to as the "Savery engine".

Newcomen was born in Dartmouth, Britain, on 28 February 1664. His father was a merchant and ship owner, and Thomas became a blacksmith and ironworker. As an ironmonger at Dartmouth, Newcomen became aware of the high cost of using the power of horses to pump water out of the Cornish tin mines.

With his assistant John Calley (or Cawley), a plumber and glazier by trade, he experimented for more than 10 years to develop a properly working engine. It was superior to the crude pump of Thomas Savery.

His engine is called an "atmospheric engines" because the steam was under only slight pressure. The real driving force of these engines was a vacuum created when steam is condensed back into water. The partial vacuum then allowed the atmospheric pressure to push the piston into the cylinder.

It was installed in 1712 at the Coneygree Coal Works in the West Midlands, England, pumping water from the mine. Newcomen's Dudley Castle beam engine is generally accepted as the first successful Newcomen engine. Newcomen engines were successful partly because they were very safe to operate.

As Savery had obtained a broad patent for his pump in 1698, Newcomen could not patent his engine. Newcomen and his partner John Calley persuaded Savery to join forces with them to exploit their invention until the expiration of Savery's patent in 1733.

Newcomen design was built in large numbers from 1712 until about the 1820s and continued to be used until about 1930.
Thomas Newcomen’s Engine

The first color photo

The strategy for producing full-color projected images was outlined by influential Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell in a paper to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1855, published in detail in the Society's Transactions in 1857.

In 1860, Maxwell accepted a professorship at King’s College London, where he continued his experiments into perception and vision.

He produced the earliest color photograph, an image of a tartan ribbon by superimposing onto a single screen three black-and-white images each passed through three filters—red, green, and blue.

Maxwell’s three-color method was intended to mimic the way the eye processes color, based on theories he had elaborated in an 1855 paper. By doing that, one could project three separate images simultaneously onto a screen and end up with an image featuring the entire color spectrum.

Because of this photograph Maxwell is credited as the founder of the theory of additive color. On May 17, 1861, Maxwell presented the very first color photograph at the Royal Institution. The photograph showed a tartan ribbon and was made by Thomas Sutton according to the three-color method proposed by Maxwell already in 1855.

His photo of a multicolored ribbon is the first to prove the efficacy of the three-color method, until then just a theory, and sets the stage for further color innovation, particularly by the Lumière brothers in France.
The first color photo

First steam engine by Thomas Savery

Thomas Savery (1650-1715) was a military engineer who attained the rank of trench master by 1696, and acquired the title of ‘Captain’.

His inventiveness was perhaps stimulated by his knowledge of tin‐ and copper‐mining in his native Devon.

Deep mines required drainage: pumping was initially by hand or man engine until horse whims were introduced. Savery was aware of the urgent need for an improved method of pumping water out of tin and copper mine shafts.

In 1698 he built a steam-pump called 'The Engine for Raising Water by Fire' for which he obtained a patent (No. 356) which was to last, in one form or another, until 1733. Savery invented a steam pump which worked by drawing water up into a vessel through the condensation of steam and then forced it to a height using steam pressure.

His engine had a number of deficiencies - it was capable of lifting water only modest heights and when in operation there was a high risk of explosion.

However, this early steam engine design helped other engineers and inventors to develop more successful engines in the future.

Of all places in England the tin-mines of Cornwall stood most in need of hydraulic assistance; and Savery was much engaged in projects for draining them by his steam-engine. This made its construction and principles well known among the machinists and engineers of that neighborhood. Among these was a Newcomen, an ironmonger.

Savery patent was adapted by Thomas Newcomen in his much more successful atmospheric engine of 1712.

The first engine built by Newcomen (erected at Dudley Colliery in Staffordshire in 1712) took six years to build and was capable of lifting 110 gallons (500 liters) of water every minute from a maximum depth of 165 feet (50 meters).
First steam engine by Thomas Savery

First commercial manufacturer of artificially carbonated water

Thomas Henry (26 October 1734 – 18 June 1816), a Manchester apothecary, is generally credited to have been the first commercial manufacturer of artificially carbonated water in the late 1770s.

In 1781, Thomas published a paper titled ‘An Account of a Method of Preserving Water at sea, to which is added a Mode of Impregnating Water in large Quantities with Fixed Air. For the Use of the Sick on Board of Ships and in Hospitals’.

His recipe, slightly modified, is a s follow: to every gallon spring water add 1 scruple of magnesia, 30 grains of Epsom salt, 10 grains of common salt and a few pieces of iron wore or filings. The operation was then to proceed impregnating the water with fixed air.

He improved and developed Nooth’s design to make an apparatus capable of carbonating batches of up to 12 gal. The product was sold in tightly corked glass bottles. (John Mervin Nooth is known for developing the technique for duplicating mineral water in 1775)

Henry recommended consumption of lemon juice and soda water for the stomach but did not state whether the two were combined.

Henry regarded mineral water as a medicine and he gave his customers strict instruction on its use. Take four ounces at a time, he would tell them, and make sure the bottle is kept tightly sealed so that the gas does not escape.

By the late 1770os he was also selling artificially manufactured Pyrmont and Seltzer waters that is, imitations of the naturally occurring spa waters.

Thomas Henry’s method worked, but it required the use of cumbersome equipment,

In the 1780s a professor of chemistry named Torbern Bergman proposed a simpler method for producing carbonated water by combining lime juice and sodium bicarbonate.
First commercial manufacturer of artificially carbonated water