Colonial chocolate

Published in The Post-Star (A1)
5/15/06

Imagine a place where chocolate is a dietary staple instead of a frivolous indulgence -- a place where you can drink a mug of molten chocolate for breakfast every day and call it health food, or even get paid in chocolate.

Willy Wonka's factory? No.

Try Fort Ticonderoga during the Revolutionary War -- and again last week.

"We know from looking at documents like journals and supply lists that the soldiers were definitely drinking chocolate here at the fort every day as part of their military rations," said Lisa Simpson Lutts, external affairs director for the Fort Ticonderoga Association that now maintains the historic site.

"It kind of blows people away, because they don't think of chocolate as something they would have had back then. When we hear of it today, we think: Oh, they got candy for rations," she said. "But it wasn't candy for them; it was food."

In some colonies, she said, soldiers were given supplies in lieu of wages, and a stash of chocolate was part of their payment.

Chocolate was considered a highly nutritious health drink and was commonly prescribed by physicians and included on hospital supply lists in the 17th and 18th centuries.

"They even thought it could cure syphilis," said Simpson Lutts. "They were a little off on that one."

Visitors to the fort got an authentic taste of history on the site's opening day last Wednesday. Costumed re-enactors from the "historic division" of the candy giant Mars Inc. spent the day demonstrating the Colonial chocolate-making process and handing out free samples of the rich treat.

Re-enactor Eric Whitacre explained that most colonial chocolate started in the form of "chocolate nuts," which arrived on ships from places like Central and South America. The nuts, or cocoa beans, were then roasted over a fire, shelled and ground into "nibs," which was probably done by hand with a mortar and pestle.

The final stage, which involved grinding the nibs into a thick paste on something called a metate stone, was the most laborious. Whitacre worked up a sweat Wednesay as he created a slick sheen of chocolate by rubbing two stone surfaces together.

"So, the friction heats it up?" a man in the crowd asked as he watched.

Whitacre gave a sheepish grin.

"Actually, we've got a Sterno under here," he admitted, pointing beneath the base of the metate stone.

Even with such tricks, he said, the process would be very time-consuming.

"If you wanted to get it as fine as the kind of chocolate that's manufactured today -- well, you probably couldn't, but if you wanted to try, it could take 8 or 9 hours," Whitacre said.

Colonial chocolate makers would add spices to their chocolate in the final grinding stages -- usually a little sugar and cayenne pepper, along with things like cinnamon, cloves and anise.

"It was done according to taste, kind of like the way some people will make their own spaghetti sauce, so every batch was different," Whitacre said.

Cocoa and chocolate were almost always prepared as a beverage in Colonial times, he explained, offering a small cup of hot, liquid chocolate to a visitor.

"I had no idea chocolate was part of the culture at that time, but I'm a big fan," said Brian Reavey, a Middlebury College student and first-time visitor to the fort.

He took a sip.

"This is the best historic site I've been to in a long time!" he declared.

The tasting was a one-day event, but American Heritage chocolate products, which are made by hand using Colonial methods, will be sold in the fort's gift shop all season.

IF YOU GO: Fort Ticonderoga is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., May 10 through Oct. 22. Admission is $12 for adults (age 13 and older), $10.80 for seniors (65 and older), $6 for youths (7-12) and free for children younger than 7. For more information, call 585-2821 or see the Web site www.fort-ticonderoga.org.