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Page 21
[Illustration--Drawing: MODERN MEXICAN COCOA WHISK WITH LOOSE RINGS.
(_Brought home by the author._)]
The introduction of cocoa into Europe, indeed, as well as its
cultivation for the European market, is due rather to the Jesuit
missionaries than to the explorers of the Western Hemisphere. It was
the monks, too, who about 1661 made it known in France. It is curious,
therefore, to notice the contest that at one time raged among
ecclesiastics as to whether it was lawful to make use of chocolate in
Lent; whether it was to be regarded as food or drink. A consensus of
opinion on the subject, published in Venice in 1748, states that
"Among the first Probabilist Theologians who undertook to write
entire Treatises and to collect all the possible reasons as to
whether the Indian beverage (chocolate) could agree with
European fasting, was Father Tommaso Hurtado. He employed the
whole of the Tenth Treatise of the second volume of the 'Moral
Resolutions,' printed in 1651, and added thereto an Appendix of
more chapters.
"Father Diana found reason for acquitting the consciences of
those who, in time of fasting, should drink chocolate. Father
Hurtado, more courageous withal, and more benign than Diana,
does not speak of this treatise in order to investigate the
law; the nature of fasting admits drinking without eating.
Therefore consumers are, without the help of casuists, troubled
themselves and afflicted, when in Lent they empty chocolate
cups. Excited on the one hand by the pungent cravings of the
throat to moisten it, reproved on the other by breaking their
fast, they experience grave remorse of conscience; and, with
consciences agitated and torn with drinking the sweet beverage,
they sin. Under the guidance of these skilful theologians, the
remorse aroused by natural and Divine light being blunted,
Christians drink joyfully. For all agree that he will break his
fast who eats any portion of chocolate, which, dissolved and
well mixed with warm water, is not prejudicial to keeping a
fast. This is a sufficiently marvellous presupposition. He who
eats 4 ozs. of exquisite sturgeon roasted has broken his fast;
if he has it dissolved and prepared in an extract of thick
broth, he does not sin."
As for the introduction of cocoa into this country, the contemporary
Gaze tells us that
"Our English and Hollanders make little use of it when they
take a prize at sea, as, not knowing the secret virtue and
quality of it for the good of the stomach, of whom I have heard
the Spaniards say, when we have taken a good prize, a ship
laden with cocoa, in anger and wrath we have hurled overboard
this good commodity, not regarding the worth of it."
About the time of the Commonwealth, however, the new drink began to
make its way among the English, and the _Public Advertiser_ of 1657
contains the notice that "in Bishopsgate Street, in Queen's Head
Alley, at a Frenchman's house, is an excellent West India drink,
called chocolate, to be sold, where you may have it ready at any time,
and also unmade, at reasonable rates." These rates appear to have been
from 10s. to 15s. a pound, a price which made chocolate, rather than
coffee, the beverage of the aristocracy, who flocked to the
chocolate-houses soon to spring up in the fashionable centres. Here,
records a Spanish visitor to London, were to be found such members of
the polite world as were not at the same time members of either House.
The chocolate-houses were thus the forerunners of our modern clubs,
and one of them, "The Cocoa Tree," early the headquarters of the
Jacobite party, became subsequently recognised as the club of the
literati, including among its members such men as Garrick and Byron.
White's Cocoa House, adjoining St. James' Palace, was even better
known, eventually developing into the respectable White's Club, though
at one time a great gambling centre.[19]
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: White's Club, on left of St.
James's Palace. (_From a Drawing of the time of Queen Anne._)]
A little later the "Indian Nectar," recommended by a learned doctor on
account of "its secret virtue," was to be obtained of "an honest
though poor man" in East Smithfield at 6s. 8d. a pound, or the
"commoner sort at about half the price," so that it was getting within
more general reach. Subsequently the following advertisement appeared
regarding a patented preparation of cocoa "now sold at 4s. 9d. per
pound."
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