With refer to the fact that on September 13 the world celebrates Chocolate Day. Nothing gives us more pleasure than talking about its imprint among us, at a time when the country is making efforts to develop the production of the star candy, in the eastern lands of Baracoa, mainly.
It is true that our relationship with chocolate, born with the mythical name of Xocolalt, given by the Aztecs, is not as old as that of the Mexicans. But that product came to stay with us in the sixteenth century.
From then on it enchanted the islanders, but the food of the gods never had a great weight in the economy of the colony. Although it is said that Mayans already prepared an energy drink with the fruit of the cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao), Westerners came across its benefits at the hands of the Aztecs and that thanks to the Conquest.
The legend has survived to this day of Hernán Cortés's fascination with the Aztec xocolatl, which Monctezuma initially offered him in a golden cup, as an innocent peace offering. Many years later, Cuban researchers estimate that it is almost certain that the plant is not native to the Island -although it is from South America- and that it was introduced in the second half of the 16th century along with other seeds, animals, tools and forms of the land of the Hispanics.
Although it was never among commercially important crops, it did spread in subsistence farming, especially in the eastern foothills of the country. Also in large coffee farms promoted later.
The population accepted it with great pleasure, as in all parts of the world, and consumed it in various ways, whether it was imported, thanks to the development of an excellent confectionery industry worldwide, or made in Cuba, even if it was even in an artisanal way.
In the 1960s there were two old factories from the capitalist stage. In 1963 a new one was inaugurated in Baracoa, recently modernized and expanded, which aims to revitalize the national production of the precious and greatly missed Cuban chocolate.
Efforts are aimed at increasing the volume of fruit harvests, of very good quality in the country. The fondness of compatriots for chocolate goes through universal patterns, it is preferred in jams, ice creams and milkshakes, before the traditional cup of hot chocolate longed for by grandparents.
CubaPLUS Latinos
CubaPLUS Guyana
CubaPLUS Travel