(by Samantha Melamed, Inquirer - with comments by Rodney Snyder, Chocolate History Research Director at Mars Chocolate) PHILADELPHIA AND CHOCOLATE Benjamin Franklin may be best known as a diplomat, author, journalist, and inventor, but he would also have merited another label: chocoholic. It turns out that Philadelphias favorite forefather not only advertised chocolate for sale in his print shop as early as 1739, but also secured six pounds of it, per officer, for special troop rations during the French and Indian War. Chocolate became popular and accessible in the 1700s in Philadelphia, in large part, due to the citys location. Philadelphia being a prominent port city in the 1700s, was not all that far from the Caribbean, so ships coming up could bring sugar here. Were involved with global trade that would bring cacao here. The other thing is, we had a growing population here, especially in the 1750s, of people who were affluent, who can experiment with new foods. Chocolate would have been a daily drink for many Philadelphians, said Rodney Snyder, chocolate history research director at Mars Chocolate North America. A chocolate pot would have been as essential a household item as a saltshaker. Later, the proximity of pastureland and dairy farms in the region made it convenient to produce milk chocolate, which Hershey began doing in 1900. Pennsylvania was really unique in that it spawned some of the largest chocolate companies in the country. That includes Hersheys as well as Whitmans, which closed its Northeast Philadelphia factory in 1993. (Mars didnt start here, but its Lancaster County plant is now the companys hub for processing cocoa beans, which still come through the ports here.) Even today, theres probably more chocolate made in the state of Pennsylvania than anywhere else in the United States. Its all an offshoot of the popularity of making chocolate in Philadelphia way back in colonial days. Chocolate: The Exhibition, on view through Jan. 24 at the Academy of Natural Sciences, explores the natural and cultural history of the worlds favorite treat. Better hurry.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 03:41:01 +0000
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