D. de Quelus

“ Chocolate is not only proper to prolong the Life of aged People, but also of those whose Constitution is lean and dry, or weak and cacochimical, or who use violent Exercises, or whose Employments oblige them to an intense Application of Mind, which makes them very faintish: to all these it agrees perfectly well, and becomes to them an altering Diet. ”

“ Perhaps if one was to seek out the largest Shells in the most fruitful Soil, and growing on the most flourishing Trees, one might find forty Kernels; but as it is not likely one should ever meet with more, so, on the other hand, it is not probable one should ever find less than fifteen, except they are abortive, or the Fruit of a Tree worn out with Age in a barren Soil, or without Culture. ”

“ If Chocolate did not produce this Effect, but only as it is very nourishing, it would but have this Property in common with the most juicy Aliments, and such as are most proper to furnish a good Quantity of Blood and Plenty of Spirits: but its Effects are far more speedy; for if a Person, for Example, fatigued with long and hard Labour, or with a violent Agitation of Mind, takes a good Dish of Chocolate, he shall perceive almost instantly, that his Faintness shall cease, and his Strength shall be recovered, when Digestion is hardly begun. ”

“ However, a great many People are prejudiced in favour of Vanilla, and that I may pay a due Deference to their Judgments, I shall employ Vanilla in the Composition of Chocolate, in the best Method and Quantity, as it appears to me; I say, as it appears to me, because there are an infinite Variety of Tastes, and every one expects that we should have regard to his, and one Person is for adding what the other rejects. ”

“ Chocolate is very Temperate.
Nothing is so great an Argument that Wheat, Rice, Millet, and Manioc, are salutary and temperate, as their being used by whole Nations together. If any of these Substances had any predominant evil Quality, it would soon appear to the Prejudice of the Health of Numbers; the People who subsist upon it, would soon leave it off as a very dangerous and hurtful Aliment.
One may reason much after the same manner with respect to Chocolate. The Natives of New-Spain, and of a great part of the Torrid Zone of America, have always used it as a Delicacy ”

“ Of the Oil or Butter of Chocolate.
Chocolate Kernels are a Fruit very oleaginous, but the Oil is very closely united with the other Principles, that it requires a great deal of Labour to separate it, and to make it pure. The three common Ways to extract Oils, are by Distillation, Expression, and Decoction; we reject the first as being very imperfect, because the Violence of the Fire alters the Nature of all Oils that are extracted that way. The Success will answer no better by Expression, because that which is got will be very impure and in very small Quantity. ”

“ The Qualities of Chocolate are not indeed so remarkable, nor so active, as those of Camphire; but, with the least Attention, one may easily discern, that the Quantity of Oil that it contains, and the Bitterness that is perceivable in Tasting, are not the Marks of Coldness, since all Bitters are esteem'd hot, and since Oil is a Matter very near a-kin to, and necessary for Fire. ”

“ The Cocao-Trees of one Year old have commonly a Trunk of four Feet high, and begin to spread, by sending out five Branches at the top, all at a time, which forms that which they call the Crown of a Cocao-Tree. It seldom happens that any of these five Branches are wanting, and if by any Accident, or contrary to the Order of Nature, it has but three or four, the Tree never comes to good, and it will be better to cut it off, and wait for a new Crown, which will not be long before it is form'd. ”

“ Every Blossom is joined to the Tree by a slender Stalk half an Inch or a little more in length; when it is yet in the Bud, it is one Fifth of an Inch broad, and about one fourth or a little more in length: when it was least, in proportion to the Tree and the Fruit, the more strange it appeared to me, and more worthy of Attention. [1]
When the Buds begin to blow, one may consider the Calix, the Foliage, and the Heart of the Blossom. The Calix is formed of the Cover of the Bud, divided into five Parts, or Leaves, of a very pale flesh-colour. ”

“ People afflicted with Distempers, have enough to do to support their Pains, without the Inconveniency of distastful Remedies; however, it would be no small matter to spare them the Aversion they have to every thing that is called a Medicine; and when there is a Necessity for such, Chocolate may serve for very proper Diet, and an excellent Vehicle, wherein to take a Medicine at the same time. ”

“ Besides these Bananes, there is a Fruit call'd Banane-Figs; but the Plants that produce them are very little different: The Figs are much less than the Bananes, being but four or five Inches long. The Fig is more delicious, but the Banane is thought to be more wholesome, and the Pulp more solid. They roast them upon a Grid-Iron, or bake them in an Oven, they eat them with Sugar and the Juice of an Orange. The Banane done in a Stew-Pan in its own Juice, with Sugar and a little Cinnamon, is excellent. ”

“ Our Life, as a famous Physician [1] observes, is, as it were, a continual growing dry; but yet this kind of natural Consumption is imperceptible to an advanced Age: when the radical Moisture is consumed more sensibly, then the more balmy and volatile Parts of the Blood are dissipated by little and little, the Salts disengaging from the Sulphurs, manifest themselves, the Acid appears, which is the fruitful Source of Chronick Diseases. ”

“ It therefore seems likely, that the Merchants find their account in sorting it, since Kernels proceeding from the same Tree, and from the same Nut, are not always of the same bigness. It is indeed true, that if one Parcel of Kernels be compared with another, the one may consist of bigger than the other, which may arise from the Age or Vigour of the Trees, or from the Nature of the Soil; but certainly there is no kind of Kernels which may be called Great, as a distinct Kind, nor consequently no other which can properly be said to be Small. ”

“ A learned Englishman has carried his Commendations so high concerning this particular Property of Chocolate, that he has not scrupled to affirm in a Dissertation that he has publish'd upon this Subject, That one Ounce of Chocolate contains as much Nourishment as a Pound of Beef. ”

“ When all is burnt, and there remains nothing upon the Earth, but the Trunks of the great Trees which they don't trouble themselves to consume, and when the Space is well cleaned, they make Alleys by the help of a Line, strait and at equal Distances from each other, and thrust Sticks into the Ground of two or three Foot long, and 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 Feet distant, or at such a distance that they design to plant the Cocao-Trees, which they represent. ”

“ Those that make Chocolate for Sale, that they may be thought to have put in a good deal of Vanilla, put in Pepper, Ginger, &c. There are even some People so accustomed to these Tastes, that they will not have it otherwise; but these Spices serving only to inflame the Blood, and heat the Body, prudent People take care to avoid this Excess, and will not use any Chocolate whose Composition they are ignorant of. ”

“ On the contrary, I would not counsel the daily Use of it to such who are very fat, or who are wont to drink a good deal of Wine, and live upon a juicy Diet, or who sleep much, and use no Exercise at all: In a word, who lead a delicate, sedentary, and indolent Life, such as a great many People of Condition at Paris are used to. Such Bodies as these, full of Blood and Juice, have no need of additional Nourishment, and the Diet will fit them better which is mentioned in Ecclesiast. Plentiful Feeding brings Diseases, and Excess hath killed Numbers; but the temperate Man prolongs his Days. ”

“ If the Wind has only overturn'd the Trees without breaking the chief Root, then the best Method that can be taken in good Soil, is to raise them up again, and put them in their Places, propping them up with a Fork, and putting in the Earth about it very carefully: By this means they will be re-establish'd in less than six Months, and they will bear again as if no harm had come to them. ”

“ He assured me, that in his Neighbourhood, an Infant of four Months old unfortunately lost his Nurse, and its Parents not being able to put it to another, resolved through Necessity to feed it with Chocolate; the Success was very happy, for the Infant came on to a Miracle, and was neither less healthy nor less vigorous than those who are brought up by the best Nurses. ”

“ In the first place, one may assert, that being well managed, it has a very agreeable Smell, and a peculiar Delicacy in the Taste; besides, it passes very easily off the Stomach, nor leaves any Settling either in the Chocolate-Pot, or in the Dishes. ”

“ In the mean time, they prepare a Syrup of the finest Sugar, but very clear; that is to say, wherein there is but little Sugar: and after it has been clarified and purified, they take it boiling-hot off the Fire, and put in the Cocao-Kernels, and let them lie 24 Hours. They repeat this Operation six or seven times, encreasing every time the Quantity of Sugar, without putting it on the Fire, or doing any thing else to it: last of all, they boil another Syrup to the Consistence of Sugar, and pour it on the Kernels well wiped and put in a clean earthen Pot ”

“ Powder, and finely searced, and afterwards ground dry on a Porphyry, with the Cinnamon designed for a Dish of Chocolate, and mixed in the Chocolate with more Sugar than ordinary, may be taken without the least Reluctancy, and, if necessary, without being perceived: The Person will be nourished at the same time much better than with Broth, which is easily corrupted by a feverish Stomach; neither will the Particles of the Cortex offend the Stomach, being wrapped up by the Unctuosity of the Chocolate. ”