A Cup of Hot Chocolate, S’good for What Ails Ya, Part 2

The first Englishmen to encounter chocolate were pirates, or, more politely, privateers, commissioned by the English monarch to prey on Spanish vessels. They didn't know what it was at first. On at least one occasion in the 1500s, English privateers burned a shipload of valuable cacao seeds, having no idea what the ugly little brown things were worth. Chocolate reached England in the middle of the seventeenth century, just as two other exotic beverages—coffee and tea—were making their debut.

It was no coincidence that these beverages were all consumed hot and sweet. “Hot melts sugar,” says Jim Gay. He’s Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Foodways journeyman cook and an authority on the history and manufacture of chocolate. “All these beverages were sweetened with cane sugar. The British didn’t start growing sugar on Barbados until the 1640s. First comes sugar, then comes chocolate and coffee and tea . . . all of them introduced to the British in the late 1640s.”

The first known English recipe for chocolate called for sugar, long red pepper, cloves, aniseed, almonds, nuts, orange flower water, and, of course, cacao. “The hotter it is drunk, the better it is,” said the recipe’s author in 1652. Unaware of the Aztec custom of drinking it cool, the recipe said that “being cold it may doe harm.”

Chocolate was usually sold ground and pressed into cakes wrapped in paper. In England, the cakes were small, two or four ounces, because of the high cost of the product. In America where it was cheaper, the one-pound size was more common. By the start of the eighteenth century, the British were drinking chocolate with water and brandy, with milk, and with port or sherry. All three versions used sugar and spices and were frothed with a chocolate mill.

Once it snatched Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655, England had its own island with flourishing cacao plantations. Chocolate became widely available, although still expensive. Making it more so were the import duties levied on all chocolate brought into England. In the Atlantic colonies, however, the duties were lower, putting the cost of the beverage within reach of more pocketbooks. Perhaps that explains why, at the time of the Revolutionary War, there was one commercial chocolate maker in Britain and nearly seventy in the thirteen colonies.

Some historians think that chocolate drinking spread from England to its North American colonies, but it seems more likely that it came directly in ships that plied the trade routes from the West Indies to the major colonial ports of Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Newport, Rhode Island. Whatever the route, chocolate arrived in English North America at about the same time it arrived in England. It was available as chocolate nuts, as shells, and in processed “chocolate cakes,” lumps of grated powder and sugar ready to be stirred into boiling water, mixed with whatever ingredients one preferred, and frothed with the little hand mill.Those who bought the cacao seed had to roast and grind the chocolate themselves or, more likely, have their servants or slaves do the tedious job. Those who, like Martha Washington, purchased the cacao shells, steeped them in hot water to make a thin chocolaty drink that was easier on the stomach than oily chocolate.

A Cup of Hot Chocolate, S’good for What Ails Ya, Part 1

Virginia Breakfast Gift Box

Winter Cheer

We are currently selling Steamer Traditional and White Chocolate Hot Cocoa in gift boxes and gift baskets. Steamer Cocoa's award winning recipe is an indulgent and rich combination of quality ingredients. The can of Traditional Hot Cocoa comes with an awesome old fashioned picture of a horse and carriage. The can of the White Chocolate Flavor comes with a gorgeous picture of ice skaters on a frozen pond. Brings back memories of long ago. The history of hot cocoa is an interesting one as told in an article in the Winter, 2012 edition of a popular history magazine published by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation called "A Cup of Hot Chocolate, S'Good for What Ails Ya. 

Conquistador Girolamo Benzoni, one of the first to taste the spicy Aztec beverage called cacahuatl, wrote, “It seemed more a drink for pigs than a drink for humanity. I was in this country for more than a year and never wanted to taste it, and whenever I passed a settlement, some Indian would offer me a drink of it and would be amazed when I would not accept, going away laughing. But then, as there was a shortage of wine. . . .” Benzoni, a sojourner in Mexico, was forced to relent. The taste he found “somewhat bitter” and noted “it satisfies and refreshes the body but does not inebriate.”

The drink had come to the Aztecs from their predecessors, the Mayas, and had originated with their predecessors, the Olmecs, who had domesticated the cacao tree three thousand years before. Made from the cacao seed, the drink was said to possess mystical properties and was consumed primarily by Aztec rulers and priests during sacred ceremonies.

Making cacahuatl was a tedious affair that involved roasting the cacao seeds—also called nuts or beans—to a precise degree of doneness, removing the shells, grinding them on stone to a paste, mixing that with other dried and ground ingredients like chili pepper, vanilla, flowers, and spices, dissolving the results in water, and pouring it from one vessel to another, back and forth, until it developed a foamy froth. The Aztecs drank it at room temperature.
The conquistadors sweetened New World cacahuatl with another exotic ingredient—Old World sugar—and called it chocolate.

Other Spaniards shared Benzoni’s opinion of the Aztec beverage but grasped its benefits: “He who drinks a cup of this liquid, no matter how far he walks, can go a whole day without eating anything else.” An “anonymous gentleman” in Hernando Cortes’s party proclaimed the nutritious liquid food “the healthiest thing.” The Spanish noted that the beverage stimulated the senses in general and, they believed, one sense in particular—it was widely considered an aphrodisiac. Still, they didn’t like the taste. But, sweetened, they served it hot with breakfast for its energy boost.
Of concern to Catholics was chocolate’s definition. Was it a food or a drink? This had serious religious implications: if it was a food, it could not be consumed on fast days. Theologians and popes debated the question for two hundred years.

Yes, one drank chocolate, but then again, so many foods could be added to it, including bread crumbs, eggs, and milk, that it functioned more like a food than a beverage. And there was no denying that the highly caloric drink alleviated hunger pangs. Complicating matters was its reputation as a sexual stimulant, something that seemed doubly sinful on a holy day. In the end, those who judged it a beverage prevailed. Protestants and Jews did not share the Catholics’ concerns.
The first recorded instance of chocolate in Spain came in 1544 when a gift of cacao seeds was presented to King Philip II. The steady stream of priests, soldiers, and aristocrats back and forth across the Atlantic for the previous five decades makes it likely, however, that it reached Spain earlier than that. The Spanish kept the ingredients to themselves for almost a century.

Initially, all the chocolate was consumed by the Spanish aristocracy, not re-exported, so few people outside Spain and Portugal came into contact with it. As supplies of sugar and cacao increased, chocolate drinking spread gradually throughout the courts of Europe and became the preferred beverage of the rich and royal.

Only the rich and royal could afford it. The drink was time-consuming to make, and its exotic ingredients—cacao, sugar, and spices—had to be imported from faraway continents. All were labor-intensive crops that required large plantations with many slaves. Increased demand spurred the Spanish to spread cultivation of the "chocolate nut tree" throughout their ballooning empire, from the West Indies to the Philippines.

Celebrate National January Food Days With Virginia Food

We want to wish all our customers a Happy 2013! Thanks for a successful holiday season. Thanks for your support of Virginia products! Now back to blogging.

January is National Soup Month

Blue Crab Bay Soup Sampler

We carry seafood soup from Blue Crab Bay and Chincoteague Seafood Company.

Blue Crab Bay has a New England Clam Chowder and Crab Norfolk Chowder with Virginia ham as well as Eastern Shore Chowder, She Crab Soup and a Cream of Crab Soup.

Chincoteague Gourmet Sampler

From Chincoteague Seafood we sell 3 Chowders: New England, Manhattan, Corn Chowder; 4 crab soups: She Crab, Vegetable Red Crab, Cream of Crab, and Crab and Cheddar and 4 bisques: Lobster, Clam, Lobster and Cheddar and Shrimp.  Many have been awarded The American Taste Award of Excellence Certificate.

The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg
Peanut Butter

January 24 National Peanut Butter Day
A favorite for years at The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg, all natural Virginia Peanut Butter has become famous. This peanut butter is just that - peanuts, and maybe a pinch of salt. No added sugars. Available in smooth, salt free smooth, crunchy, or as sampler of all three.

Milk Chocolate Peanut Brittle

Jan. 26 is National Peanut Brittle Day

We carry peanut brittle from The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg, It comes chocolate covered and plain, In tins, assortments, gift baskets, gift tins and gift boxes. There are even new brittle bites.

National Pie and National Chocolate Covered Anything Day

Sweet Potato Pie

During December there is a lot to celebrate, but let’s not forget to celebrate National Pie Day on December 1. It took generations to perfect the Classic Pecan Pie, and our recipe will make any Southern baker proud - using only fresh ingredients and fancy Georgia Pecan halves. Our Sweet Potato Pie is made exclusively for Smithfield in their friend Nell's Rockahock Farm kitchen. The tangy flavor, layered with cream cheese, and topped with pecans take the traditional sweet potato pie one step further.


Later in the month enjoy celebrating National Chocolate Covered Anything Day on December 16. We have plenty to choose from: chocolate covered peanuts, chocolate covered peanut brittle, chocolate covered specialty nuts include chocolate covered cashews and chocolate covered almonds, and chocolate peanut clusters. Some come in gift assortments.

Milk Chocolate Peanut Brittle

Chocolate Peanut Clusters

Chocolate Lover's Tin

Gift assortments include: Chocolate Peanut Clusters are Virginia Peanuts Topped With Caramel and Milk Chocolate. Chocolate Nutty Brittle comes in a tin, chock full of premium specialty nut dipped in rich milk chocolate to double your pleasure! Lightly roasted Georgia Pecans, Whole Almonds, Jumbo Cashews, and Macadamia Nuts make this delicious treat doubly special. The Colonial Tavern Peanut Basket Combo includes a tin of chocolate covered peanuts, along with a tin of salted peanuts, a 2 lb. Colonial Tavern Bag of Salted In-Shell Peanuts and an Official Peanut Basket. Deluxe Peanut Tower includes chocolate covered peanuts. Two Fine Nut Collections include Chocolate Covered Peanuts. Chocolate Lover’s Sampler includes dark and milk chocolate covered peanuts, chocolate brittle bites, milk chocolate almonds, dark chocolate cashews and peanut and caramel clusters. The Holiday Star Collection Box includes chocolate covered peanuts. The Holiday Trees Tin, Pine Cone Tin and the Little Drummer Collection include chocolate covered peanuts. The Nutcracker Holiday Tower includes chocolate covered peanut brittle. In the Gaming Collection, the Bridge Mix has assorted chocolate covered bites of nuts, cremes, caramels, and toffees and the Casino Mix includes chocolate covered almonds.

National Turkey Day, Stuffing Day, Leftovers Day and Cashew Day

Smoked Turkey and Smoked Ham

National Turkey Day or Thanksgiving is the 4th Thursday in November. The 4th Thursday in November is also National Stuffing Day. It seems natural that the 4th Friday in November is National Leftovers Day.

We have succulent whole smoked turkeys and smoked breasts of turkey as well as ham and turkey combos from Smithfield. Smithfield’s array of side dishes such as biscuits, sweet potato casserole, mac and cheese, green bean casserole and southern cornbread stuffing are available to make Thanksgiving extra easy.

Cornbread Stuffing

Indian Cashews

Thanksgiving’s great, but let’s not forget about crisp, firm, meaty, Indian Cashews. November 23 is National Cashew Day. We’ve got Indian cashews, chocolate covered cashews, honey toasted cashews, and cashews in gifts (tins, chests, and gift baskets).

October is National Apple Month and National Seafood Month

Apple Butter and Preserves Gift Box

October is National Apple Month
Good taste comes naturally to Virginia Apples. Our warm days, cool nights, rich deep soil and consistent rainfall are ideal for apple growing. The state of Virginia ranks sixth in the nation in apple production. This year, according to local orchard owners and state agriculture officials, a hotter and drier than average summer, followed by a late round of rain, will result in a good crop of apples in Central Virginia.

Graves Mountain Lodge, nestled deep in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Syria, Virginia, use family recipes and their own apples to make their old-fashioned Apple Butter perfectly spiced and incredibly smooth and creamy. The batches are kept small and each product is made as needed. They use the finest quality fruit, pure cane sugar and all natural seasonings in creating a product they feel is as good as "Grandma used to make."

Graves Mountain Lodge celebrates their apple harvest with an Apple Harvest Festival held: Saturday, October 06, 2012 - Sunday, October 07, 2012 Saturday, October 13, 2012 - Sunday, October 14, 2012 Saturday, October 20, 2012 - Sunday, October 21, 2012 Enjoy fun filled days complete with good food and entertainment including bluegrass music, cloggers, over 70 arts and crafts vendors, hayrides, hay mountain, hay maze and horseback rides. Experience the days of yesteryear watching apple butter being cooked in kettles over and open fire. We are proud sell Graves Mountain Apple Butter and Preserves in sets of three 9 oz. jars, assortments of 9 oz. jars, in gift boxes and in gift baskets.

Crab Balls

National Seafood Month

The Virginia seafood industry is one of the oldest industries in the United States and one of the Commonwealth’s largest. Virginia is the nation's third largest seafood producer and the largest on America's Atlantic Coast. Our prime fishing areas include the Atlantic Ocean, the Chesapeake Bay and its many tributaries, some of the most productive harvesting grounds in the United States We sell Chesapeake Bay Crab Balls and Crab Cakes. A fluffy blend of jumbo lump and backfin crabmeats are combined to import the sweet flavor of the Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab.

From Blue Crab Bay we sell five seafood soups, including Crab Norfolk, a chowder flavored with bits of Virginia Ham and potatoes and named after the dish that is made with crabmeat and ham. A more popular soup in the Southeast, Barefoot says the company's Southern Style She-Crab Soup is made with crab roe for added flavor and local blue crabs from the tidewater area. The Chesapeake Bay Style Cream of Crab Soup includes the company's Chesapeake Bay seasoning for a slightly spicier flavor. Finally, the company also offers New England Clam Chowder with pieces of Virginia ham. We also sell Blue Crab Bay seafood dip kits which are perfect for entertaining or gift giving. The Crab Dip Kit was a SILVER TROPHY WINNER at an International Fancy Food Show. The Clam Dip and the Shrimp Dip are equally delicious. All capture the flavor of the Chesapeake Bay! They are featured in many of our Virginia Marketplace gift baskets

We also offer 11 seafood soups from Chincoteague Seafood Company. Their product line can best be described as a "gourmet" quality line that is competitively priced and is “Naturally Sea-Licious”. They use no MSG, preservatives, artificial colorings or artificial flavorings in our soups. Chincoteague Seafood Company has been awarded the American Taste Award of Excellence certificates for their New England Clam Chowder, Corn Chowder, Manhattan Clam Chowder, Lobster Bisque, Shrimp Bisque, Clam Bisque, Cream of Crab Soup, and Vegetable Red Crab Soup.

The History of Peanut Soup

Peanut Soup Mix

Considered a southern delicacy in some parts of the country, peanut soup in America dates back to the early 1700’s. For decades, peanut connoisseurs have speculated about how this soup arrived and gained popularity in the United States.  

 History shows that peanuts have been around since the Incan Empire. Peanuts are a well-traveled legume. European explorers made their acquaintance in the Caribbean. Spaniards exported them, carrying them on ships to the Philippines and Indonesia. The Portuguese - who discovered peanuts in Brazil, not far from the legume's Peruvian birthplace - took peanuts to Africa, where the nutritious, hardy legume fed the nation's sailors stationed along the coast. Peanuts are thought to have been brought to America by the Portuguese slave traders who served peanuts while they were in transit.

“Peanuts were certainly eaten by slaves before they were eaten by whites”, says Frank Clark, who oversees the historic foodways program at Colonial Williamsburg, which for decades has served peanut soup to guests of the museum’s King’s Arms tavern – despite the dish being a culinary anachronism. “If you’d come to an 18^th-century tavern, it’s very unlikely you’d have encountered peanut soup there,” Clark says. Although there is no documentary evidence of peanut soups being served in 18thy century America, it is believed that the slave diet would have included peanut soups, mushes and stews, perhaps styled after the tomato-based soups popular in central Africa or a Sudenese soup made with lamb bones, garlic and rice. Still, the soup - which marks many northerners' first introduction to creamy peanuts in a bowl - will stay on the menu, since Colonial Williamsburg is obliged to honor its own history as well as the record of what occurred during the Colonial era. bones, garlic and rice.

It’s unclear exactly how peanuts evolved from a food seen as fit for slaves and pigs to a food approved by Anglo-American tastemakers. The first known recipe comes from an 1847 cookbook by a Sarah Rutledge, a housewife from South Carolina, who published a recipe for Ground Nut Soup. Her recipe includes a pint of oysters and peanuts ground with flour. After her book was published, several other variations of the soup appeared in newspapers and cookbooks.

It is still a mystery to how peanut soup became a popular dish at fine dining restaurants across the country. The popularity of peanut soup surged domestically after the Civil War, during which Confederate soldiers introduced their Union counterparts to the legume. The increased availability of peanut butter also helped. In Germany, a doctor praised cheap, albumen-rich peanut soup as the perfect “article of food for the corpulent, for diabetics and for subjects of kidney disease.”  Peanut soup became popular in American homes in the early twentieth century, as peanuts and peanut butter became available at grocery stores across the country. Peanut soup is now served at several fine dining restaurants, America Eats Tavern in Washington, D.C. and Wit and Wisdom in Baltimore both feature the soup on their menus.

I
n 1941, the National Peanut Council published a collection of peanut soup recipes from George Washington Carver.  He is believed to have had the largest collection of peanut soup recipes during that time, including recipes for peanut bisque, peanut soups, a consommé, and purees.

The PeanutShop of Williamsburg All-Natural Peanut Soup evokes memories of Colonial tavern fare. Just add chicken stock for a rich, creamy and fortifying soup that will warm the hearts of the hungry.