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The True History of Chocolate
 
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The True History of Chocolate (Paperback)

by Sophie D. Coe (Author), Michael D. Coe (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The Coes, both anthropologists with a culinary bent, delve deeply into the history of their mouth-watering subject. The material on ancient cultures is particularly fascinating--did you know that the Maya used unsweetened liquid chocolate as currency? And in a chapter called "Chocolate for the Masses," they detail the modernization of chocolate manufacture, which has allowed more than 25 million Hershey's Kisses to roll off the conveyor belt each day. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The Washington Post
Exceptionally interesting throughout.

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 280 pages
  • Publisher: Thames & Hudson (October 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0500282293
  • ISBN-13: 978-0500282298
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #137,150 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #27 in  Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Baking > Chocolate
    #97 in  Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Gastronomy > History

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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Totally Cholestorol Free, September 5, 2001
This review is from: The True History of Chocolate (Hardcover)
This book may be the only way to indulge in chocolate without gaining weight. The "True History of Chocolate" is fascinating in relating the Mayan and Inca cacao rituals - chocolate was an all-purpose sauce, drink, drug, what-have-you, as the recent film "Chocolat" attests. There are wonderful stories of chocolate's introduction to aristocratic Europe, as immortalized by Dicken's account of the Marquis' chocolate drinking in "A Tale of Two Cities." As today, doctors of the day were divided on chocolate's merits, wildly debating whether chocolate generated a phlegmatic or choleric humor. Only very recently was chocolate sweetened, and only later yet was it reduced to solid form and packaged in factories. The Coes seem to suggest that something mysterious was forever lost when the vulgarians of Cadbury and Hershey started peddling cacao to the masses.
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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful account of cacoa history, June 25, 2003
By Brenda Jo Mengeling (Davis, CA USA) - See all my reviews
Sophie and Michael Coe have written a emminently readable history of chocolate. They emphasize the origins of cacoa in the New World, and the Spanish conquerors' response to their "discovery" of cacoa. The story fascinates, and I liked how the authors presented all the options when historical records were scarce or contradictory. The text is interspersed with clarifying illustrations, some are in color. The 19th and 20th centuries are covered in brief. The book ends with the resurgence in deluxe chocolates that use the rarer yet better tasting cacoa beans, and explains why these chocolates are so much better tasting than the supermarket candy bar. All in all, an excellent read.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful Reading!, August 24, 2004
This book was an extremely readable examination of the history of chocolate, starting with the ancient MesoAmericans and ending with contemporary European and American chocolate makers. Anyone interested in the history and development of their favorite confection or beverage should read this book - it's written engagingly in the first half, and then peters out just a tad towards the end. I wished for more about the modern chocolate industry, and a little more about the current manufacturing spike in fine chocolates. But as an anthropological study revolving around the development of chocolate, I could ask for nothing more. Coe and Coe have inspired a chocolate tasting party and an academic interest in a gastrologic subject.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Impressively researched
This is not the easiest of reads because the style is a little dry and academic. However, this is a serious book and an enormous amount of research has gone into it. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Adrenalin Streams

1.0 out of 5 stars Protestant Chocolate And Anglophile Myopia?
I was very disappointed at how the author managed to taint a fascinating story with his own personal biases. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Charles Corrigan

4.0 out of 5 stars Delicious Chocolate
Good book, well researched, but not much different to other books written on this subject. However, as a chocolate addict anything written about the best food on earth gets me in... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Helen Ford

5.0 out of 5 stars A delicious read about a delicious treat
Okay I must first confess I only read the first edition of this book, not the fancy schmancy second edition, but since I feel the two editions are mostly alike I shall proceed to... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Joseph K. Dittmer

4.0 out of 5 stars A Delectable Treat.
The history of chocolate has never been so wonderfully woven like it is in this book. This uncomplicated book traces the cacao story back to its origin with the Olmec, Maya, and... Read more
Published 23 months ago by QT

2.0 out of 5 stars Find a More Trustworthy Source
The bulk of the research, and most of the first three chapters of this academic book, were written by Sophie Coe before her sudden death from cancer in 1993. Read more
Published on January 8, 2007 by WhatNow

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Story
Story book style of delivery made this book enjoyable for the entire family. This book was packed full of information yet the manner in which it is written made it enjoyable to... Read more
Published on February 15, 2006 by Rebecca Cuevas De Caissie

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging: Academic yet Readable
This book went beyond my expectations by presenting the history of chocolate in an unbiased, academic yet readable format. Read more
Published on August 28, 2003 by Rachel O.

5.0 out of 5 stars For the Love of Chocolate
"The ultimate origin of processed chocolate, though, seems to lie with the Olmec of the lowland forests of southern Mexico, some three millennia in the past, as shall be seen in... Read more
Published on March 4, 2003 by Rebecca Johnson

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding and well writen book
One of the best writen books I have read. Truthfull and soundly based, it is a monument for MS Coe.
Published on January 23, 1999 by Eliseo Castellano

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