The History of Chocolate

By: Sam Bilton, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Sam Bilton

Chocolate is one of the most popular food items around the world. While most of us today consume it in the form of candy, desserts, and sugary drinks, chocolate has taken many forms as it traveled from its ancient Mesoamerican roots to the 21st century.

In the eight lectures of The History of Chocolate, you’ll join author and food historian Sam Bilton to trace the long and winding journey of a food that is so much more than just a sweet treat. You’ll venture back to the origins of chocolate in Maya culture and follow its progress as European settlers brought their New World discovery home to the continent. From there, you’ll see how chocolate was gradually transformed, democratized, and commodified to become the staple confectionary we know today. Along the way, you’ll also consider why we love chocolate as much as we do—and what science has to say about its effects on both mind and body.

Through chocolate’s long and ever-evolving story, you’ll witness the rise and fall of empires, the evolution of global trade, the expansion of industrialization, and more transformations that have shaped the world as we know it. From indigenous currency to European luxury to multibillion-dollar global business, chocolate has a history that offers tantalizing insights into human nature—both the bitter and the sweet.

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A comprehensive history on chocolate

I wasn’t expecting how incredibly in depth this course was, but I was glad for it. If you like history and historical facts, there’s plenty in here. It also includes how it went from a medicinal drink to a chocolate bar, how society embraced it, the dark side of exploitation and slavery, crimes committed and how modern companies are still innovating. The narrator was good and kept it interesting. It can seem a lot of information at first, but it’s engaging.

Informative

Lots of interesting information, presented well.
Much of it was new to me, including the interaction between some of the largest candy producers.

Good info, but unnecessarily bias.

The author injects unnecessary and inaccurate commentary on historical figures such as Columbus stating his goal of going to the new world was slaves. Which historically is inaccurate. Columbus only enslaved a cannibalistic tribe. Other than such distracting comments the story and narrative were good, but the above statements made me wonder about their historicity.

lackluster

I understand British people's first and main language is English, I American, get it. but goddamn the level of mispronunciation feels straight up disrespectful at times. I feel she tried harder to pronounce words correctly if they were still of European countries such as French, but really just makes me think the British are lazy speakers. anyways was definitely uninteresting at times, seemed very unorganized jumping around the timeline and going back and forth. does seem to get a little more interesting towards the end, might have been part because I really wanted it to end already but actually because it was a little more organized with more factual sounding details. unlike the begging where she speaks of Mesoamerica and you can tell her uncertainty, like she's just learning these things herself. but overall, didn't really learn anything I didn't already know, so am glad it was a very short course indeed.