Chocolate: A Cultural Encyclopedia (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781440876073)

Chocolate is nearly always with us--when celebrating or mourning, in love or alone, healthy or sick, happy or sad. This book offers a comprehensive look at how an exotic food grew to play such a central role in our lives.

No food in the world can offer as storied a history as chocolate. Chocolate: A Cultural Encyclopedia focuses on cocoa's history from ancient Mesoamerican beginnings as a symbol of ritual, life, and death, to its omnipresence in Europe, North America, and the rest of the world. In 10 thematic chapters covering chocolate in society and culture, 80 shorter entries, recipes, and a comprehensive timeline, this new book takes a closer look at how chocolate has served as a medicine, an indulgence, a symbol of decadence, a door to romance, a tempting taboo, a means of survival, and a snack for children and adults alike.

Why did popes and kings so fear their chocolate? Who invented milk chocolate, and why was its formula kept secret? Why did soldiers in World War II despise their chocolate rations? Who makes the most chocolate today? Find out the answers to these questions and more as this book tells you everything you wanted to know--and a lot you didn't even know existed--about the seed from the world's favorite fruit tree.

Author: Ross F. Collins
ISBN-10: 144087607X
ISBN-13: 9781440876073
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Language: English
Published: 06/01/2022
Pages: 448
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.55lbs
Size: 10.10h x 6.90w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 08/01/2022 pg. 123
Booklist 12/16/2022
Choice 06/01/2023