Has chocolate always been popular?

Before Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World, no one in Europe had ever heard of chocolate. It wasn't until Spanish explorers arrived in Mexico, where cocoa beans grew, that Europeans were introduced to the world of chocolate.

It was the Aztecs who showed the Spaniards how to prepare a drink from cocoa beans, and it was from these explorers that chocolate was introduced to Spain.

However, chocolate did not become popular in countries other than Spain until the mid seventeenth century. And even then, and for a long time, Europeans only enjoyed chocolate in drink form, never in solid form, as we do today. Solid bars of chocolate to eat were not invented until 1876!

Strangely enough, even today, chocolate is not popular in most parts of the world. It is grown mainly in Africa and Latin America, but few people in the world eat it. The United States and nine European countries consume most of the chocolate produced in the world.

The Aztecs believed that eating cocoa beans gave them the wisdom and knowledge of the gods!

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What is the origin of vanilla?

Vanilla and chocolate have a lot in common. Both are native to Mexico. In fact, when Europeans first tasted vanilla, they tasted it along with chocolate!

When the Spanish explorers arrived in Mexico, the natives offered them a chocolate drink cooled with snow (from the mountains) and mixed with vanilla as a sweetener, since chocolate, by itself, is bitter.

In Europe, too, chocolate was served along with vanilla for more than a century after arriving from the New World. Then people started using sugar instead of vanilla to sweeten the chocolate; vanilla became a flavor on its own.

All the vanilla consumed in the world was grown in Mexico until 1836, when scientists found a way to grow it in other lands. Today, most of the world's vanilla comes from Madagascar and other islands in the Indian Ocean.

Vanilla comes from an orchid - which is the only orchid on Earth that produces a useful product.

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When did people start drinking coffee for the first time?

Coffee is so popular today that you might think people have always been drinking it. But most of the world started drinking coffee just a few hundred years ago.

Coffee plants first grew wild in East Africa and Arabia. Around 850, according to an Arab legend, a young goat herder was guarding his herd when he noticed that his goats began to act excitedly after eating the berries of a shrub. The goatherd tasted the berries and found that they tasted good. Coffee soon became popular throughout Arabia, and eventually spread to Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Until 1700, all the coffee in the world came from Arabia, as the Arabs guarded the secret of how it was grown. Eventually, a Dutch merchant smuggled some coffee plants and planted them on the island of Java in the East Indies. Soon, much of the coffee consumed in the world came from this place, so it began to be known as "Java".

Some French traders planted coffee in South America and kept the way it was grown a secret. However, a Brazilian soldier won the heart of a French woman, and she gave him some coffee seeds. The Brazilians then began to grow their own coffee, and today Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world.

Americans drink about 1,200,000,000 kilos of coffee a year - equivalent to one-third of all the coffee produced worldwide.

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Where was tea first drunk?

In 2737 BC, a Chinese emperor named Shen Nung was boiling a pot of water on top of a fire. One of the leaves feeding the fire fell into the container.

When the emperor drank the water, he found that it tasted delicious. What kind of leaf was it that gave the water its flavor? The leaf came from a perennial shrub called Camellia sinensis - better known to us as tea.

This story is just a legend. But tea was discovered in China or neighboring lands thousands of years ago. It spread throughout the East, but for many centuries it was only drunk as medicine.

Then the Chinese learned to roast the leaves - as Shen Nung's fire had done - to make the drink taste better, and people started drinking tea as a refreshing drink instead of a medicine.

Although India is the world's largest tea producer, tea was not grown in the country until the nineteenth century.

The largest tea consumers in the world are, of course, the English.

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Where do potatoes come from?

Potatoes are so popular and important that you might think they've been part of the world's diet for a long time. But that's not true. No one in Europe had actually seen a potato until a few hundred years ago.

When Spanish explorers arrived in South America in the sixteenth century, they realized that the Incas were growing and eating a tuber.

Explorers sent some of these tubers to Europe, where they were planted. The Spaniards thought the tuber looked a lot like the batata (sweet potato), so they called the new food patata. This word became potato in England.

It wasn't until the eighteenth century that people in England, France and the American colonies started eating potatoes often. In Germany, the king ordered all farmers to plant potatoes to help solve the country's food shortage. For farmers who refused, the king decreed that their noses and ears be cut off!

The average American eats about 55 kilos of potatoes a year. But Uganda is the country where this tuber is consumed the most, with 475 kilos per capita per year!

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Where do oranges come from?

We can consider ourselves much more fortunate than the people of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. Today we can enjoy a delicious glass of orange juice in the morning - while in ancient times there was not a single orange in all of Europe or Africa.

The orange has its origin in China, where it was already eaten before the year 2000 BC. Arab traders brought the orange to India and the Near East before the ninth century, and Muslims used to cultivate the fruit on the lands they conquered, including Spain, Sicily, and North Africa. The Crusaders brought the orange from Palestine to France, and by the late Middle Ages the fruit was well known throughout the Mediterranean.

The fruit that was grown at that time was not the sweet orange that we eat today. It was called the sour orange, which was smaller and less rounded than the sweet orange, with less juice, less sugar, and a characteristic sour taste. Today, this type of orange is grown mainly in Spain, and is used for jams and some drinks.

Sweet orange appeared in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries, perhaps brought there by Italian or Portuguese merchants from the East. During the 16th century, the Spaniards brought the fruit to the New World and Florida. Today, Brazil and the United States are the world's largest producers of oranges.

The biggest orange on record weighed more than 1.8 kilos!

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When was bread first made?

Mankind has been making some kind of bread for over 10,000 years.

The first men probably chewed the seeds of wheat and other cereals, either raw or toasted. Some time later, primitive people learned to crush cereal grains between two stones, separate the cover from the seeds, and turn starch and other elements into a powder (flour). The powder could be mixed with water to form the dough, and it could then be put on fire.

The ancient Egyptians and the Hebrews were the first to discover that the fermented dough - a yeast dough - produced lighter and better tasting bread. The Egyptians were probably also the first to bake white wheat bread. But even as late as the 17th century, English peasants rarely ate white bread, as the most common bread they made was barley and rye.

The work of milling wheat into flour was an arduous task until around 200 BC, the first milling machines were invented. Later, waterwheels and windmills were used to move the large stones that ground the wheat.

Bread has always been important because of its low cost and high nutritional value. Bread is so important all over the world that it is called "the provider of life."

A 3,500 year old loaf of bread was found in an Egyptian tomb!

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Where do bananas come from?

The banana has been called the fruit that the man first met, it began to be enjoyed long before the story began.

The first banana probably grew in Malaysia and Thailand in Southeast Asia, and was spread by Chinese and Indian natives at a very early date. Alexander the Great and his soldiers who conquered parts of India in the 4th century BC were probably the first Europeans to eat the fruit.

In 1516, a priest brought the first of the banana plants to the New World, planting them on a Caribbean island. The banana grew so well there that it was soon planted in all the tropical regions of Central and South America. But bananas remained expensive in the United States until 1900, when traders found better ways to transport fresh bananas to the United States.

Today, bananas are the most popular fresh fruit. Americans eat more apples and oranges than bananas, but many of these apples and oranges are in the form of juices and prepared foods. Bananas are almost always eaten fresh. Each year, Americans enjoy about 12 billion bananas - about 8.6 kilos per person!

When the Puritan settlers settled in what is now the United States, and received a shipment of bananas for the first time, they boiled them with everything and the peel!

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Which country is the largest producer of vanilla?

When you think of Madagascar, you immediately think of the main crops on this island, which are cocoa, sugar and vanilla.

Vanilla is a member of the orchid family. Like cocoa, vanilla is native to Mexico. At first, it was used as a sweetener for chocolate products. Vanilla was later used on its own as a flavor of its own, but it was found that the plant did not grow elsewhere, but only in Mexico.

Then, in 1836, a scientist discovered that for pollination, the vanilla plant depends on a certain type of bee that lives only in Mexico. He then invented a way to artificially pollinate the plant, so that it could be cultivated in any hot climate nation.

Today, Madagascar and a number of other islands in the Indian Ocean account for about three-quarters of the world's vanilla production.

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How does wine turn into vinegar?

Vinegar is created by a chemical change called fermentation. During fermentation, the sugar in the wine or juice is transformed into alcohol and gas. When the gas evaporates, it leaves only the alcohol and a fruity taste.

The next step in the fermentation process is called oxidation, when oxygen in the air is mixed with certain bacteria in the alcohol, it is changed into vinegar.

Fermentation takes place when the liquid is found in large wooden barrels. These barrels have holes to allow air circulation. Since the alcohol in the juice or wine is lighter than the rest of the liquid, it rises to the top of the barrel.

At the top, the alcohol comes into contact with the air and forms acetic acid. This acid increases the weight of the alcohol, taking it to the bottom of the barrel in the form we know as vinegar.

It may take one to two years for a barrel of wine or juice to ferment naturally into vinegar.

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How are raisins created?

Since the ancient Egyptians were the first to discover that drying grapes preserved them longer, improved their flavor, and made them sweeter, people have been able to enjoy raisins.

Most of today's raisins are made from seedless grapes grown in the vineyards of large orchards. Each vine, with the right care, can produce fruit for more than 100 years. After the grapes ripen on the vine, they are picked by hand or machine. They are then placed on a thick brown paper that is placed on the ground next to the vines. There they are left to dry in the sun for 10 to 15 days.

Once dried, the raisins are stored for several days in large containers where their humidity is controlled. The raisins are then sent to the packing centres where they are washed and finally packed.

Raisins with seeds pass through an additional machine where rubber rollers gently press the seeds to separate them from the raisins.

Raisins were considered a delicacy by the ancients, even the Bible tells us of an Israelite who paid his taxes to King David with raisins!

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How is gelatin formed?

When hot water is poured over the powdered gelatin to make a dessert, the powder seems to disappear. But that's not really the case. It still exists, but you can't see it.

What has happened is that hot water dissolves the powder into tiny particles that chain together. These particles are so small that you can't see them, but they are floating in the water.

When each small chain cools down, it begins to act like a magnet. It can't pick up nails or tacks, but it can attract water, and that's exactly what happens: more and more drops of water cling to each small chain until all the contents in a container are gelatinized.

When gelatin is cooled, it hardens because these chains contain water droplets tightly together. But if the gelatine is reheated, the water is released from each chain and the mixture becomes a liquid again.

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What happens to milk when it is pasteurized?

If you look at a bottle of milk, you'll find it written that the milk is pasteurized.

This process was named after the French scientist Louis Pasteur, who invented it. Pasteurization kills any bacteria that might be present in milk, and ensures its health.

How is milk pasteurized? It is simply heated. Pasteur discovered that if milk is heated to a certain temperature, no bacteria can survive in the liquid.

There are two common processes of pasteurizing milk. One is to heat it to at least 63° C. for 30 minutes, and the second is to heat it to 72° C. for 15 seconds.

In the United States, the first time milk was pasteurized occurred in 1895. Today, all milk that is marketed must be pasteurized.

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Where does the pepper come from?

You've probably peppered your food thousands of times. But did you know that this spice comes from a fruit?

Black pepper is the product of a shrub that grows in Southeast Asia and Indonesia. The shrub is a plant that tangles and climbs over tree trunks in the same way an ivy does.

The workers pick the small fruits of this plant and dry them into the tiny peppercorns we know. White pepper comes from the same plant, but is produced from ripe fruits rather than dried ones.

Other kinds of pepper, such as cayenne pepper, come from different plants. Singapore is the capital of this spice trade.

A quarter of the world's spice trade is based on pepper.

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Where does the liquor come from?

Liquor and other alcohol-containing beverages would not exist at all if it weren't for the tiny unicellular fungi called yeasts. These organisms live in foods high in sugar, such as fruit juices.

As yeasts multiply, they change sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This process is called fermentation. The carbon dioxide gas is sometimes left in the finished beverage, producing bubbly drinks such as beer and champagne.

Each type of alcoholic beverage or liquor has a different taste, depending on the vegetables or fruits that were fermented to make the alcohol. Scotch whisky is made from barley, bourbon is made mostly from corn, and vodka is made from potatoes or grains such as wheat and rye.

Rum is made from sugar cane or molasses, while gin is made from grain and seasoned with juniper seeds. Tequila is made from a plant called agave that grows in Mexico. Wine is usually made from fermented grapes, and brandy is made from fruit or fruit juice. Beer is made from barley.

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Why does canned food stay fresh for a long time?

When canning was invented, no one knew why food packaged and heated inside cans was kept fresh for a long time.

Then, in 1860, French scientist Louis Pasteur discovered that food spoilage was due to bacteria present in all fresh food and air. These organisms contaminate the substances in the food and make it useless and harmful to man.

It was then understood how canning worked to conserve food: Heat kills bacteria in food, and hermetic sealing of the can prevents more bacteria from entering the contents. The food inside a can will be fresh until the container is opened.

In the 1920s, U.S. companies found that liquid packaging of food kept it much fresher and more nutritious. That's why most canned goods now contain water. All cans are also vacuum-packed, meaning that all the air has been removed from the can before it is hermetically sealed. This prevents bacteria in the air from contaminating the food.

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Does combining alcoholic beverages make you more intoxicated?

 For some experts, this is really just a psychological illusion, as "spirit drinks" contain the same type of alcohol, ethanol. In certain experiments, it has been observed that certain subjects, convinced that they are consuming alcoholic beverages, present the same symptoms as those who actually do.

Being drunk only depends on the amount of alcohol in the blood. In hangover, we think that the effects of hangover are due to the "deadly mixture" of different types of liquors or wines and not to the amount we ingest.

In short, we could say that it is not the quality of the different drinks that are drunk at the same time, but the exceeding of the tolerance limit of our body to alcohol.

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Who invented ice cream?

 Four thousand years ago, the Chinese were already making a kind of blanduce paste from iced milk. This dessert was reserved for the affluent class and was a symbol of great wealth.

In Europe, ice cream made from milk and fruit suddenly appeared in Italy in the 14th century, and the credit for these desserts was wrongly attributed to Marco Polo and a Tuscan pastry cook, Bernardo Buontalenti.

In 1533, when Catherine de Medici married the son of Francis I, the future Henry II, King of France, used Italian fruit ice cream to show the rest of the world the culinary qualities of his country.

In the 1920s, the American confectioner Harry Burt of Youngs-town, Ohio, devised the first ice cream supported by a stick.

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Will we know the Coca-Cola formula?

Despite all the technological advances, knowing the exact composition of the famous refreshing drink is very difficult because of the way in which their ingredients have been mixed.

The basic elements of colas, in addition to water, are lemon, lime, cola nut and cinnamon, which can be accompanied by hundreds of minor ingredients, some in really small quantities, which give these sodas their characteristic flavor.

Many of these ingredients, such as lemon oil, are themselves complex mixtures of dozens of organic chemicals. For this reason and because of its different sources of origin, the analysis and identification of the ingredients of the Coca-Cola formula becomes so difficult, rather impossible. For example, Florida lemon oil has certain specific characteristics that differentiate it from that of California or Veracruz in Mexico.

Analytical techniques such as gas chromatography and mass spectrography have long been used by the industry, but they are not advanced enough to reveal the exact and complex combination of ingredients that give the popular soft drink its unmistakable flavor.

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