A Curious Treatise OF The Nature and Quality OF CHOCOLATE VVritten in Spanish by ANTONIO COLMENERO Doctor in Physicke and Chirurgery And put into English by Don Diego de Vades-forte Imprinted at London by J. Okes dwelling in Little St. Bartholmewes 1640. To the Right Honourable EDWARD Lord Viscount CONWAY and KILLULTAH Baron of RAGLEY Lord Marshall of the Army and Privy Counsellour of IRELAND and one of the Counsell of Warre to His MAIESTY of GREAT BRITTAINE MY LORD THis Stranger who hath newly learnt the English Tongue dares not venture himselfe in Publick without a Patronage which with all humblenesse he intreats of Your Lordship The great Affection Your Lordship hath shewne to the Spanish Language and the Benignity wherewith You are pleased to entertaine whatsoever relisheth of Art or Ingenuity makes him hope You will not refuse Your Favour and Protection to one of that Nation Nor knowes he where to shelter himselfe with so much safety the Eminence of Your Person and Judgement being of power to secure him from all petulant and malicious Exceptions Be pleased then my Lord to receive him with Favour So may those Excellent and Naturall Beauties of this happy Isle who shall have either Health or Pleasure from this Confection be ever serene and gratefull to Your Lordship presaging encrease of Honour and all Felicity answerable to the humble Devotion and hearty Prayers of Your Lordships most obedient and obliged Servant Don Diego V'ades-forte The Allowance of Melchor de Lara Physitian Generall for the Kingdome of Spaine I Doctor Melchor de Lara Physitian Generall for the Kingdome of Spaine at the command of Don John de Velasco and Asebedo Vicar Generall of Madrid have seene this Treatise of Chocolate composed by Antonio Colmenero of Ledesma which is very learned and curious and therefore it ought to be Licensed for the Presse it containing nothing contrary to good Manners and it cannot but be very pleasing to those who are affected to Chocolate In testimony whereof I have subscribed my Name in Madrid the 23. day of August 1631. Melchor de Lara The Testimoniall of John de Mena Doctor and Physitian to the King of Spaine I Iohn de Mena Physitian to his Maiesty and one of the Counsell Generall of the Inquisition have seene this Treatise of Chocolate composed by Doctor Antonio Colmenero of Ledesma by command of the Supreame Royall Court of Iustice which containeth nothing contrary to good Manners and the Subiect is very learnedly handled and with great Judgement and no doubt but it will give much pleasure and content to all those who are affected to Chocolate and therefore may be printed And in confirmation of this truth I have hereto subscribed my Name the 17. of Septemb. 1631. John de Mena Doctor in Physicke To the Reader THe number is so great of those who in these times drinke Chocolate that not onely in the Indies where this kinde of Drinke hath its orignall but it is also much used in Spaine Italy and Flanders and particularly at the Court And many doe speake diversly of it according to the benefit or hurt they receive from it Some saying that it is stopping Others and those the greater part that it makes one fat Others that the use of it strengthens the stomacke Others that it heats and burnes them And others say that although they take it every houre and in the Dog-dayes yet they finde themselves well with it And therefore my desire is to take this paines for the pleasure and profit of the publicke endeavouring to accommodate it to the content of all according to the variety of those things where with it may be mixt that so every man may make choise of that which shall be most agreeable to his disposition I have not seen any who hath written any thing concerning this drinke but onely a Physitian of Marchena who as it seemes writ onely by Relation holding an opinion that the Chocolate is stopping because that Cacao the principall Ingredient of which it is made is cold and dry But because this onely reason may not have power to keepe some from the use of it who are troubled with Opilations I thinke fit to defend this Confection with Philosophicall Reasons against any whosoever will condemne this Drinke which is so wholesome and so good knowing how to make the Paste in that manner that it may be agreeable to divers dispositions in the moderate drinking of it And so with all possible brevity I shall distinguish and divide this Treatise into foure poynts or Heads In the first place I shall declare what Chocolate is and what are the Qualities of Cacao and the other Ingredients of this Confection where I shall treate of the Receipt set downe by the aforesaid Author of Marchena and declare my opinion concerning the same The second point shall treat of the Quality which resulteth out of the mixture of these Simples which are put into it In the third place the manner of Compounding and how many wayes they use to drinke it in the Indies In the fourth and last place I shall treate of the Quantity and how it ought to be taken at what Time and by what Persons The first Point COncerning the first Point I say that Chocolate is a Name of the Indians which in our vulgar Castilian we may call a certaine Confection in which amongst other Ingredients the principall Basis and Foundation is the Cacao of whose Nature and Quality it is necessary first to treat And therefore I say according to the common received opinion that it is cold and dry à praedominio that is to say that though it be true that every Simple containes in it the Qualities of the foure Elements in the action and re-action which it hath in it yet there results another distinct Quality which we call Complexion This Quality or Complexion which ariseth of this Mixture is not alwayes one and the same neither hath it the effect in all the mixtures but they may be varied nine wayes foure Simple from whence one onely quality doth abound and foure Compounded from whence two Symbolizing qualities are predominant and one other which we call ad pondus which is of all these fore-said qualities which are in aequilibrio that is to say in equall measure and degree Of all these the Complexion of Cacao is composed since there arise two qualities which are cold and dry and in the substance that rules them hath it restringent and obstructive of the nature of the Element of the Earth And then as it is a Mixe and not a simple Element it must needes have parts correspondent to the rest of the Elements and particularly it partakes and that not a little of those which correspond with the Element of Aire that is Heat and Moysture which are governed by the Unctuous parts there being drawne out of the Cacao much Butter which in the Indies I have seene drawne out of it for the Face by the Criollas It may
Philosophically be objected in this manner Two contrary Qualities and Disagreeing cannot be in gradu intenso in one and the same Subject Cacao is cold and drie in predominency Therefore it cannot have the qualities contrary to those which are Heate and Moysture The first Proposition is most certaine and grounded upon good Philosophy The second is consented unto by all The third which is the Conclusion is regular It cannot be denyed but that the Argument is very strong and these reasons being considered by him of Marchena have made him affirme that Chocolate is Obstructive it seeming to be contrary to Philosophy that it there should bee found Heate and Moysture in gradu intenso and to be so likewise in Cold and Dry To this there are two things to be answered One that he never saw the experience of drawing out the Butter which I have done and that when the Chocolate is made without adding any thing to the dryed Powder which is incorporated onely by beating it well together and is united and made into a Paste which is a signe that there is a moist and glutinous part which of necessity must correspond with the Element of Aire The other reason we will draw from Philosophy affirming that in the Cacao there are different Substances In the one that is to say in that which is not so fat it hath a greater quantity of the Oylie then of the earthy substance and in the fatter parts it hath more of the earthy than of the Oily substance In these there is Heat and Moysture in predominancy and in the other cold and dry Notwithstanding that it is hard to be believed that in one and the same substance and so little of the Cacao it can have substances so different To the end that it may appeare more easie cleare and evident first we see it in the Rubarbe which hath in it hot and soluble parts and parts which are Binding Cold and Dry which have a vertue to strengthen binde and stop the loosenesse of the Belly I say also that hee that sees and considers the steele so much of the Nature of the earth as being heavy thicke cold and dry it seemes to be thought unproper for the caring of Opilations but rather to be apt to encrease them and yet it is given for a proper remedy against them This difficulty is cleared thus that though it be true that it hath much of the Earthy part yet it hath also parts of Sulphur and of Quick-silver which doe open and disopilate neither doth it so untill it be helped by Art as it is ground stirred and made fine in the preparing of it the Sulphurous parts and those of Quick-silver being thinne active and penetrative they mingle at the last with those parts which are Earthy and astringent Insomuch that they being mingled after this manner one with another we cannot now say that the steele is astringent but rather that it is penetrative attenuating and opening Let us prove this Doctrine by Authorities and let the first be from Gallen lib. 3. of the qualities of Simples cap. 14. Where first of all he teacheth that almost all those Medicines which to our sence seeme to bee simple are notwithstanding naturally Compounded containing in themselves contrary qualities and that is to say a quality to expell and to retaine to incrassate and attenuate to rarifie and to condense Neither are we to wonder at it it being understood that in every fore-said Medicine there is a quality to heate and to coole to moisten and to dry And whatsoever Medicine it bee it hath in it thicke and thinne parts rare and dense soft and hard And in the fifteenth Chapter following in the same Booke hee puts an example of the Broth of a Cocke which moves the Belly and the Flesh hath the vertue to binde He puts also the example of the Aloes which if it be washt looseth the Purgative vertue or that which it hath is but weake That this differing vertue and faculty is found in divers substances or parts of simple Medicaments Gallen shewes in the first Booke of his simple Medicines and the seventeenth Chapter bringing the example of Milke in which three substances are found and separated that is to say the substance of Cheese which hath the vertue to stop the Fluxe of the Belly and the substance of Whay which is Purging and Butter as it is expressed in the said Gallen Cap. 15. Also we finde in Wine which is in the Must three substances that is to say earth which is the chiefe and a thinner substance which is the flower and may be called the scum or froath and a third substance which we properly call Wine And every one of these substances containes in it selfe divers qualities and vertues in the colour in the smell and in other Accidents Aristotle in the fourth Booke of the Meteors and the first Chapter treating of Putrifaction hee found the same substances and in the second Chapter next following where he that is curious may read it And also by the doctrine of Galen and of Aristotle divers substances are attributed to every of the mixt under one and the same forme and quantity which is very conformable to reason if we consider that every Aliment be it never so simple begets and produceth in the liver foure humours not onely differing in temper but also in substance and begets more or lesse of that humour according as that Aliment hath more or fewer parts corresponding to the substance of that humour which is most ingendred And so in cold diseases we give warme nourishment and cold nourishment in hot diseases From which evident examples and many others which we might produce to this purpose wee may gather that when we grinde and stirre the Cacao the divers parts which Nature hath given it doe artificially and intimately mixe themselves one with an other and so the uuctuous warme and moist parts mingled with the earthy as we have said of the steele represses and leaves them not so binding as they were before but rather with a mediocritie more inclining to the warme and moist temper of the Aire then to the cold and dry of the Earth as it doth appeare when it is made fit to drinke that you scarce give it two turnes with the Molinet when there riseth a fatty scumme by which you may see how much it partaketh of the Oylie part From which doctrine I gather that the Author of Marchena was in an errour who writing of Chocolate saith that it causeth Opilations because Cacao is astringent as if that astriction were not corrected by the intimate mixing of one part with an other by meanes of the grinding as is said before Besides it having so many ingredients which are naturally hot it must of necessity have this effect that is to say to open attenuate and not to binde and indeed there is no cause of bringing more examples or producing more reasons for this truth then that which we
see in the Cacao it selfe which if it be not stirred and compounded as aforesaid to make the Chocolate But eating of it as it is in the fruite as the Criollas eate it in the Indies it doth notably obstruct and cause stoppings for no other cause but this that the divers substances which it containes are not perfectly mingled by the mastication onely but require the artificiall mixture which we have spoken of before Besides our Adversary should have considered and called to his memory the first rudiments of Philosophy That à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter non valet consequentia As it is not enough to say the Black-a-Moore is white because his teeth are white for hee may bee blacke though he have white teeth and so it is not enough io say that the Cacao is stopping and therefore the Confection which is made of it is also stopping The Tree which beares this fruit is so delicate and the earth where it growes is so extreame hot that to keepe the tree from being consumed by the Sun they first plant other trees and when they are growne up to a good heighth then they plant the Cacao-trees that when it first shewes it selfe above the ground those trees which are already growne may shelter it from the Sunne and the fruit doth not grow naked but ten or twelue of them are in one Gorde or Codde which is of the bignes of a great blacke Figge or bigger and of the same forme and colour There are two sorts of Cacao the one is common which is of a gray colour inclining towards red the other is broader and bigger which they call Patlaxte and this is white and more drying whereby it causeth watchfulnes and drives away sleepe and therefore it is not so usefull as the ordinary This shall suffice to be said of the Cacao And as for the rest of the ingredients which make our Chocolaticall Confection there is notable variety because some doe put into it blacke Pepper and also Tauasco which is not proper because is is so hot and dry but onely for one who hath a very cold Liver And of this opinion was a certaine Doctor of the Universite of Mexico of whom a Religious man of good credit told me that he finding the ordinary round Pepper was not fit to bring his purpose about and to the end he might discover whether the long red pepper were more proper he made triall upon the liver of a Sheepe and putting the ordinary pepper on one side and the red pepper on the other after 24. houres the part where the ordinary pepperlay was dryed up and the other part continued moist as if nothing had bin throwen upon it The Receipt of him who wrote at Marchena is this Of Cacaos 700 of white Sugar one pound and a halfe Cinnamon 2. ounces of long red pepper 14. of Cloves halfe an ounce Three Cods of the Logwood or Campeche tree or in stead of that the weight of 2. Reals or a shilling of Annis-seeds as much of Achiote as will give it the colour which is about the quantity of a Hasell-nut Some put in Almons kernels of Nuts and Orenge-flower-water Concerning this Receipt I shall first say This shooe will not fit every foote but for those who have diseases or are inclining to be infirme you may either adde or take away according to the necessity and temperature of every one and I hold it not amisse that Sugar bee put into it when it is drunke so that it be according to the quantity I shall hereafter set downe And sometimes they make Tablets of the Sugar and the Chocolate together which they doe onely to please the Pallats as the Dames of Mexico doe use it and they are there sold in shops and are confected and eaten like other sweet-meats For the Cloves which are put into this drinke by the Author aforesaid the best Writers of this Composition use them not peradventure upon this reason that although they take away the ill savour of the mouth they binde as a learned Writer hath exprest in these verses Foetorem emendant or is Cariophila foedum Constring unt ventrem primaque membrajuvant And because they are binding and hot and dry in the third degree they must not be used though they helpe the chiefe parts of Concoction which are the stomacke and the Liver as appeares by the Verses before recited The husks or Cods of Logwood or Campeche are very good and smell like Fennell and every one puts in of these because they are not very hot though it excuse not the putting in of Annis-seed as sayes the Author of this Receipt for there is no Chocolate without it because it is good for many cold diseases being hot in the third degree and to temper the coldnesse of the Cacao and that it may appeare it helpes the indisposition of cold parts I will cite the Verses of one curious in this Art Morbosos renes vesicam guttura vuluam Intestina iecur cumque lyene caput Confortat varijsque Anisum subdita mortis Membra istud tantam vim leve semen habet The quantity of a Nut of the Achiote is too little to colour the quantity made according to his Receipt and therefore he that makes it may put it in as much as he thinkes fit Those who adde Almons and Nuts doe not ill because they give it more body and substance then Maiz or Paniso which others use and for my part I should alwayes put it in to Chocolate for Almonds besides what I have said of them before are moderately hot and have a thin juice but you must not use new Almons as a learned Author sayes in these Verses Dat modicè calidum dulcisque Amigdalasuccum Et tenuem inducunt damna nova And the small Nuts are not ill for our purpose for they have almost the temper which the Almons have onely because they are dryer they come nearer the temper of Choler and doe therefore strengthen the Belly and the Stomacke being dryed for so they must be used for the Confection and they preserve the head from those vapours which rise from the Belly as it appeares by the said Author in these Verses Bilis Avellanamsequitur sedroborat aluum Ventris à fumis liberat assacaput And therefore they are proper for such as are troubled with ventuosities and Hypochondriacall vapours which offend the brain and there cause such troublesome dreames and sad imaginations Those who mixe Maiz or Paniso in the Chocolate doe very ill because those graines doe beget a very melancholy Humour as the same Author expresseth in these verses Crassa melancholicum praestant tibi Panica succum Siccant si ponas membra geiantque foris It is also apparantly windy and those which mixe it in this Confection do it onely for their profit by encreasing the quantity of the Chocolate because every Fanega or measure of * Grani containing about a Bushell and