FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - cost of producing a goblet of Montezuma's cocoa beverage?

**Matt Giwer**

bobbie sellers wrote:
On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 21:02:37 -0500,Matt Giwer, wrote
wrote:
Cortes reported that Montezuma drank 50 goblets of (non-sweetened)
cocoa beverage before entering his harem.
a goblet of cocoa was expensive to make in pre-mechanized society.
Even if the laborers were nominally slaves, they had to be fed,
clothed, housed, etc. In fact, the houseservants of a sovereign are
normally well kept.
Is it possible to estimate an equivelant 2007 value of a goblet of
Monteuma's cocoa drink?
One presumes what about the nature of the drink? Was it made from
the bean? Did it contain leaves? How was it prepared? One presumes it
was whatever they considered the best quality but we have no idea what
they thought that was. If we are just talking the bean the preparation
is trivial independent of the quality of the bean. Consider it like
gourmet coffee. Other than civet coffee it is all the same process.
And then who made it? The cost would be the cost of keeping that
person employed or alive or whatever. Clearly it would cost more if a
priest made it than a slave but it could have been a cheap apprentice
priest and slave for display who had to be kept in expensive clothing
to show of the emperor wealth.
And a dozen other factors such as did the great beans grow in his
backyard or in the farthest reaches of the empire?
All of this means we may never know what it cost. And if my some
miracle we found all the factors above translating that into dollars
would be near impossible because the basis for the economy was entirely
different. In a well-run economy slaves cost more than share-croppers.
In a hierarchical system with great rewards at the top an apprentice
priest may work for scraps for the opportunity.

From the chocolate FAQ:

1.1 What is chocolate? Where does it come from?

Chocolate is a food made from the seeds of a tropical tree called
the cacao. These trees flourish in warm, moist climates. Most of the
world's cacao beans come from West Africa, where Ghana, the Ivory Coast
and Nigeria are the largest producers. Because of a spelling error,
probably by English traders long ago, these beans became known as cocoa
beans.

Actually several non-beans came to be called beans before Linnaeus, coffee
beans for example.

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