As Carol mentions, Coe gives us brief background on the history of the indigenous people of Mesoamerica and how they used chocolate. It is fascinating to me that it was both money and beverage. Money really grew on trees! I found this part interesting and it provided the proper context for the story. Coe attempts to do the same when he writes about the history of France and Great Britain, but here I definitely felt like we were getting a "light" history. It was so brief and basic that it almost wasn't useful. I realize his book is about chocolate and not European history, but at times it felt to me like an episode of "How It's Made" TV. The book provides a running narrative of the timing and uses of chocolate, and it discusses the tools and methods of making it, but I did not come away with the understanding that I did from our book on sugar. In the end Coe says that chocolate has come full circle as it returns to small farms in Central America, but I would have like more information on why and how it left. Much more detail is needed on the effects of slavery and the modern version of slavery in West Africa, child labor.
I do agree that the book was labor of love, with Coe fulfilling his wife's dream. But I was never sure if the goal of the book was to entertain us, to provide a researched history of chocolate as a commodity, or to function as a cook book.
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