PHILADELPHIA, September 24, 2014

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A unique tropical tree. A seed so precious it was used as money. A spicy drink and a sweet snack. A multi-billion-dollar worldwide business. Chocolate is all this and much more. Indulge in the sumptuous world of chocolate starting Saturday, Oct. 11, when Chocolate: The Exhibition, presented by Mars Chocolate North America, opens at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

Chocolate traces the intriguing story of this “food of the gods” from its origin as a unique tropical rain forest plant, to the Maya who made it into a spicy ceremonial drink, to the Aztecs who used cacao seeds as currency, to the Spanish who added sugar and transformed the bitter drink of kings, to the sensuous sweet millions of people crave today. Chocolate brings to life the rich history and wide impact the treat has had across the globe. It’s a sweet experience that engages all the senses and reveals facets of chocolate most people have never thought about before.

Visitors to Chocolate: The Exhibition will explore the plant, the products, the history, and the culture of chocolate through the lenses of botany and ecology, anthropology and economics, conservation and popular culture. Visitors can:

• Stand beneath a cacao tree in a lush rain forest replica and examine cacao seed pods up close.
• Engage with animated modern-day machinery that turns cacao from seed to sweet, solid bar.
• Follow a cacao harvest on a Mexican plantation and cacao’s preparation for market.
• Barter cacao seeds for goods in an Aztec market and learn about Quetzalcoatl, the god who brought the sacred source of chocolate to the Aztec.
• Interpret glyphs on a royal Maya pot and see archaeological vessels that once held the drink of kings.
• Admire beautiful porcelain and silver chocolate services from Europe.

"Chocolate: The Exhibition will change the way you enjoy chocolate,” said Director of Exhibits Jennifer Sontchi. “The fun of the exhibit is that afterwards, every bite of chocolate you taste is richer for what you learned about it here.”

Mars Chocolate History Ambassadors will share chocolate’s rich journey through time in several hands-on chocolate demonstrations and American Heritage Chocolate® drink tastings throughout the course of the exhibit. Hot chocolate bars, a beer and chocolate tasting, and other engaging activities are planned.

The plant and the midge

Philadelphia has played a key role in the chocolate industry for nearly 200 years and remains an important port for shipments of cacao and other ingredients used to make chocolate products. “The cuisine culture of Philly is one of the things that sets it apart, and numerous major chocolate companies are based in this region,” said Mary Bailey, special exhibits educator.

Bailey and her team will augment the exhibit with mobile “touch carts” bearing teaching treasures including a real cacao pod, monkey fur, puff balls, chocolate midges, snake skin, an okapi skull, and easy-to-digest information about the rainforests where cacao plants grow. Fall marks the debut of a new type of educational cart for engaging visitors, one that Bailey calls the tech cart.

“It has a digital screen where we can show magnified images, so groups of people can see dissections of flowers, fruits and pods and even look at the cells of an onion skin,” Bailey said.

Visitors also will see up close a very tiny insect, a midge, on which the $50 billion-a-year chocolate industry depends. It’s a fly that closely resembles a mosquito, and many scientists believe it is the only creature that pollinates the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao. Without the midge, there would be no cacao plant.

“Theobroma cacao has been the basis of a globalized industry for almost 500 years, yet we still know remarkably little about its pollination,” said Academy Assistant Curator of Botany Tatyana Livshultz, who studies pollination and is a Drexel University assistant professor. “The first pollination study on wild plants was published only last year. Under cultivation, fruit set in T. cacao is pollination limited, so optimizing pollination can have a major impact on the global supply of cacao.”

Another interesting aspect is that cacao is different from many other trees. It grows in the shade of larger trees in tropical regions of Central America, South America, Africa and Asia. It is relatively short—30–40 feet tall—and has lovely, delicate flowers that grow directly on the trunk and lower branches, where the low-flying midges can reach them.

A look back in time

Today chocolate is known primarily as a candy or sweet dessert, mass-produced or cooked up in mom’s kitchen.  But it wasn’t always so.

The ancient Maya of Mexico and Central America (200–900 C.E.) knew it as a frothy, spicy drink, made from the seeds of the cacao tree and used in royal and religious ceremonies. The Aztec, between the 13th and 16th centuries, used the cacao seeds as money, and the chocolate drink was reserved for warriors and nobility for use in rituals and ceremonies. In the 16th century, the Spanish mixed sugar into the drink, and, almost a century later, the first English chocolate house opened.  

Chocolate: The Exhibition fills in the sordid, the fascinating and the fun details of chocolate, including stories involving slavery, World War II and myths about chocolate’s amorous effects. Complementing the exhibit, the Academy will present daily showings of Modern Marvels videos about chocolate, as well as special chocolate tastings and weekend programs.

Chocolate and its national tour were developed by The Field Museum, Chicago. This exhibition was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation. Chocolate is presented by Mars Chocolate North America. 6ABC is the Academy’s media partner.

About American Heritage Chocolate

In 2003, Mars, Incorporated undertook an extensive global research initiative to uncover the true history of chocolate. A group from Mars led a multi-disciplinary team of more than 115 experts from around the globe who accessed over 200 archives, libraries, museums and private collections to reveal chocolate’s origin and history in the Americas. “CHOCOLATE: History, Culture, and Heritage,” has contributions from 45 authors, including researchers, culinary chefs, food scientists and historians from leading historic institutions and was published in 2009 by Wiley. Out of this research project, the American Heritage Chocolate brand was developed in 2006 by Mars Chocolate North America to help educate consumers about the history of our nation through the engaging story of one of our most beloved foods...chocolate! Fashioned off an ingredient list from 1750, American Heritage Chocolate is an authentic historic chocolate made from ingredients available in the 18th century. The recipe represents a true taste of chocolate the way our ancestors would have enjoyed it. The product line celebrates chocolate’s important role in the lives of Americans during the 18th century. Made with all-natural ingredients and no preservatives, American Heritage Chocolate comes in four unique formats: chocolate sticks, chocolate bites, chocolate baking/grating blocks, and finely grated chocolate drink mix. American Heritage Chocolate is sold exclusively at over 130 fine gift shops at historic sites, museums and historic inns across the USA and Canada. For a complete listing or to purchase online, please visit our website at www.americanheritagechocolate.com. Learn more about American Heritage Chocolate at Facebook.com/AmericanHeritageChocolate, on Twitter @Choc_History and NOW on www.Pinterest.com/ChocHistory

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For the full press kit of Chocolate information, visit http://www.ansp.org/about/press-room/press-kits/chocolate/

For images, visit: ansp.org/about/press-room/photos/changing-exhibits/

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