Chocolate

Back in the early 1900s there was company in San Francisco called the Rathjens Sausage Company It was owned by two Rathjens brothers, who were German emigrants. The company was housed in a large brick building. When I was in college in San Francisco in 1964 the building with the sign painted on the side was still there. It was located down near Ghiradelli Square. The two German brothers also owned the Rancho El Primero in Laytonville. The company went bankrupt during the depression. The two German Brothers were my Grandfather, Bill Rathjen’s, uncles.

I have tried several times to find out more about the history of the sausage factory. But, as often happens with me, I get sidetracked with something else on my way to my goals. This time I got sidetracked with the Ghiradelli Chocolate Company. The history is much easier to research, and my wife loves chocolate. It seems to be the key to her heart. So this is going to be about chocolate, not sausage.

Just like all things in history, the further back that you go, the less that you can be sure of what really happened. Chocolate was originally from the Amazon or Orinoco basin of South America approximately 4,000 years ago. About 600 AD, the very advanced Maya Civilization either originated in Orinco, or they traveled to Orinco to bring the chocolate to the Yucatan Peninsula. They made plantations of cocoa and processed it. There is evidence that they knew about, and used cocoa long before they made the plantations.

As you have already guessed, cocoa became the local currency. By 1000 AD, cocoa was well established as the local means of trade. One Zontli equalled 400 cocoa beans, while 8000 beans equalled one Xiquipilli. On Mexican picture script, a basket full of cocoa beans was known to have 8,000 beans in it, so a basket full was equal to the number eight thousand. Maybe the Mayans were the original bean counters.

By 1200 AD the Aztecs had defeated the Chimimeken and the Mayas, They required tribute from the defeated tribes in the form of, you guessed again, Cocoa beans. They didn’t call it taxation back then, they called it “Tribute”. I wonder if the Aztecs had their own form of the IRS. If a poor Mayan tribe was late in paying their tribute, did they have to pay late fees in cocoa beans? I wonder what happened when they had a bad crop year?

In 1502 Christopher Columbus Discovered Cocoa beans.

In 1528, Hernando Cortez returns to Spain with cocoa beans, impressed by the fact that the Aztecs used them as currency. Hernando seeded plantations on Trinidad, Haiti, and the West African island of Bioko to grow "money" to trade with Aztecs for gold. Spain then had a virtual monopoly of the cocoa market for almost a century.

In the early 1700s Chocolate was used as a beverage, they had not yet started using it as a sweet confection. The chocolate houses became as popular as coffee houses in England.

In 1765, a Chocolate factory was established in Massachusettes Bay Colony. Back in the colonial days.

In 1852, in the heyday of the California Gold Rush, Domingo Ghirardelli establishes his first chocolate factory in San Francisco, CA. So chocolate has deep history in San Francisco.

In 1998, Lindt and Sprungli Chocolate of Switzerland acquires Ghirardelli Chocolate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of its holding company. Well… At least it didn’t move to China.

I'm not particularly fond of chocolate, but my wife and many other people would joyfully kill for it. It must be more addictive than cocaine, because I don't see my wife showing any inclination to give it up. Just like in Mexico, chocolate has become a form of currency in my house, and I am required to, on a regular basis, pay tribute to my wife.


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