Chocolate Economics

The other day I wanted some chocolate so I asked my mom for some money. “Money doesn’t grow on trees!” My mom said.“I know,” I said, “But chocolate does!”My mom knew I had been working on an essay about chocolate economics and she told me that if I finished the essay she would bring me to my favorite chocolate shop. I told her that if she brought me to my favorite chocolate shop, I could do my research and finish my essay!

On the way to the chocolate shop, my mom made me talk about my essay. I told her that I knew the facts about the circular flow of chocolate in the market.“There are households and firms. Households provide labor so firms can produce chocolate. Firms purchase resources to make chocolate from the resource market. Then firms sell the chocolates on the output market. Firms pay laborers so they have money to purchase chocolate. People in the households become consumers when buy chocolate with the money.”

“Now I need to find out about the resources needed to make the chocolate. I wonder what tools they use? Where do they get their ingredients?”When we entered the store, my mom said, “I feel like a kid in a candy shop!”I said, “I am a kid in a candy shop!” Then I looked at all the chocolates. These were goods. I took photos of many of the goods so I could use the pictures in my report.

Tish and Marianne were the owners. They were entrepreneurs who opened up their own chocolate business. They liked producing and selling chocolate to customers.“We produce our own chocolate.” Tish said. “We custom design our chocolates and supply them to meet customer demands. We use no preservatives and produce our chocolate in small batches to preserve freshness for customers.”

At Debbie’s Chocolate Delights, they use milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and colored chocolate. They let us taste the milk, dark, and white discs.Debbie’s buys chocolate from Merkens Chocolate. Merckens is located in Massachusetts and has been producing chocolate since 1912.

Debbie’s sells a wide variety of products. They make novelties in many different shapes and colors. They also make custom chocolate bars, gift baskets, and chocolate platters.

“What resources do you need to make chocolates?” I askedMiss Tish said, “Watch me and you will find out!”She showed us the boxes of chocolate discs. Then she showed us the melting pots where they melted the chocolate.

“And how do you get the fancy designs on the chocolates?”“Just watch.” said Miss Marianne. After they melted the chocolate, they poured it into molds. They showed me their room full of different shaped molds. It looked like they had at least a million! Actually, they have over 4000 different designs to satisfy customer demands.After they poured the chocolate into the molds, they put the molds into a freezer. They waited 20 minutes. Then they took out the hardened chocolates and popped them carefully out of the molds and showed us how they used other tools to decorate the chocolate.

When I arrived home with all of my photos, I started to write my essay. Then I got interested in researching how chocolate first came to Florida so I went on the Internet and found this newspaper article.

The archeologists said that this whisk, called a molinillo, worked like a mixer. They said that the whisk they found dates back to the 1500’s so that means people were drinking chocolate in St. Augustine, Florida back in early Colonial America!

I also used this website to help find information about the history of chocolate.

I found more evidence of chocolate in Colonial America on the Colonial Williamsburg site* my teacher uses.

• Henri Joutel was an eyewitness historian of the La Salle expedition of 1684, which sought to reach the mouth of the Mississippi River by sea in 1684. He mentioned drinking chocolate in his diary. https://archive.org/details/joutelsjournalof00joutrich

• Samuel Sewall, a Massachusetts judge best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials, wrote about breakfasting on venison and chocolate in 1697.

• Benjamin Franklin sold locally produced chocolate in his Philadelphia print shop. In 1739, he was selling bibles and other books, pencils, ink, writing paper, and "very good chocolate."

• John and Abigail Adams were very fond of chocolate. In 1779, John Adams, while in Spain, wrote, "Ladies drink chocolate in the Spanish fashion. Each lady took a cup of hot chocolate and drank it, and then cakes and bread and butter were served; then each lady took another cup of cold water, and here ended the repast." Abigail Adams, writing to John Quincy Adams in 1785, described drinking chocolate for breakfast while in London.

• In 1785, Thomas Jefferson predicted that chocolate would become the favorite beverage in North America over coffee and tea. This prediction came after the Boston Tea Party and the rejection of tea by the colonists, and prior to the widespread consumption of coffee in North America.

• George and Martha Washington requested more cocoa shells in 1794 to make "cocoa tea."*http://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume9/jan11/featurearticle.cfm

I wonder what the market economy was like in Colonial times. Who were the consumers of chocolate? Who were the producers? How did the chocolate get to St. Augustine? What kind of money did they use? Who were the workers? What kind of tools or equipment did they use? Where did they sell the chocolate? I guess I have a new research project!