Chocolate Pot

Chocolate was introduced to France through, among others, Jews who had fled the Spanish Inquisition and Marie-Thérèse, Infanta of Spain and the wife of Louis XIV. In the following century, it became part of the lifestyle and diet of the affluent, including in New France. A special type of pot was invented to serve it, which differed from those for tea and coffee because of its handle, positioned horizontally so as to make it easy to stir the mixture to ensure it dissolved. Now a sweet part of our diets, the history of chocolate has also been marked by medical and theological debates about its use, economic rivalries, and plantation working conditions ranging from slavery to the cases of abuse known currently.