Wild Chocolate: Across the Americas in Search of Cacao’s Soul

Food writer Jacobsen (Truffle Hound) traces in this thrilling chronicle chocolate’s “dark journey from regional delicacy to industrial commodity” and recent efforts to restore its original varietals. The tradition of drinking roasted cacao beans took hold about 4,000 years ago across South America, where the beans were so valuable they were sometimes used as currency. Spain conquered Mexico in the 16th century and spread the delicacy through Europe and the new world, fueling the cultivation of “new hybrid varieties” that were less flavorful but hardy and productive enough to meet the growing global demand; by the start of the 20th century, those “bulk beans” made up 95% of the world cacao production. Tracking the movement to revive heirloom chocolate, Jacobsen spotlights enterprising chocolate makers who scour the globe for new sources of “specialty cacao”; members of sustainability nonprofits working with Amazonian cacao farmers; and “choconerds” who popularize specialty chocolate bars via stores and websites. In the process, he draws out the complex global connections—and, often, corporate harms—underpinning the chocolate industry without losing sight of its pleasures (“There was a flash of bliss, a momentary bolstering, as if the gods had my back.... I felt a wormhole open,” he writes of his first time eating an heirloom chocolate bar). Readers will be eager to sink their teeth into this. (Oct.)