| Notas |
- Benjamin de Joseph da Costa Andrade:
From: Reform Judaism - Online, Volume 32, #4
(http://urj.org/rjmag/04summer/wasserman.shtml)
WHAT'S COOKING?:
Benjamin D'Acosta & The Chocolate Factory
by Tina Wasserman
I am not a chocoholic, but when I do indulge, it had better be worththe calories and the energy blast. You see, after I've had my share of chocolate sweets, Istart zooming around the house! It's that same caffeine buzz that made the Aztecs adore their bitter chocolate drink.
Montezuma purportedly loved this beverage so much he drank fifty cupsa day. Cacao was first cultivated by the Mayans in the 7th century. Nine centuries later the Aztecs would create a beverage from ground and roasted cacao beans, mixing incorn, vanilla, bitter chili, and sometimes honey. They introduced the dark elixir to the explorer Hernando Cortez, who brought it back to Spain. But had it not been for the expulsion and forced conversion of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th century, chocolate as we know it today might not have become the most favored flavor in the world. Benjamin d'Acosta de Andrade, a Portuguese "marrano" (secret Jew) who had settled on the island of Martinique in the French West Indies in about 1650,established the first cacao processing plant. He then used his connections--particularly his relatives in Amsterdam--to export cacao to Europe. Over time, he and other Jews became significant players in the cacao trade, angering their envious competitors, who convinced the French government to bar all Jews from Martinique. Relocating in the late 1600s to the Dutch colony of Curacao, an island off the west coast of Venezuela, d'Acosta and other Jews re established their business, now shipping cacao grown in Venezuela to Amsterdam for chocolate production. In addition, they exported sugar and vanilla from South America. The introduction of sugar to Europe would change the history of chocolate. With the notable exception of the Spanish, most Europeans disliked the bitter-flavored chocolate drink of the Aztecs. But when sugar replaced chilies as a key ingredient, the drink caught on throughout Europe. And the availability of vanilla, combined with sugar and cacao, piqued the creativity of pastry chefs throughout Europe. The bakers in Bayonne--many of them Portuguese Jews--would bake souffle-like cake rolls which were light as air. In Italy, Jewish bakers invented chocolate cakes known as tortes or tortas, using ground nuts instead of flour; and in Vienna, 16-year-old Franz Sacher created a rich, dense chocolate cake topped with apricot preserves and smooth chocolate glaze that would become world famous. With the demand for the ingredients of chocolate production ever growing, the Jews of Curacao flourished--so much- so that they were able to contribute some of their profits to the building, in 1762, of the oldest standing synagogue in the United States, the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. Today, consumption of chocolate in the United States alone exceeds 2.3 billion pounds a year. The British, who invented the first chocolate candy bar in 1847, are the top consumers, at thirty pounds per person per year. Ironically, the Spanish, who introduced cacao to Europe, consume the least. Consider this: had our Sephardic ancestors not sailed across the Atlantic in pursuit of religious freedom and capitalized on their contacts with fellow Jews who had found sanctuary in European port cities such as Amsterdam, Bayonne, and Livorno, the international chocolate industry might never have existed! Sowhenever I bite into a sweet chocolate morsel, I salute the courageous and industrious Jewish pioneers who have had such an indelibly delicious influence on the desserts of the world.
More About Benjamin de Joseph da Costa Andrade:
Burial: 1249 VII E, Beth Haim, Curacao, NWI
More About Rachel de Semuel Jeudah Leao:
Burial: 1250 VII E, Beth Haim, Curacao, NWI
More About Benjamin da Costa Andrade and Rachel Jeudah Leao:
Marriage: Bef. 1714
- El comercio del Cacao en los tiempos de cambio (Extracto):
Otro lugar sin dudas determinante en esos tiempos de los siglos XV y XVI fueron las islas del Caribe, zona donde se cultivaba el cacao en Martinica, Curazao y Trinidad, de aquí se explica porque una de las principales variedades de los granos se llama Trinitario, los otros son el Criollo y el Forastero, en fin volviendo al tema del cultivo del cacao en las Américas en los tiempos de 1654 se establecen en la Martinica Francesa la familia de Benjamin da Costa Andrade y es en 1660 que se cultiva la primera mata de cacao en la isla, que habían traído las semillas desde Venezuela.
Dicha familia mantuvo control del suministro del cacao que se enviaba a Francia hasta el tiempo de 1685, cuando el rey francés Luis XIV firma el Código Negro, lo cual especifica a los judíos de Martinica y Guadalupe abandonar su residencia, la historia de este personaje continua en Brasil donde se convierte en pionero al cultivar cacao en las regiones de Recife y Pernambuco, donde ya había una comunidad de judíos holandeses desde 1635. De dicha comunidad en Brasil salen luego los judíos huyendo al presentarse una persecución por parte de los portugueses, dichos judíos sefardíes se establecen en otra colonia neerlandesa llamada New Amsterdam, en 1654, hoy en día New York (los holandeses perdieron dicha colonia en una batalla contra los ingleses en 1664 y el nombre cambio en honor al Príncipe de York).
En estas épocas parece un cuento adormecedor de un aburrido profesor de colegio, pero lo apasionante de rescatar en este blog dicha historia que desde el 2008 tenia la interrogante como se había extendido el comercio del chocolate gracias a los judíos. Hoy me he tomado el tiempo por mas de seis horas entre leyendo libros, consultando Wikipedia y Google, mi querida Carol esta enferma y por lo tanto no estaremos trabajando las Cascadas Dulces este fin de semana, así que tengo el tiempo suficiente para investigar esto.
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1651 - 1749 (98 años)
Rachel de Samuel Jeudah Leon y Gaon f. 6 Feb 1777, Curacao, Antillas Holandesas 
