Morsels and more

THERE’S no doubt chocolate exerts a magical power over the senses, but to know its story is to discover that it has the power to determine social status, destroy rain forests, even cause slavery.

These topics and more will be covered in “Chocolate, the Exhibition,” a bilingual touring show organized by the Field Museum in Chicago. It opens Sunday at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and features objects collected from around the world. Enter the exhibit through a doorway that looks like a French chocolatier’s shop. A replica of a cacao tree on the other side demonstrates how it grows in the rainforest. A kiosk with an electronic ticker tracks cacao’s price on the world market. In another room there are vessels for drinking chocolate, from the clay pottery of the ancient Maya to china pots from 18th century Europe.

A video presentation at the end of the exhibit, set in a huge copy of a box of truffles, exudes the scent of chocolates. Displays on chocolate production and marketing through the 20th century will have visitors searching for their favorite childhood treats, from Ovaltine to Hershey bars.

Ghirardelli and other chocolate products will be sold in the gift shop, and in the museum cafe, chocolate ravioli, chili and other dishes will be served.

But at the center of the show, a history of chocolate and slavery unfolds. The issue is central to cacao’s history, said Jonathan Haas, curator of the show for the Field. “One of the big consequences of chocolate was the slave trade. Part of the driving engine for it were the thousands of chocolate houses in London by 1800.”

Accusations of slavery continue to plague the industry today, Haas noted, referring to reports two years ago of child slave labor being used in production of cacao in West Africa.

“Children were sold as indentured servants. Since then, the chocolate manufacturers teamed with [the U.S.] Congress to conduct a study of it and find ways to put a halt to it.”

Blood, sweat and tears have always enveloped chocolate, which has been a precious commodity since 1800 BC. “It was a major trade item and has had a huge effect, not only on political and economic issues but even on our taste buds and the way we think about food,” said Bill Wood, the museum’s assistant curator of anthropology.

Domesticated by the Olmec in the humid lowlands of the Mexican Gulf Coast, chocolate has been consumed at least since the Classic Period of the Maya, about 200 to 900 AD. The Maya and the Aztecs in Mexico and Central America drank it during religious ceremonies. Between the 13th and 16th centuries, it was not only a drink but also a currency.

Spanish explorers tried to keep chocolate secret, succeeding for nearly a century. But English, Dutch and French caught on and began to colonize cacao-growing regions of their own.

Of course, the drink was much different in Mesoamerica than it was in Europe. In Southern Mexico, then and now, chocolate was mixed with chile, honey, vanilla, cinnamon and other spices.

“No milk is used,” said Janine Gasco, a research associate at the Los Angeles museum. “And it’s mixed with masa. It’s like a gruel, served cold as a fortifying mid-morning snack. They call it posole negro, and usually it’s not sweet,” Gasco said.

The addition of sugar made it palatable to Europe, where it became the rage in Britain, Holland and France.

As the story of chocolate unfolds, organizers of the exhibit hope that visitors will be drawn by the sweet stuff and end up learning about its myriad issues, from free trade to class distinctions. “The people who produce it -- Malaysia, parts of the Caribbean and West Africa -- don’t eat it. The big consumers are Western Europe and the United States,” said Haas.

And there are environmental issues with clearing rainforests and pesticides. Cacao needs the shelter of taller trees and a proper habitat for midges, flies that pollinate the trees.

“It comes back to tropical ecology,” said Wood. “How do you grow trees in a way that doesn’t impact both the ecology and the people who are working to get these seeds for you?”

The debate on how to produce cacao will continue as long as chocolate remains a delicacy. In the land where it was first domesticated, its flavor is still savored and its history respected.

“In the cathedral in Mexico City there’s a side chapel dedicated to Nuestro Senor de Cacao,” said Gasco. “He’s a Christ figure, and people deposited cacao as offerings to that figure until the 1930s and ‘40s. That’s a long tradition.”

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‘Chocolate, the Exhibition’

Where: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd.

When: Mondays through Fridays, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Exhibit opens Sunday and runs through May 11. The museum will be on holiday hours for President’s Day, opening at 10 a.m.

Price: $8; $5.50 for students and seniors; $2 for children 5-12; free for children younger than 5.

Info: (213) 763-3466.