Chocolate: a Stimulant That Made the Modern World

"There is nothing comparable in the world"

This week in our series on the stimulants that made the modern world: my personal favorite, chocolate!

Until 1957, when Pope Pius XII reduced the requirement to three hours, Catholics were expected to fast from midnight on mass days until they received the Eucharist. In fact, it was considered virtuous to refrain from eating in the morning even on days when one did not attend mass, a sign of one’s ability to resist bodily temptations.

This meant that the Spanish women of Chiapas, in Mexico, were pushing their luck when they had their servants deliver them cups of chocolate in the middle of mass, just before communion. They claimed that they suffered from “weakness and squeamishness of stomach” that required a little drink.

The local bishop threatened them with excommunication. The women started attending mass in a smaller church where the priest was less likely to scold them for their chocolate habit. The bishop died a week later, supposedly after drinking — you guessed it — chocolate. …