What was the last sweet thing you ate? How long ago was it? Earlier today? Yesterday? Maybe last week? If your family is anything like mine, you’ve probably eaten something sweet within the last few days. Throughout much of human history though, it was very rare to eat things that were sweet. In many parts of the world, even fruit was only available at certain times of year. It only ripened in spring and summer. Sugar from sugarcane, like the white and brown sugar you likely have in y our kitchen, was a luxury in much of the world until the last few hundred years. 

But, there was one reliable source of sweetness. It was available in many parts of the world, and could be kept for years (assuming no one ate it first!) The only trouble was, you risked getting stung when you tried to go after it. 

Have you guessed what it is? 

Buzzzzz, buzz…. it’s honey!

There are many species of bees. Not all make honey, and most of those that do don’t make a lot. Some bees live in hives, but others nest underground or in holes they drill in wood. Some live in groups, while others live alone. But the bees we’ll focus on in this podcast are the ones who make lots of our oldest sweetener: honeybees. Honeybees originally evolved in Asia, but spread out to Europe and Africa, where they split into two more subspecies. And eventually, humans would bring these bees to every part of the world where they could survive.  

Humans, bees, and honey have a very long relationship. We don’t know exactly when our obsession with the sticky sweet stuff started, but it’s possible we’ve been eating honey since before we even became humans: our closest animal relatives, the great apes, all eat honey! Cave paintings from over 4 thousand years ago in Spain and South Africa show people climbing ladders to reach wild hives. 

Many modern hunter-gather tribes eat honey as well. Hunter-gatherers are people who get their food by hunting animals and finding wild berries, nuts, and roots. They often travel many miles per day to find food. One East African tribe, the Hadza, actually team up with wild birds called honeyguides in order to find hives. A honey-hunter will give a special call to get a honeyguide’s attention. The honeyguide will then lead the hunter to a hive. In exchange for the help, the hunter will give the bird a small reward of honeycomb…But not too much. If the bird is full, they won’t want to eat again soon, and they won’t guide the hunter to more hives! These are modern people, but the fact that they seek out honey gives a hint that our prehistoric ancestors, who were also hunter-gatherers, might also have gone after beehives. 

When we began settling down on farms and in cities, we found ways to keep up our supply of honey right from the beginning. Archeologists have found beeswax residue on potsherds that are over 9 thousand years old. People only began to farm about 10 thousand years ago! They’ve also found evidence that beeswax was used as glue, for waterproofing, and in cosmetics in ancient times. People made candles, figurines, and writing tablets out of it. As for honey, ancient people not only ate it but used it as a medicine: It can help stop bacteria from growing in wounds and soothe a sore throat.

With so many uses for honey and beeswax, it’s not surprising that people began to domesticate honeybees. Domesticate means to raise an animal or plant in a setting where people can easily get what they need from it. People may have begun managing bees by putting out attractive nesting sites, like hollow logs or empty jars, in the hopes that they’d end up with a convenient supply of honey. But bees have never been tamed in the way that cows or pigs or dogs have. They still go where they want to and find their own food, even if a person owns the hive. And of course, they still sting us if we bother them, which tame, domesticated animals usually don’t do! But people have always thought it was worth it for the sweet honey and useful beeswax they get in return. 

We know from written records that many ancient cultures in the Middle East and Greece kept bees, and even revered and respected them. The Hebrews called their promised land “the land of milk and honey.” They managed hives right in the middle of crowded cities!  

The ancient Greeks thought honey gave people energy. Greek athletes drank a mix of honey and water before competitions. Greek mythology also had stories of bee-nymphs, or spirits, who could tell the future. These creatures, called the Thriae, looked like women on top, but like bees on the bottom, and had bee wings. 

Honey was more than just a treat or medicine for the ancient Egyptians. It was a gift from their sun god, Ra. They believed that when Ra cried, his tears fell to Earth and turned into honeybees. They placed jars of honey in tombs for the dead to eat in the afterlife, which archeologists have found. And guess what? The jars were so well sealed, that the honey inside was still safe to eat after thousands of years underground. (Though I don’t think anyone ate more than a tiny sample!) The Egyptians also used honey bees as a symbol of royalty, and fed honey to sacred animals. 

So you probably won’t be surprised to learn that the Egyptians took beekeeping seriously too. Ancient murals show beekeepers checking on hives, using smoke to calm the bees, and sealing honey in jars. They used artificial hives made by stacking clay pipes on top of each other like logs. They would move the hives up and down the Nile on special boats to keep them near blooming flowers, where they could gather nectar. Similar hives are still used today in Egypt by traditional beekeepers. That’s a longstanding tradition!

Bees continued to be important to people beyond ancient times. Before the industrial revolution, when many people lived in rural areas, children would often go out looking for wild beehives and nests. Now, you can just go to a drugstore and buy something sweet, but back then, sugar was still rare and expensive. At least one person even wrote a poem commemorating the childhood hobby of hive-raiding. The end of it goes:

And just as sure as you’re alive

I’ll make a visit to your hive,

And thank you, bumble-bee so bold,

For making honey bright as gold.

Maybe “honey bright as gold” is worth enduring a sting or two! Children in the past seemed to think so.

If you want first-hand evidence though, you could ask a modern beekeeper. Today, people have taken honeybees all over the world. Beekeeping is a hobby for many people, and a business for others. In addition to her fans being known as the “Beyhive”, Beyonce  has two hives on her property. Many other celebrities, from Samuel L. Jackson to Martha Stewart share her interest in bees! 

On the business side, bees (and not just honeybees) are also important for food crops. They pollinate many plants whose products end up on your table, like almonds, watermelon, and apples. When a bee feeds on a flower, some of the pollen gets stuck to their legs. When it moves to the next flower, some of that pollen falls off on it, which allows a fruit or a nut to grow. Honeybees pollinate a lot of different plants, but so do other bees, such as mason bees, leafcutters, and bumblebees. Not all these plants are food, some are flowers that brighten our gardens, or sit in vases on our tables.  Commercial beekeepers actually rent out nests and hives and deliver them to farms when plants are blooming, to ensure a good crop. 

Unfortunately, the spread of honeybees has had some unwelcome results for wild bees in areas where humans have brought them. The local, wild bees eat from the same plants as honeybees. Often, they can’t compete with the honeybees and don’t get enough food. When people bring honeybees from far away, those bees can also bring diseases with them that are more dangerous to the local, native bees. The native bees end up struggling to survive. 

People have been chasing bees and their honey for ages, but bees do so much more than just sweeten our food. Their honey and wax can be put to many different uses. Much of the food on our plates is possible because bees pollinate those crops. 

But even without their usefulness, bees are amazing creatures. Many live in large, complex societies, where different bees have specific jobs to perform. Honeybees have special ways of communicating with each other to show where food is. They can fly up to six miles, at 15 miles per hour, and visit 50 to 100 flowers in one trip. Different species of bees live in an amazing variety of environments–from grasslands to sand dunes, to wetlands and gravel pits. Some drill into wood to make their nests or use mud packed into tiny holes. So next time you see a bee, try not to worry. It doesn’t want to sting you. Try to stay still, keep your distance, and watch it go about its business. See what flowers it visits, and follow it if you can. Maybe you’ll see it fly into its hive or nest. No matter what, you’ll see a creature hard at work for its own survival, all the while making your world a little sweeter and more beautiful.  

Sources

Brine, Mary Dow (1883) Jingles and Joys for Wee Girls and Boys. Cassell Publishing Company. 

Chepulis, Lynne (2008) Healing Honey: A Natural Remedy for Better Health and Wellness. Universal-Publishers

Hanson, Thor (2018) Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees.  Basic Books. 

https://americanbeejournal.com/tiposlinks/fun-facts/

https://www.apicultural.co.uk/exponential-increase-in-global-honey-bee-populations-as-a-driver-of-wild-bee-declines

https://www.apicultural.co.uk/tears-of-re-beekeeping-in-ancient-egypt

https://www.museumoftheearth.org/bees/diversity

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2300160-worlds-most-common-bee-originated-7-million-years-ago-in-asia/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/humans-relationship-honeybees-goes-back-neolithic-era

https://www.planetbee.org/planet-bee-blog//the-sacred-bee-bees-in-ancient-egypt

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-science-behind-honeys-eternal-shelf-life-1218690/

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-honey-bees-and-human-management-171271

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sugar

https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/fascinating-facts/bees

The post History of Bees and Beekeeping appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

The history of chocolate began with the ancient Olmec and Mayan peoples of Central and South America.  The Mayan people were a large group of Indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central America and the ancient Olmecs lived in southern Mexico before that. 

Back then, chocolate was very different than it is today.  It was a drink that people enjoyed. But it was not sweet.  It was bitter, which means having a sharp taste and was not sweet. 

Chocolate is made from cacao fruit, which comes from cacao trees that grow in hot places like Central and South America. This is why chocolate first came from these areas.  The beans from inside the cacao fruits are called cocoa beans after they are dried and roasted.  This is one of the first steps in the process of making cacao fruit beans into chocolate. 

Olmec and Maya

Historians think that ancient Olmec and Maya people ground cocoa beans into powder and used it to make a chocolate-flavored drink.  The reason they think this is that there are traces of this type of powder found in old pots from ancient Olmec times.  This was around 15,000 B.C., which is a very very long time ago.

However, there is no written history from this time.  So it is not clear whether Olmec people made these drinks just for their flavor, or if it was part of a ceremony.  

The Olmec people passed their love of cacao on to their neighbors in Central America, the Mayans.  The Mayan people loved chocolate so much that they used it in their drinks and in their food.  They often made it into a thick, sweet, and spicy drink, using honey to sweeten it.  And they sometimes added chili peppers to make the drink spicy.  Have you ever tried spicy hot chocolate?  If not, it is something that you can find in some cafes today and is quite delicious, if you like spicy things.

Mayas

After the Mayan people, the Aztec people came to live in the Central American and Mexican areas.  They also developed a love of chocolate.  The Aztec people loved chocolate so much that they believed that cacao plants had been given to them by the gods.  They used cacao in some of their religious ceremonies.  They felt very lucky to have this drink. 

One of the things that people probably liked about cacao in the old days and that people still like about it today is that it contains caffeine. Caffeine is an ingredient that is found in tea and coffee plants that is a stimulant and makes people feel more awake and perky.  It is one of the main ingredients in coffee and is one of the reasons why adults drink coffee, too. 

Aztecs

Aztec people liked to drink chocolate as a drink, either hot or cold.  They also added spices to their chocolate drinks and draft them out of special, decorated containers.  The Aztec people treated cacao beans like money.  They considered the beans to be more valuable than gold!

One famous Aztec chocolate lover was Montezuma II.  He was the ruler of the Aztec people in Mexico from 1502 to 1520.  Legends say that Montezuma II drank a gallon (or almost 4 liters) of chocolate drink per day!  He loved the taste and also believed that drinking it would make women fall in love with him. 

When Spanish explorers from Europe first arrived in Central America, they learned about chocolate.  These explorers included Christopher Columbus.  The European explorers loved chocolate as well once they tried it.  When they returned to Spain and other countries, they brought cacao beans with them.  In Spain, the Spanish people loved the drink and by the late 1500s, it had become a very popular drink throughout the country. 

As other European countries explored Central America, they also learned about cacao and brought beans back to their home countries.  That is how chocolate came to be popular across Europe in countries such as France and Italy. Europeans loved chocolate so much that demand grew for cacao beans.  Demand is the desire of large groups of people to buy something.

Cacao Plantations

Back in Central America, the European demand for chocolate meant that cacao plantations were growing in size and number.  The farmers that worked at these plantations were mostly local people who were treated as slaves.  A slave is a person who works very hard without proper pay or appreciation. The life of a slave cacao farmer was a very difficult life.  They worked hard from early morning to late at night picking beans for the European people.

The European explorers and traders continued to bring the beans back to Europe.  As European people continued to enjoy chocolate, its popularity spread.  Europeans started creating their own recipes for cacao beans as well.  Instead of just using the Central American recipes, they created different types of hot chocolate, using sugar, cinnamon, and other spices.

Coenraad Johannes van Houtan

About 150 years later, in 1828, a Dutch chemist named Coenraad Johannes van Houtan discovered a new way to make cacao powder. It was an easier way to create a powder that would mix easily with hot water to make hot chocolate. The process through which van Houtan did this was later called “Dutch processing”.  The cacao powder that he made was similar to what we think of as hot chocolate powder today.  At the time it was called “Dutch cocoa.” 

Dutch cocoa powder made processing chocolate easier and cheaper than in the past.  As a result, even poor people could afford chocolate. This meant that chocolate grew even further in popularity.

Up until 1847, chocolate was primarily consumed in Europe and America as a drink, mixed with water or milk. However, in that year a company called J.S. Fry and Sons created the first chocolate bar in Britain.  They molded a paste made out of sugar, butter, and chocolate and put it together into the shape of a bar. It was delicious and they knew they had a hit. Everyone who tried the solid chocolate loved it.  And a new form of chocolate was born.

Chocolate Companies

By the late 19th century, family chocolate companies such as Cadbury, Mars, Nestle, and Hershey were all making a variety of chocolate treats.  People across the world loved eating chocolate as well as drinking it.  There were therefore lots of customers buying chocolate from these companies. 

Today, chocolate is still enjoyed by people around the world.  It is still available to drink, but it is more often eaten as a treat or dessert or in baking. It has changed a lot since the earliest versions of the bitter Olmec drink.  But the root of the treat is still the same. 

It is still very hard work to farm and produces chocolate, however. While it is now easier than it was in the days of slaves and colonists, many cacao bean farmers still have to work very hard to produce their beans.  And they do not always get paid very much money for them. This has inspired many people throughout the world to focus on “fair trade” chocolate.  Fairtrade means chocolate that is created in an ethical and sustainable way.  This means farming in a way that treats farmers fairly and without putting the environment at risk so that future generations can also meet their own needs.

Do you love eating chocolate as a treat?  Or drinking hot chocolate on a cold day? What are some of the types of chocolate that you like to eat or drink?  What would you try if you were challenged to come up with a new type of chocolate?  It is fun to think about the ways we can enjoy something so delicious and historic today.

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