As I sipped my Nederlander Theater Hamiltini during the intermission for Hamilton, I wondered what Alexander drank. Well, I figured the actors in those tavern scenes, probably nothing at all and certainly not the Founder's Fizz my husband was slurping.
What about Hamilton in his day? I surmised beer, cider, rum, coffee, wine. And, chocolate. A lot of chocolate drinking happened in those days, especially because revolutionaries foreswore tea.
Jefferson
Hamilton's rival, Thomas Jefferson, was a chocolate fan. Not only did he purchase chocolate in 1775, Jefferson hoped for greater cocoa imports, seeking freshness, quality and healthfulness in his chocolate. In 1785 he wrote to John Adams from Paris:
to increase it's consumption would be to permit it to be brought to us immediately from the country of it's growth. By getting it good in quality, and cheap in price, the superiority of the article both for health and nourishment will soon give it the same preference over tea & coffee in America which it has in Spain where they can get it by a single voiage ... [sic]
He was so enamored of chocolate drinking that, when President, he commissioned a silver chocolate pot inspired by the design of Roman artifacts he had seen in France.
Adams
John and Abigail Adams also loved their chocolate. As he put it, "I have never met with few Things more remarkable than the Chocolate which is the finest I ever saw." His diary records (for 1779 December 10 Fryday [sic]) that he
Breakfasted for the first time on Spanish Chocolate which fully answered the fame it had acquired in the World. Till that time I had no Idea that any thing that had the Appearance of Chocolate and bore that name could be so delicious and salubrious.
In 1779, in Spain, he observed that
Ladies drink chocolate in the Spanish fashion. Each lady took a cup of hot chocolate and drank it, and then cakes and bread and butter were served ...
In London six years later, Abigail Adams, noted to their son, John Quincy Adams, that she had sipped chocolate for breakfast. The future President and First Lady savored the European chocolate culture of their day.
Washington
Hamilton's boss, President George Washington, along with his wife, Martha, was quite well acquainted with chocolate. He regularly purchased it, starting in 1757 when he ordered 20 pounds from Thomas Knox, a British merchant. Over the years he bought quantities varying from one pound to the fifty pounds delivered three months before his death in 1799. Presidential chocolate was part of each breakfast in their Mt. Vernon home, with Martha heading the table to dispense the beverages of chocolate, as well as coffee and tea. When Washington was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1774, the celebration featured chocolate. That year the Washington's ordered a silver chocolate pot from the London silversmith John Carter II as a wedding gift for Martha's son, John Parke Curtis, and his bride, Eleanor Calvert. In 1789, President Washington placed an order for Martha, "she will... thank you to get 20 lb. of the shells of Cocoa nuts, if they can be had of the Chocolate makers." Three years later, Martha, then living in Philadelphia with the President, wrote to her niece, Fanny, about supplying her with chocolate.
I wish you would let me know which you will reather have chocolate in cakes or the shells I should suppose the expence of boath is the same...I will send that you like best. [sic]
Fanny's husband, Burgess Ball, requested two or three bushels of chocolate shells for cocoa tea, mentioning how well it suits his wife's appetite. She "frequently drank Chocolate ... at Mt. Vernon, as my Wife thinks it agreed with her better than any other Breakfast."
Hamilton
It turns out that Alexander Hamilton had a chocolate doppelganger, Dr. Alexander Hamilton (1712-1756), who imbibed breakfast chocolate. A Scottish born physician, that Hamilton recorded his travels through Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire where his journal mentions drinking chocolate for breakfast at least six times over a couple of months. At one visit he gifted a pound of chocolate to his countrywoman, Mrs. Blackater.
With all of this chocolate consumption by his Presidents and his peers, it would be no surprise if our central character, Alexander Hamilton, was likely enjoying it, too. Certainly his political preferences would have made it politically correct to do so. When Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton raised tariffs on chocolate in 1792. Chocolate likely had permeated his work as a clerk in an import/export firm in the Caribbean where a lot chocolate trading and drinking took place. Maybe it's time for the show's libations to expand to chocolate martinis or chocolate liqueurs or hot chocolates.
Martha Washington's Chocolate Cakes (modified) for dipping in chocolate
From Dining with the Washingtons
Makes 5 to 6 dozen cakes
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups loosely packed dark brown sugar
Scant 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup whole milk
Instructions:
1. Add the brown sugar to the flour, and mix together until well
combined.
2. Heat the butter and milk together over medium-low heat, stirring until
the milk is very warm and the butter begins to melt. Remove from the
heat, and set aside to cool to lukewarm.
3. By hand, work the butter and milk into the flour and sugar, kneading
until well combined. Continue to knead until the ingredients are
thoroughly incorporated and the dough is smooth. Shape into a ball,
wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
4. Position a rack in the upper third of the oven. Preheat the oven to
375°F. Grease large baking sheets with vegetable shortening.
5. Divide the dough into thirds, and roll out on a lightly floured surface
to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 1-by-3-inch strips, and place 1 to 1 1/2
inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
6. Bake the cakes for 8 to 9 minutes, or until they are lightly browned on
the bottoms. With a spatula, immediately transfer them to wire racks
and cool completely.
7. Store the cakes for up to 3 days in airtight containers.
Prinz travels the world sharing stories about chocolate, cultures and convictions. More about chocolate, along with historical and contemporary recipes, may be found in "On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious Adventure Connecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao". Prinz also blogs at onthechocolatetrail.org. She is currently working on a project related to women and chocolate.