Dana Taylor

As Valentine's Day approaches, we wanted to take a closer look at how chocolate went from a bitter ceremonial drink to America's go-to symbol of love and what that transformation tells us about desire, labor, and consumer culture.

Joining me now is Carla Martin, a social anthropologist and lecturer in African and African-American studies at Harvard University and the founder

of the Institute for Cacao and Chocolate Research.

Carla, thanks so much for joining me.

It's a pleasure to be here.

Thanks for having me.

Before chocolate was associated with romance, how was it used in earlier Mesoamerican cultures and who was it for?

I'm thinking of the foil-covered chocolate coins I would get as a child.

And I think there's probably a through line there.

So chocolate started as a bitter drink, not a sweet one.

When and why did Europeans decide to sweeten it?

And how did that change its cultural role?

Jumping ahead in time to the 20th century, the U.S.

Army worked with Hershey to develop a chocolate bar for soldiers on the battlefield prior to World War II.

How and why did this partnership begin?

At what point does chocolate stop being just another luxury good and start carrying emotional or symbolic weight, especially around love and intimacy?

Valentine's Day existed for centuries before chocolate arrived in Europe.

So why did chocolate specifically become the gift instead of pastries or other types of sugar candy or flowers alone?

How much of chocolate's romantic reputation comes from science, things like how it affects mood, energy, or even some of the aphrodisiac myths versus pure marketing?

Speaking of marketing, and we mentioned Hershey's, how did a chocolate company like Hershey's shape an entire town?