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- Title:
- Hello, Caffeine
- Description:
- When Filipinas was approaching its centennial as part of the Spanish Empire in 1665, cacao for planting arrived for the first time. It had a rough voyage departing March 25, 1663 from Acapulco, surviving a tempest, landing at Cape Engaño on Palaui Island (in Cagayan Province) on July 8, and reaching Manila in time for Diego Salcedo, its chaperone, to assume his post as 25th Governor-General of the colony on September 8. He arrived with 700 hired soldiers, the largest contingent for the 17th century. The annual average was 156 men, mostly convicts and the shanghaied. Recurring instability retarded widespread culinary acculturation and enculturation. On May 5, 1662 for example, renegade Koxinga based at Formosa threatened to attack Manila if it did not pay him tribute. He had 15,000 sampans and formidable fighters for them. Colonial officials refused. Manila had no more than 600 soldiers, only 200 of them able to stand the walls of Intramuros. All soldiers were called in from as far as Zamboanga and Ternate (Maluku, Indonesia). Not even 2,000 could be assembled “and of so many coulours that not even 200 pure [and thus presumably loyal] Spaniards could be picked from them.” A total of 120,000 cavans of rice plus meat, fish and vegetables were stockpiled inside the city’s walls. As winds and weather became right for war, on January 14, 1663 prayers to combatant patron saint Michael the Archangel commenced. As if a miracle, Koxinga’s death (possibly from malaria) was announced by an ambassador who sailed in offering peace. Salcedo’s cacao would have found its way to the Jesuit convent having been requested by Juan Davila SJ who was serving in the Visayas. Gaspar de San Agustin, OSA claims the first cacao de Acapulco saplings actually arrived in 1670 brought by naval pilot Pedro Brabo de Laguna. Religious found that drinking cacao (the power drink of Aztec Emperor Montezuma) kept them awake for pre-dawn prayers. Cacao’s stimulating effect comes from caffeine. It naturally occurs in around 60 plants like tea leaf, coffee bean, kola nut. There appears to be no endemic Philippine culinary botanical with caffeine. Caffeine is an alkaloid like morphine and nicotine. “Areca catechu” seed has arecoline, an alkaloid. It was chewed in the Philippines, other parts of Asia and the Pacific. Some Spaniards took to it (called BUYO locally) classifying it as a soporific, that which causes sleepiness. Perhaps it was the relaxing postlude after euphoria induced by arecoline that they sought? Cacao originally from Mexico became the pride of Spain. Filipinos would like it enough to include it in native cuisine.
- Subjects:
- Cacao Diego Salcedo Koxinga Caffeine Buyo
- Exhibition:
- 100 Philippine Food
- Source:
- Cacao with a Moth and a Southern Armyworm. By Maria Sibylla Mercian. From “In Metamorphosis Surinamensium,” 1705. mobile.twitter.com.
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Hello, Caffeine", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll129.html
Rights
- Rights:
- public domain