The Surprising History of The Mocha: How a Mix-Up in the Spice Market Created One Of Our Favorites
- Brew Interrupted Coffee Staff
- Aug 16, 2021
- 3 min read
The Mocha. You know it. You love it. You've perhaps been self-conscious about ordering it around your coffee snob friends. However did this beautiful creation first reach us, and where does it stand today in the pantheon of coffee drinks?
The History of the Mocha
The origins of the well-known Starbucks blend of light roast beans and a touch of cinnamon come from a genuine single-serving invention by an Argentinian coffee grower in the 1860s. The brand story goes that Horatio Jones was building an orphanage in Bolivia when he mixed his roasts and brewed them with hot water. For this gesture of kindness, Jones was rewarded with a drink that day. The drink, which he named the "Cordobesa," proved popular and the orphanage also received offers of funding and to keep their coffee-growing slaves. After two years, the orphanage's funds ran out, and the owners decided to sell the coffee plantation. In desperation, Jones began pressing his roasts and selling the concoction for $4 a cup.
What's in a Mocha?
The mystique and mystique alone is reason enough to visit the counter at Doc's Manhattan Espresso Bar. You stand at the glass door for a moment to see if the glimmer of light reflects off the inside of your cup, like a science experiment. Then you push the buzzer, and someone goes to the back to make it for you. It takes time, but you're not too impatient. You've waited three long years to taste a Mocha. I remember standing at that counter when I had that first Mocha. My excitement, however, was tempered by awe. What had I just done? How could I not know what I was ordering? Who exactly had invented this drink? How were they so good? What kind of barista genius had gone into this? This Mocha was like a religion. The perfect Mocha was a gateway drink. Who knew where it would take me?
How can you make a perfect Mocha?
Though widely popularized in early Starbucks stores, it wasn't introduced by Starbucks—or any coffee shop for that matter. The first Mocha was made up of "normal" hot milk and regular coffee; it was a so-called "Mocha Frappuccino," an iconic, '80s-era drink that was quickly dropped as too expensive (it came out to around $5 for the drink, back then) and impractical (it could only be made one at a time). Yet the consumer still wanted more—they wanted something closer to the real thing. Enter Tony Celestino, an employee of Starbucks in San Francisco, who tested recipes in his spare time and developed the drink that would become the "Mocha Frappuccino." But this time, there were problems.
Final Thoughts
All drinks have their beginning somewhere and many new classics have been perfected throughout time. However, the name "Mocha" as we know it today did not begin its long life as a coffee drink. What started as a simple mix-up between the spice "mocha" and coffee-like "chocolate" quickly became the precursor to an entire cultural and culinary phenomenon, the Mocha. "Mocha" as a drink can be traced back to the 17th century and was originally used to signify a popular Mediterranean drink made of blended warm milk and sugar, black pepper, cinnamon, and Chocolate. As for the coffee-like "chocolate" component, there is evidence that it was added to coffee between the late 1700s and early 1800s.
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