Anglo-Iberian Reception of Food Knowledge from the New World: Stubbe’s The Indian Nectar

• In Event: Renaissance Food History III: Food Cultures in a Transatlantic and Transnational Perspective

Abstract

In 1662, Henry Stubbe presented King Charles II his book on The Indian Nectar, or A Discourse Concerning Chocolata, in which he acknowledged not only the qualities of the drink and its effects but, crucially, spoke of the “Indian and Spanish ways” of production and consumption.
In the text he registered the learned discourse on chocolate among some notable Spanish doctors to the extent of providing original quotations; and yet, his own experience and understanding, as physician and consumer, played a no less central role in making sense of chocolate.
In this paper I shall explore how transatlantic as well as continental notions met, influenced and informed Stubbe’s work, paying particular attention to his treatment of Spanish sources in comparison to Indian ones: once back from Jamaica, he wrote to his friends in Oxford, “I shall give you a better Book and (I believe) better Chocolata”.

Author

• Annamaria Valent, University of York