From ancient rituals to industrial revolutions, food mechanization has been an intersection where the clash between tradition, class, and innovation has played out. In what follows, we discuss three foods and how technology shaped their modern day flavour.
Olive oil
The mythical foundation of Athens begins with the goddess Athena gifting the olive tree to the Greeks. Planting an olive grove was thus a sacred act and cutting down or uprooting an olive tree - seen as a symbol of civilization - was punished with exile and confiscation of property.
Other civilizations likewise cherished olives as a cultural and sensory standard. “The Mediterranean,” said the British novelist Lawrence Durrell, “seems to rise in the sour pungent taste of these black olives between the teeth. A taste older than meat, older than wine.”
Olive oil carried the imprint of those who made it. Families and communities crushed olives with millstones, their methods honed through generations. Time shaped the flavor: olives were picked at their peak, pressed slowly, and allowed to settle naturally. The resulting oil reflected not just the fruit but the hands and traditions of those who tended the groves.
Mechanization reshaped this artisanal process. As demand rose, olives were harvested earlier to reduce acidity, their harder pulp requiring stronger machinery. By the 18th century, mills powered by screws and horses replaced communal presses.
Today’s extra virgin olive oil—a term codified by the International Olive Council—relies on centrifugation rather than pressing. No chemicals should ever be used, and the temperature during the process should not rise above twenty-seven degrees Celsius.
Its flavor, characterized by bitterness and a peppery finish, whispers of polyphenols and health benefits. Yet this idealized oil, marketed as a product of timeless tradition, is a modern invention born of industrial precision.
Salt
Despite being a foundational taste, salt’s flavor is, in many ways, a blank slate—it enhances other tastes rather than imposing its own. Historically it was valued as a preservative, currency, and symbol of purity. From the salt pans of ancient Egypt to the gleaming white crystals of the Salar de Uyuni, it has been both a natural wonder and a technological triumph.
The mechanization of salt production began in earnest during the Industrial Revolution. Steam-powered pumps and conveyor belts replaced manual labor in salt mines and evaporation fields. This mechanization transformed salt from a luxury item to an affordable staple. The nineteenth century saw the rise of iodized salt, a product of chemical innovation aimed at combating goiter and other iodine deficiencies.
As with olive oil, the marketing of authentic salts capitalizes on a longing for the natural, even as these products are often the result of sophisticated processing.
Chocolate
For the Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Maya and Aztecs, cacao beans were sacred — reserved for ceremonial rituals. It was consumed as a bitter, spiced drink, often mixed with maize or chili, and held deep spiritual significance. Cacao was not merely a food but a symbol of vitality and divinity.
When chocolate reached Europe in the sixteenth century, it became a symbol of power and privilege. Spanish nobility developed a taste for sweetened cacao, exchanged it as gifts, and infused it into courtly rituals. Its bitter origins faded as sugar, milk, and spice transformed it into a velvety indulgence.
By the nineteenth century, mechanization remade chocolate as a global commodity. Coenraad van Houten’s invention of the cocoa press in 1828 separated cocoa butter from solids, paving the way for smoother, versatile chocolate. Hybrid cacao varieties like trinitario increased yields, and machinery allowed the consistent blending of sugar and milk into chocolate bars. Criollo cacao, prized for its delicate flavor, became a luxury; Forastero, resilient and abundant, fed the industrial appetite.
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We warmly invite you to pause and trace the stories behind the products the next time you dip a piece of bread into olive oil, sprinkle salt over a meal or break a square of chocolate. The sharp tang of salt whispers of the hands that once raked it from the sea and the engines that transformed it into a household staple. The creamy richness of chocolate carries the echoes of sacred rituals, colonial plantations, and the industrial presses that reshaped its texture.
These flavors and textures, marketed as timeless and authentic, are inseparable from the machinery that brought them to life. They are not just tastes of tradition but also the tastes of transformation—the flavor of mechanization shaping the past into the world we know today.
