What Makes UC Davis Library Collections Distinctive: Chocolate and Cacao
Welcome back to our blog series, “What Makes UC Davis Library Collections Distinctive.” In spring 2026, library school interns Mei Chin, Cheyenne Perry and Kristina Bellas analyzed our agriculture and food and drink collections on the topics of bees and honey, chocolate, tea, and beer. Their findings provide insight (and some bragging rights) about the scope, strengths and standing of UC Davis Library collections among peer institutions.
In today’s installment, Mei Chin examines the library’s sweet research holdings in chocolate and cacao.
Chocolate and Cacao
By Mei Chin, MLIS
When starting research into the chocolate and cacao holdings at Shields Library, I had visions of chocolatiers and pastries. Maybe there would be historical texts on drinking chocolate and the culture of hot chocolate in Europe after the delivery of the spoils of the New World — something easily digestible that would tell the story of chocolate making or confectionery.
Nope. But what I did discover was even more promising for chocolate’s future: a body of resources that investigate chocolate and cacao’s complexities from farm to lab to marketplace.
I found that scholarship at UC Davis encompasses a practical, science-based approach to cacao research that incorporates climate change, pest management and chocolate biotechnology. Interdisciplinary sciences and overlapping goals in the private, academic and nonprofit sectors is the order of the day.
UC Davis Library’s chocolate collection is particularly pertinent to scholarship addressing the threat of a warming planet, developing-world economics and agricultural and environmental sciences.”
— Mei Lin, MLIS
Further, a partnership with Mars Wrigley (a segment of Mars, Incorporated, formerly Mars Candy Company) is looking to future-proof chocolate production with a focus on flavor, plant disease control and crop development. Research at UC Davis leads and supports innovation, understanding and cutting-edge science within the cacao industry.
In addition to providing access to materials that support many scientific programs pertaining to chocolate, the library holds the A.W. Noling Hurty-Peck Collection of Beverage Literature, which contains texts that are not owned by very many libraries. This includes Maria Parloa’s Choice Recipes (1906, Noling 9:13), which provides recipes for the simple to the more adventurous palate — chocolate jelly with crystallized greengage plum, anyone? Many of these books date from around the early 1800s to the 20th century and provide a snapshot of the chocolate industry before its establishment into a major worldwide economic powerhouse.
Overall, recent scientific research and academic projects point to Northern California as the top place to find library resources on the subjects of cacao and chocolate. Between UC Davis and UC Berkeley, our combined collections covering agriculture, horticulture and industry related to cacao are the strongest nationwide. Both universities have extremely robust collections, and their proximity makes it easy for chocolate and cacao researchers to access them.
Expanding our collections
If you have an affinity for chocolate or cacao, or have any unique texts, treatises, or informational materials that you would like to donate, we are actively looking to expand our collection. If you would like to make a gift of support to help the library continue building collections like these, please contact Rice Majors, Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources, at ramajors@ucdavis.edu.
Mei Chin interned with the UC Davis Library as part of her MLIS program at San Jose State University. She holds a B.A. in French from Carleton College (Northfield, MN) and a M.A. in French Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.