The first people to have discovered the secret of cacao are thought to be the Classic Period Maya (250-900 CE). The Mayans and their ancestors in Mesoamerica took the tree from the rainforest and grew it in their backyards, where they harvested, inflame, roasted, and ground the seeds into a paste.
When mixed with water, chili peppers, cornmeal, and other ingredients, this paste made a foamy, spicy chocolate drink.
By 1400, the Aztec empire took over a sizeable part of Mesoamerica. The Aztecs traded with Mayans and other people for cacao and often needed that citizens and conquered people pay their tribute in cacao seeds—a form of Aztec money.
Like the earlier Mayans, the Aztecs also ate their bitter chocolate drink seasoned with spices—sugar was an agricultural product unavailable to the ancient Mesoamericans.
Drinking chocolate was an important part of the Maya and Aztec life. Many people in Classic Period Mayan society could drink chocolate at least on occasion, although it was a particularly favored beverage for royalty. But in Aztec society, primarily rulers, priests, decorated soldiers, and honored merchants could partake of this sacred brew.
Chocolate also played a special role in both Maya and Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings to the gods and served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies.
The Maya had a lifestyle many kids would envy—chocolate at every meal. "It was the beverage of everyday people and also the food of the rulers and gods," said Haas. In fact, the scientific name for the cacao tree is Theobroma cacao—"food of the gods." Hieroglyphs that depict chocolate being poured for rulers and gods are present on Maya murals and ceramics.
Now the newly-analyzed spouted ceramic pot reveals the deeper darker history of this almost drug-like substance.
Mayan teapots have always fascinated Terry Powis, an archaeologist at the University of Texas at Austin, which is how his investigation began. "Spouted vessels are very distinct from other Mayan ceramics and quite rare, typically associated with elite burials," he explained.
Fortunately for Powis, fourteen such vessels were excavated in 1981 from a site at Colha, which lies close to the Caribbean coast in northern Belize, and have since been housed at the University of Texas, Austin. The Maya occupied Colha, which is known for its production of stone tools and its Preclassic spouted vessels, continuously from about 900 B.C. to A.D. 1300.
All of the areas that were conquered by the Aztecs that grew cacao beans were ordered to pay them as a tax, or as the Aztecs called it, a "tribute".
Until the 16th century, no European had ever heard of the popular drink from the Central and South American peoples. Jose de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit missionary who lived in Peru and then Mexico in the later 16th century, wrote of it:
An ancient tribe called the Olmec s (1200 to 300 B.C.) from the tropical lowlands of South Central Mexico were the first to domesticate the plant and use the beans. They had a name for these bitter seeds that held secrets to health and power: kakawa, or cacao. According to recent archaeologists’ findings, the beans were an integral part of this ancient civilization’s diet and culture from as early as 600 B.C.
The Mayans are considered the most culturally advanced among the Mesoamerican civilizations. During the Mayan Classic Age (300-900 A.D.), they had cities with majestic pyramid-temples and palaces, a calendar calculated to end in the 21st century, and a complex written language that filled thousands of books. They also were the first true chocolate aficionados, treasuring cacao as a restorative, mood-enhancing cure-all. It became an integral part of their society, used in ceremonies, given as gifts and incorporated into their mythologies.
Burial tombs have been found that contain offerings, including ancient potteries that bear witness to cacao’s importance. The vases are covered with paintings showing Mayan gods fighting over beans and kings waiting to be served cacao creations.
Chocolate plays a part in Mayan religion. The Mayan’s sacred book, Popul Vuh, contains their story of the creation, and instead of an apple tree, there’s a cacao tree. In this myth, immortal ball-playing twins are beheaded by the gods of death. One has his head hung on a cacao tree. The magical head manages to mate with a woman who becomes the mother of twin gods. These two defeat the gods of death and then end up in the sky as the sun and the moon.
These first chocolate-lovers did not make chocolate bars as we know them today. Instead, the beans were ground into a coarse paste and mixed with spices, water and chilies to create a variety of hot and cold frothy, bitter drinks. Or the beans were mixed with corn and flavorings to make an assortment of porridge-like meals that varied in thickness from very thin and watery to thick and solid. These dishes were high in nutrients and very healthy. They also were inedible by our standards and a far cry from the chocolate we eat today.
By 900 A.D., a new group of peoples emerged to challenge the empire of the Mayans. The Toltecs captured the Yucatan Peninsula and then some. Much of the wrangling between these nations was over who controlled the cacao-rich lands, and who had cacao trading rights.
The Toltecs also saw cacao as a divine gift, believing the god Quetzalcoatl had given the bean to men and taught them how to cultivate it. Quetzalcoatl was banished by the other gods for offering this divinely delicious food to mortals, but he swore to return. This legend continued centuries later into the age of the Aztecs, and when Cortes, the Spanish conquistador, showed up in the 16th century, the great Aztec King Montezuma believed it was Quetzalcoatl returning.
The Aztecs led an empire of almost 15 million people between the 14th and 16th centuries. Theirs was an aristocratic society, and chocolate was reserved for the rich and the nobles. In fact, the Aztecs prized the cacao bean so highly that it was their form of currency. The bean also was used as money in Central American markets long after the Aztecs were gone, as late as 1858.
The beans were the natives' "coins." A list of Aztec trading prices looked something like this:
1 small rabbit = 30 cacao beans
1 turkey egg = 3 cacao beans
1 large tomato = 1 cacao bean
The royal storehouses had “vaults” full of this currency. One estimate listed the yearly expenditure of dried beans at 11,680,000. Some of these beans went to pay the king’s attendants. Others went into the king’s chocolate drinks—and he drank a lot of chocolate. Montezuma was rumored to enjoy 50 cups a day.
The Aztecs consumed chocolate in liquid form, as did the Mayans. It was served cold and frothy. The foam was believed to hold chocolate’s fundamental essence, and the ritual of creating the foam is seen in Aztec artwork. They’d pour the chocolate mixture vertically from one vessel to another, back and forth to make it froth. Today, many Mexican communities still value the foam so much they let their cacao beans calcify and turn white before grinding to ensure a heady mug of chocolate.
At this point, chocolate was still a bitter - tasting brew and contained a mish-mash of corn, flavorings and spices. But this would change after the Spanish arrived in the New World.
When mixed with water, chili peppers, cornmeal, and other ingredients, this paste made a foamy, spicy chocolate drink.
By 1400, the Aztec empire took over a sizeable part of Mesoamerica. The Aztecs traded with Mayans and other people for cacao and often needed that citizens and conquered people pay their tribute in cacao seeds—a form of Aztec money.
Like the earlier Mayans, the Aztecs also ate their bitter chocolate drink seasoned with spices—sugar was an agricultural product unavailable to the ancient Mesoamericans.
Drinking chocolate was an important part of the Maya and Aztec life. Many people in Classic Period Mayan society could drink chocolate at least on occasion, although it was a particularly favored beverage for royalty. But in Aztec society, primarily rulers, priests, decorated soldiers, and honored merchants could partake of this sacred brew.
Chocolate also played a special role in both Maya and Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings to the gods and served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies.
The Maya had a lifestyle many kids would envy—chocolate at every meal. "It was the beverage of everyday people and also the food of the rulers and gods," said Haas. In fact, the scientific name for the cacao tree is Theobroma cacao—"food of the gods." Hieroglyphs that depict chocolate being poured for rulers and gods are present on Maya murals and ceramics.
Now the newly-analyzed spouted ceramic pot reveals the deeper darker history of this almost drug-like substance.
Mayan teapots have always fascinated Terry Powis, an archaeologist at the University of Texas at Austin, which is how his investigation began. "Spouted vessels are very distinct from other Mayan ceramics and quite rare, typically associated with elite burials," he explained.
Fortunately for Powis, fourteen such vessels were excavated in 1981 from a site at Colha, which lies close to the Caribbean coast in northern Belize, and have since been housed at the University of Texas, Austin. The Maya occupied Colha, which is known for its production of stone tools and its Preclassic spouted vessels, continuously from about 900 B.C. to A.D. 1300.
All of the areas that were conquered by the Aztecs that grew cacao beans were ordered to pay them as a tax, or as the Aztecs called it, a "tribute".
Until the 16th century, no European had ever heard of the popular drink from the Central and South American peoples. Jose de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit missionary who lived in Peru and then Mexico in the later 16th century, wrote of it:
Loathsome to such as are not acquainted with it, having a scum or froth that is very unpleasant taste. Yet it is a drink very much esteemed among the Indians, where with they feast noble men who pass through their country. The Spaniards, both men and women that are accustomed to the country are very greedy of this Chocolate. They say they make diverse sorts of it, some hot, some cold, and some temperate, and put therein much of that "chili"; yea, they make paste thereof, the which they say is good for the stomach and against the catarrh.Christopher Columbus brought some cocoa beans to show Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, but it was Spanish friars who introduced it to Europe more broadly. Not until the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs was chocolate imported to Europe, where it quickly became a court favorite. The first record of the largest shipment ever to Europe for commercial purposes was in a shipment from Veracruz to Sevilla in 1585. It was still served as a beverage, but the Europeans added sugar and milk to counteract the natural bitterness and removed the chili pepper, replacing it with another indigenous Mexican spice, vanilla.
STORY:-
An ancient tribe called the Olmec s (1200 to 300 B.C.) from the tropical lowlands of South Central Mexico were the first to domesticate the plant and use the beans. They had a name for these bitter seeds that held secrets to health and power: kakawa, or cacao. According to recent archaeologists’ findings, the beans were an integral part of this ancient civilization’s diet and culture from as early as 600 B.C.
The Mayans are considered the most culturally advanced among the Mesoamerican civilizations. During the Mayan Classic Age (300-900 A.D.), they had cities with majestic pyramid-temples and palaces, a calendar calculated to end in the 21st century, and a complex written language that filled thousands of books. They also were the first true chocolate aficionados, treasuring cacao as a restorative, mood-enhancing cure-all. It became an integral part of their society, used in ceremonies, given as gifts and incorporated into their mythologies.
Burial tombs have been found that contain offerings, including ancient potteries that bear witness to cacao’s importance. The vases are covered with paintings showing Mayan gods fighting over beans and kings waiting to be served cacao creations.
Chocolate plays a part in Mayan religion. The Mayan’s sacred book, Popul Vuh, contains their story of the creation, and instead of an apple tree, there’s a cacao tree. In this myth, immortal ball-playing twins are beheaded by the gods of death. One has his head hung on a cacao tree. The magical head manages to mate with a woman who becomes the mother of twin gods. These two defeat the gods of death and then end up in the sky as the sun and the moon.
These first chocolate-lovers did not make chocolate bars as we know them today. Instead, the beans were ground into a coarse paste and mixed with spices, water and chilies to create a variety of hot and cold frothy, bitter drinks. Or the beans were mixed with corn and flavorings to make an assortment of porridge-like meals that varied in thickness from very thin and watery to thick and solid. These dishes were high in nutrients and very healthy. They also were inedible by our standards and a far cry from the chocolate we eat today.
By 900 A.D., a new group of peoples emerged to challenge the empire of the Mayans. The Toltecs captured the Yucatan Peninsula and then some. Much of the wrangling between these nations was over who controlled the cacao-rich lands, and who had cacao trading rights.
The Toltecs also saw cacao as a divine gift, believing the god Quetzalcoatl had given the bean to men and taught them how to cultivate it. Quetzalcoatl was banished by the other gods for offering this divinely delicious food to mortals, but he swore to return. This legend continued centuries later into the age of the Aztecs, and when Cortes, the Spanish conquistador, showed up in the 16th century, the great Aztec King Montezuma believed it was Quetzalcoatl returning.
The Aztecs led an empire of almost 15 million people between the 14th and 16th centuries. Theirs was an aristocratic society, and chocolate was reserved for the rich and the nobles. In fact, the Aztecs prized the cacao bean so highly that it was their form of currency. The bean also was used as money in Central American markets long after the Aztecs were gone, as late as 1858.
The beans were the natives' "coins." A list of Aztec trading prices looked something like this:
1 small rabbit = 30 cacao beans
1 turkey egg = 3 cacao beans
1 large tomato = 1 cacao bean
The royal storehouses had “vaults” full of this currency. One estimate listed the yearly expenditure of dried beans at 11,680,000. Some of these beans went to pay the king’s attendants. Others went into the king’s chocolate drinks—and he drank a lot of chocolate. Montezuma was rumored to enjoy 50 cups a day.
The Aztecs consumed chocolate in liquid form, as did the Mayans. It was served cold and frothy. The foam was believed to hold chocolate’s fundamental essence, and the ritual of creating the foam is seen in Aztec artwork. They’d pour the chocolate mixture vertically from one vessel to another, back and forth to make it froth. Today, many Mexican communities still value the foam so much they let their cacao beans calcify and turn white before grinding to ensure a heady mug of chocolate.
At this point, chocolate was still a bitter - tasting brew and contained a mish-mash of corn, flavorings and spices. But this would change after the Spanish arrived in the New World.
