As you wrap your hands around hot cocoa and steam rises, every wonder where it all began? Trace the history of hot chocolate, march with Mayans through to 2018. This way for perfect hot chocolate at home.
What did the Mayans drink?
1500BC
Cast your mind back 3,500 years. Mayans worshipped xocolatl (or bitter water) made with crushed cocoa, cornmeal and chilli pepper. Their drinking chocolate cup of choice? Large vessels with spouts, coveted, yet not so practical. To create a foam they would pour liquid back and forth between bowls from a height – like ancient baristas.
1. Aztecs. Cocoa had kudos.
1400s
Montezuma II, Aztec emperor of Mexico stockpiled cacao from those he conquered. Clearly thirsty work, he drank 50 golden goblets of the chocolate elixir a day. He insisted it was for the select few (himself), nobles and royalty.
Those willing to fight were also deemed worthy. Aztec warriors were powered by cocoa. Drinking chocolate was a regular part of their military rations; every soldier on a campaign received ground cacao pressed into wafers, ready to mix into water.
“This drink is the healthiest thing, and the greatest sustenance of anything you could drink in the world, because he who drinks a cup of this liquid, no matter how far he walks, can go a whole day without eating anything else.”
- Anonymous Spanish Conqueror, connected to Hernando Cortes
2. Spanish Royalty. Cocoa sets sail
Bad news for the Aztecs. Cocoa caught the beady eye of conquistadors. Cocoa can’t be blamed for the fall of the Aztec empire, yet it was a prized part of a conquering haul which set sail for Spain. In the early 1500s, explorer Cortez presented cocoa beans to the court of King Charles V. Loved by royalty, the bitter drink was adapted. Chilli pepper was vetoed in favour of sugar. Cold drinking chocolate evolved into Spanish hot chocolate.
A chocolate revolution ignited in Europe, spread to France and soon reached London. Chocolate houses centred around St James’s Square bustled with nobles, debaters, aristocrats and Samuel Pepys (with a sore head). London had 700 wildly popular drinking chocolate houses where the diarist Pepys hurried to cure his hangovers.
"Waked in the morning with my head in a sad taking through the last night’s drink... so rose and went out... to drink our morning draft, which he did give me in chocolate..."
Samuel Pepys
4. Stoves, simmering and stirring
1800s
Ways to make hot cocoa also became ever more artful. Beautifully designed copper stove-top ‘chocolatières’ needed 25 minutes of simmering and stirring. Stunning yet impractical. Pan watching was a pastime as boiled milk would ruin the end result.
5. Velvetiser. Hot chocolate evolves.
2018
Make it like a pro
Early Mayans knew the importance of a good cocoa foam. But it took strenuous work to achieve it. Their ingenious wooden ‘molinillo’ inspired our electric version.
How to make hot chocolate like a pro? Take a short-cut through history with the Velvetiser designed by Hotel Chocolat. First add dairy or plant milk, then real chocolate flakes made with more cocoa, less sugar. Next push the button for an effortless velvety finish. How long to wait? Under 2.5 minutes.
"It made me dance, it made me Velvetise” - The Guardian
5/5
Perfect hot chocolate at home? Try our smile-raising Velvetiser.
The Maya civilization (/ˈmaɪə/) was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period. It is known by its ancient temples and glyphs (script). The Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Maya_civilization
worshipped xocolatl (or bitter water) made with crushed cocoa, cornmeal and chilli pepper. Their drinking chocolate cup of choice? Large vessels with spouts, coveted, yet not so practical. To create a foam they would pour liquid back and forth between bowls from a height – like ancient baristas.
Around 500 B.C., or perhaps even earlier, the Aztecs and Maya began making a bitter and spicy chocolate drink known as chocolatl by first making a paste out of roasted and ground cocoa beans, cornmeal, chili peppers, and spices such as vanilla.
It Started in Mexico. As early as 500 BC, the Mayans were drinking chocolate made from ground-up cocoa seeds mixed with water, cornmeal, and chili peppers (as well as other ingredients)—a much different version from the hot chocolate we know today.
They believed cacao was given to them by their gods. Like the Maya, they enjoyed the caffeinated kick of hot or cold, spiced chocolate beverages in ornate containers, but they also used cacao beans as currency to buy food and other goods. In Aztec culture, cacao beans were considered more valuable than gold.
The Aztecs believed that chocolate was a gift from the gods and would only drink it on special occasions. When the Spanish arrived in Mexico, they began to add sugar and milk to the chocolate to make it more palatable. This is how Mexican hot chocolate came to be.
By the 15th century, the Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency. They believed that chocolate was a gift from the god Quetzalcoatl, and drank it as a refreshing beverage, an aphrodisiac, and even to prepare for war.
Mexican chocolate is frequently made as hot chocolate, chocolate atole, or used in recipes like mole negro. Mexicans traditionally whip their hot chocolate into a froth with the help of a tool known as a molinillo. It's also believed that the addition of almonds helps Mexican style hot chocolate achieve this texture.
It's believed that the origins of hot chocolate, or rather its earliest version, can be traced back to around 500 BC in the regions of present-day Mexico. The ancient Mayans, a civilisation with an advanced understanding of agriculture and astronomy, were one of the first to cultivate the cacao tree.
Marshmallows first came into the picture in 1917, when the company Angelus Marshmallows published a recipe for hot cocoa topped with their product. (In another genius marketing move, the company also hitched its wagon to sweet potatoes with a recipe for the side dish that has since become a Thanksgiving staple.)
Did they drink chocolate hot or cold? Surprisingly, the Aztecs preferred it cold, whilst the Maya preferred it hot! This is a gross over-simplification, but there clearly were cultural differences.
Chocolate elixirs were drinks of the rulers, like famed Aztec emperor Montezuma II, who was rumored to have drunk dozens of pitchers of the frothy drink a day. They were also used in religious and wedding ceremonies, and other festive occasions.
An ancient Toltec myth identifies Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god, as planter of the cacao trees in the tropics of southern Mexico. He was called "the god of light, the giver of the drink of the gods, chocolate." Both the Mayas and Aztecs regarded chocolate as a potent aphrodisiac.
According to legend, the famous Mesoamerican and Aztec god Quetzalcoatl brought cacao from the heavens as a gift to humans. Quetzalcoatl, also known as the Garden God, was the god of farming, agriculture, love, and food.
Mexican hot chocolate contains spices like cinnamon and chili and chopped bittersweet chocolate to create a very rich but less sweet flavor. Whereas traditional American hot chocolate is usually made with a combination of cocoa powder and/or chocolate and tends to be more on the sweet side.
The original Mayan chocolate drink, known as “chocolatl” or “chocolha” in the Mayan language, was a spicy and bitter beverage made from roasted cacao beans. It was flavored with various indigenous ingredients such as chili peppers, spices (cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg) and vanilla.
Aztec hot chocolate is a traditional beverage customary to parts of Mexico where the ancient Aztec and Mayan civilizations lived. At its most basic form, it's a mix of hot chocolate with chili powder or spice, and sometimes cinnamon and vanilla. The word "chocolate" comes from the Aztec "xocoatl", for cacao plant.
In the early 1500s, explorer Cortez presented cocoa beans to the court of King Charles V. Loved by royalty, the bitter drink was adapted. Chilli pepper was vetoed in favour of sugar. Cold drinking chocolate evolved into Spanish hot chocolate.
Creating the divine chocolate drink was an involved process. According to Spehr, once the Maya harvested fruit from cocoa trees, they first had to ferment them. Then, they dry roasted the fruit, shelled them to extract the cocoa beans and then ground the beans very finely to create a paste.
The Aztec was created by Cadbury's to compete with the Mars Bar, but it was discontinued in 1978. The Aztec was briefly revived as Aztec 2000 in 2000, but was discontinued again soon after.
Introduction: My name is Patricia Veum II, I am a vast, combative, smiling, famous, inexpensive, zealous, sparkling person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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