The chocolate enjoyed around the world today had its origins at least 3,100 years ago in Central America as a cerimony beer-like beverage and status symbol, the author of The World of the Ancient Maya (Cornell University Press, 1997), John Henderson said.
All of the Mesoamerican peoples made chocolate beverages, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word meaning “bitter water”. The seeds of the cacao tree, also being used as a form of currency, have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor.
Analysis of residue from a ceramic “teapot” from about 1100 BC, found in Puerto Escondido, Honduras, suggests that chocolate may have been drinking in small, delicate pottery vessels for ceremonial beverages and consumed by elites. This pushed back by at least 500 to years the earliest documented use of cacao.
Deep excavations at Puerto Escondido. The Honduran workman at the right is excavating Olmec-period (approximately 1100-900 BC) remains. Photo by John Henderson.
Chocolate, prepared as a beverage, was introduced in Europe to the Spanish court in 1544 by Kek’chí Maya nobles, brought from Guatemala by Dominican friars. The first load of beans arrived to Sevilla, Spain in 1585. Nowdays Cocoa beans are still used as a form of currency: trade means prices, taxes, and shipping costs. Business chocolate.
