Although the modern understanding of chocolate is going to a gas station or a corner

store and getting a chocolate bar once in a while or maybe you just dig into last year's bag of Halloween candy occasionally, the origins of chocolate were much different. Indigenous groups, such as the Aztecs and the Mayans discovered and domesticated cacao before the 14th century. Originally, the word cacao and chocolate derive from the Nahuatl words Cacahuatl and Xoxocoatl. There are many speculations and folklore surrounding the origins of cacao. Indigenous communities such as the Mayans and Aztecs claim that cacao is a divine gift to humans and used it as such. Cacao was a food that was considered ceremonial and sacred. It was worshiped through cacao gods, such as Ek Chuah, and was used in ceremonial rituals or even as

a last drink of comfort for victims who would be ritually sacrificed. When the Spanish eventually conquered South America, some Spaniards began documenting how the Indigenous peoples, particularly the Aztecs, used cacao. The Florentine Codex is one of many true documentations of how the Aztecs discovered cacao.

 

“In the forests, there are also other flowering trees that are called eloxochicuahuitl, which produce some big flowers. [The flowers] are shaped like maize cobs. While they are on the stem, they are very fragrant; and they are also drunk with cacao. And if they put too many [of the flowers in the cacao], they make a person drunk. Only a little should be added to it. It also makes water tasty when added to it.”

 

Sahagún, Franciscan Friar Bernardino de. “Book 11 Folio 188R: Digital Florentine

Codex’.” Digital Florentine Codex, 2000.

https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/book/11/folio/188r.

 

Here they describe the flowering trees we now know as the cacao tree and the large flowers shaped like corn on a cob which are actually the pods that protect the cacao fruit. The cacao pods contain tiny cocoa beans that are concealed in an edible, white fruit layer. You can eat the fleshy white skin surrounding the cocoa beans, however this skin is vital in creating the cacao nibs that turn into chocolate. In order for the cocoa bean to produce edible chocolate, they first must ferment in the white, fruit layer and then the beans are dried and roasted. Once they have finished roasting, they are crushed and the cocoa nibs are separated from the outer shell of the bean. The cocoa nibs are then exposed to heat and grinded into a runny paste. The paste can then be tempered to ensure it will become solid again. This process is more modern than the traditional Aztec preparations for chocolate as the cocoa nibs were often simply added to water creating a bitter taste. They also explained that chocolate was only to be used in moderation because it would make a person drunk. This further explains the medicinal properties that the indigenous communities claimed cacao contained, usually to treat abdominal pain.