sacred Cacao Ceremonies

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The Latin name for cacao—Theobroma—literally means, “food of the gods.” This valuable crop played an important role in many ancient South American cultures.

Cultivation, use, and cultural elaboration of cacao were early and extensive in Mesoamerica, to which the cacao tree is native. When pollinated, the seed of the cacao tree eventually forms a kind of sheath, or ear, 20" long, hanging from the branches. Within the sheath are 30 to 40 brownish-red almond-shaped beans embedded in a sweet viscous pulp. While the beans themselves are bitter due to the alkaloids within them, the sweet pulp may have been the first element consumed by humans. Evidence suggests that it may have been fermented and served as an alcoholic beverage as early as 1400 BC.

Traces of cocoa consumption

While researchers do not agree which Mesoamerican culture first domesticated the cacao tree, the use of the fermented bean in a drink seems to have arisen in North America (México). Scientists have been able to confirm its presence in vessels around the world by evaluating the "chemical footprint" detectable in the microsamples of contents that remain. Ceramic vessel with residues from the preparation of chocolate beverages have been found at archaeological sites dating back to the Early Formative (1900-900 BC) period. For example, one such vessel found at an Olmec archaeological site on the Gulf Coast of Veracruz, Mexico dates chocolate's preparation by pre-Olmec peoples as early as 1750 BC. On the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico, a Mokayanan archaeological site provides evidence of cacao beverages dating even earlier, to 1900 BC. Traces of some kind of drink have been found in a jug that was discovered in Colha in the north of Belize and dates from 600 BC. A sample of the remains was analysed using modern techniques such as chromatography and spectrometry. The results of the analyses showed the presence o theobromine. Now at the time, the only plant in Central American that contained thebromine was the cacao tree. The discovery of the meaning of one of the glyphs, which stands for the word cocoa, and that of the other glyphs on this jar, have contributed a lot to the understanding of the maya writing.

The Name Cacao or cocoa

The word cacoa comes from the olmec word ‘ka-kaw’. In mayan language it still is the same word today. Diefferent Mayan ceramic pots are decorated with glyphs which have been interpreted as: ka-ka-wa. Hence the word ‘cacao of ‘cocoa’ in English.

In Nahuatl, a language which is till spoken today by more than 1.5 million Indians in Central America, cacahuatl is the word for chocolate: kakawa = cocoa + atl = water.

In the second part of the 16^th centuray, the Spanish however used the word chocoloatl. Why this evolution from cacahuatl to chocolatl? According to Francisco Hernandez, who carried out his research in Mexico in 1570, there was a drink chocolatl, composed of equal parts of cacahuatl and pochotl (seeds from the ‘ceiba’ tree) beaten using a molinillo.

According to Mayan terminology, there was also a hot drink chacau haa or chocol haa= hot water. This is very close to chocolatl. There is also the Mayan Quiché word chocola’l, meaning “ drink chocolate together”.

It could be that someone (a Spaniard perhaps who had not quite mastered the Indian language) took the Maya word chocol to mean hot and the Aztec word atl to mean water and made up the word chocolatl which later became chocolate.

So, several explenations exist, but not one is certain. Our recent contacts with different Maya tribes, made us think that the word chocolate might derivate from the maya ‘choco-ha’, which means: warm water. And indeed Mayans were drinking the chocolate warm.

Kukulkan, for the Mayas – Quetzalcoatl for the Aztecs

Is one of the most important gods. He is often represented in the form of a feathered serpent is the symbol of heaven and earth.

Earliest evidence of domestication of the cacao plant dates to the Olmec culture from the Preclassic period. The Olmecs used it for religious rituals or as a medicinal drink, with no recipes for personal use. Little evidence remains of how the beverage was processed.

By 1400, the Aztec empire took over a sizable part of Mesoamerica. They were not able to grow cacao themselves, but were forced to import it. 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". The cacao bean became a form of currency. The Spanish conquistadors left records of the value of the cacao bean, noting for instance that 100 beans could purchase a canoe filled with fresh water or a turkey hen. The Aztecs associated cacao with the god Quetzacoatl, whom they believed had been condemned by the other gods for sharing chocolate with humans. Unlike the Maya of Yucatán, the Aztecs drank chocolate cold. It was consumed for a variety of purposes, as an aphrodisiac or as a treat for men after banquets, and it was also included in the rations of Aztec soldiers.

CODICES (Codex)

The Mayan people, by contrast, do leave some surviving writings about cacao which confirm the identification of the drink with the gods. The Dresden Codex specifies that it is the food of the rain deity Kon, the Madrid Codex that gods shed their blood on the cacao pods as part of its production.

Codices are books folded like an accordion. The where written by the Mayas, the Mixtecs and the Nahuas.

They contained both historical and religious accounts dating from before and after the Spanish conquest. Some of them had a religious use and told stories about the gods and astronomy; these were used by the priests who used to interpret the pictures and give instructions and advice on all aspects of life, religious, as well as political, social and even agricultural.

The codices were painted on deer skin and on ‘amate’ paper that was made either from the bark of the ficus tree sometimes form maguey fibre.

Most Codices were destroyed by the Spanish church who after the war, considered them objects of superstition and magic. But Mayan and Azetc nobleman also took part in their destruction because some of them wanted to rewrite the history of their origins.

How did the Mayas prepared their chocolate-flavoured drink

The Mayas and the Aztecs prepared their chocolate-flavoured drink in different ways.

The most frequently used method was this one:

• First the cocoa beans were roasted and winnowed (to remove the husks).
• Then they were crushed on a grinding stone called a metate to make them into a paste.
• Corn was boiled up with a little quicklime in order to remove the skin around the kernels more easily (nixtamalisation).
• The kernels were crushed on a metate.
• Next the cocoa paste and the corn paste were mixed together.
• Condments such as Mexican pepper, flowers, hot spices, vanilla and in some cases achiote were added.
• The paste was then diluted with water.

Froth

What the Mayan Indians really liked was the froth.

Froth was obtained in various different ways:

• By using a tube to blow air into the drink
• By pouring the drink from a certain height from one container to another
• By using a stick called a molinillo that was rolled energetically between the palms of the hands.

The froth that was formed at the surface of the drink was removed with a spoon. Then the drink was poured into a cup and froth was spooned on to the top.

Conquest of Europe

The chocolate drink crosses the Pyrenees to France and then to the rest of Europe. Cocoa becomes the preferred drink of sovereigns, priests and wealthy people.

In order to avoid upsetting the cups ‘mancerinas’ begin to appear in Spain and ‘trembleuses’ in France. There were now ‘chocolatières’ to serve it.

Slowly, people begin to consume sweetened cocoa all over the European continent, encouraged by commercial and cultural relations, but also as a result of royal weddings and alliances.

In France, chocolate appears at the beginning of the 1600s. Anne of Austria, daughter of Philippe III, King of Spain, marries Louis XIII in 1615 and moves tot France. She is accompanied by her ‘molina’, a maid who is expert in the preparation of the drink.

Marie-Thérèse of Austria, daughter of Philippe IV of Spain who was married to Louis XIV, also adored the drink.

Little by little, drinking chocolate becomes a habit at the Royal Court. In 1659, Louis XIV grants the right to a certain David Chaillou for a period of 29 years, ‘ to produce and sell a mixture called chocolate either as a liqueur of pastilles or in any other way he pleases’.

Without replacing coffee, which remained the exotic drink par excellence and without enjoying the success of tea, chocolate becomes all the rage in the 18^th-century.

In 1715, on the death of Louis XIC, Philippe d’Orléans becomes regent until the young Louis XV attains his majority. Every morning, Philippe d’Orléans drinks large cups of chocolate. Being invited to witness this is a great honour.

Voltaire liked chocolate too. He even created his own recipe in order to stimulate is brain.

Numerous artistocrats drank chocolate when they woke up, brought to them in bed by their servants. The preferred sweetened Chocolate to the bitter coffee of the proletariat.

Diderot and d’Alembert included a recipe for chocolate in their famous encyclopedia:

• 4 soup spoons of chocolate
• 2 soup spoons of sugar
• 3 pinches of cinnamon
• 1 egg

Water and milk is added and the mixture heated in a bain marie. Finally a drop of orange flower and two drops of essence of amber are added.

But chocolate remains expensive. At the end of the 18the century, 1 pound of chocolate costs the equivalent of 5 days work.

Pueblo people, who lived in an area that is now the U.S. Southwest, imported cacao from Mesoamerican cultures in southern Mexico or Central America between 900 and 1400. They used it in a common beverage consumed by everyone in their society. (source: wikipedia)