#monteczuma

Though Chocolate began with the Aztecs and early Mesoamerican Societies, it was quite different from the dessert we know and love today. Aztecs used chocolates in two major ways.

The husk and pulp from cacao pods were harvested and fermented to create an alcoholic beverage akin to beer: a more common drink for the general populace.

The cacao beans were used to create a liquid drinking chocolate, though very different from the hot chocolate we enjoy today. Aztec drinking chocolate did not use milk or sugar, but were also very high in cacao butter. The mixture would be thick and decadent, but also incredibly bitter. This beverage was called xocolātl, meaning “bitter water”, and is commonly believed to be the etymological root of the word chocolate.

Additionally, xocolātl was flavored with a variety of spices and chiles. Making it an incredibly intense beverage.

In today’s world, the company Mariebelle makes a variety of hot chocolate mixes in the style of Aztec xocolātl, incredibly thick with tiered levels of spice. Mariebelle certainly does not make it’s product as bitter or as spicy as it’s historic predecessor, but if your look for intense flavor with a little kick, Mariebelle is a go to brand.

In Aztec culture, cacao was so revered that drinking xocolātl was considered a religious experience for the wealthy and the elite. Drinking chocolate was a nightly ritual for the Aztec leader Monteczuma.