Chocolate drinks

The first people known to consume the cacao beans were the Olmec, who lived in what is today southern Mexico. They fermented, dried, and ground the beans into a chocolate paste using a stone metate. They then mixed the paste with water and spices to create a rich—though bitter—chocolate drink.

The Olmec were followed by the Maya (of present-day Guatemala, Belize, and Yucatán Peninsula), and then the Toltec and Aztec of central Mexico. Each civilization valued the drink of the cacao bean. Between 1375 and 1521 Aztecs melted cocoa into a bitter drink, probably drunk cold with spices. Cocoa beans were given to priest's assistants at children's coming of age ceremonies. During marriage ceremonies, the couple drank a symbolic cup of chocolate and exchanged cocoa beans. Aztecs believed that drinking chocolate gave mortals some of Quetzalcoatl's (God of learning and of the wind) wisdom.

In 1585 in Oaxaca, Mexico, nuns in a convent mixed sugar with cocoa and consumed it hot and sweet, as a drink.

By the 17th century, chocolate was a fashionable drink throughout Europe, believed to have nutritious, medicinal and even aphrodisiac properties (it's rumored that Casanova was especially fond of the stuff).

Like Mesoamericans, the first chocolate-drinkers in Europe mixed their chocolate with vanilla, xochinacaztli—flowers nicknamed orejuelas or “little ears” by the Spanish for their ear-shapes, mecaxóchitl, and achiote. Like Mesoamericas, Europeans valued “foam” on chocolate—perhaps the antecedent to the contemporary custom of putting marshmallows in hot chocolate.

But it remained largely a privilege of the rich until the invention of the steam engine made mass production possible in the late 1700s.

Chocolate drinks

First chocolate drinking house in London

The consumption of chocolate became popular among the early Spanish settlers in the Americas but was kept secret from other nations.

After Colmenero’s treatise on chocolate translated into English and published in London in 1640, chocolate became fashionable drink in England.

The first chocolate drinking house was established in London in 1657 by a Frenchman who produced the first advertisement for the chocolate drinks.

The June 6, 1657 issue of the Public Advertiser announced, "In Bishopgate St, in Queen's Head Alley, at a Frenchman's house, is an excellent West Indian drink called Chocolate to be sold, where you may have it ready at any time and also unmade at reasonable rates."

The paper proclaimed chocolate’s medicinal qualities, writing that the drink ‘cures and preserves the body of many diseases.’ The chocolate house was mentioned in Pepys’s Diary of 1664 where he wrote that ‘jocolatte’ was ‘very good’.

During the 18th century White’s Chocolate House became the fashionable place for young Londoners, while politicians of the day went to the Cocoa Tree Chocolate House.

At chocolate houses wealthy men paid an entrance fee to drink hot chocolate, gamble, play cards, eat, socialize and discuss politics, became fashionable in London.

Excessive taxation did not spoil Britain’s appetite for chocolate. In 1874, an avant-garde London coffeehouse called At the Coffee Mill and Tobacco Roll began serving chocolate in cakes and rolls in the Spanish tradition.
First chocolate drinking house in London

Drinking chocolate is an ancient tradition

The Olmec civilization made a beverage from the roasted and ground seeds of Theobroma cacao as early as 1600 BC.

To the ancient Mayans it was the nectar of the gods. During pre-classic, the Maya drank chocolate from pouted vessels, the spout serving not only as a vehicle to pour the drink, but also perhaps as a means to blow air into the chocolate, creating a bubbly froth on the surface.

Europeans revered it as a symbol of wealth and power. Many cultures believed it an aphrodisiac.

One of the world’s greatest expressions of taste and rapture, hot chocolate is enjoyed by millions, yet few have successfully combined the oldest traditions with the purest natural ingredients.

Cacao beans were used by the Aztecs to prepare to a hot, frothy beverage with stimulant and restorative properties.

Like Mayans, the Aztecs drank the beverage made with cocoa beans at sacred ceremonies. The drink was recorded as ‘chocolatl’ which means ‘warm liquid’.

Chocolate itself was reserved for warriors, nobility and priests. Scientists now know what the Aztecs esteemed, chocolate's reputed ability to confer wisdom and vitality is true.

Taken fermented as a drink, chocolate was also used in religious ceremonies. The sacred concoction was associated with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility. The Maya and Aztec continued the practice, instructing Spanish conquistadores on how to process the raw cacao.

In 1519, when Hernan Cortez invaded Mexico, the Spanish found the chocolate drink a favorite of the emperor Montezuma II.

The emperor took no other beverage than the chocolate, a potation of chocolate, flavored with vanilla and other spices. Emperor Montezuma allegedly drank 50 goblets a day.

Later in 1528 Cortez brought cacao to the Spanish courts, where the Mesoamerican delicacy quickly was adopted.
Drinking chocolate is an ancient tradition

Caffé Mocha

Caffé Mocha
The term “mocha’ originally referred to coffee that was grown on the Arabian Peninsula and shipped from the Yemeni port of Mocha. The history of this word’s use is fairly muddled. It is likely most Europeans tasted coffee before chocolate.

Therefore, when chocolate first appeared from the Western Hemisphere, there found it reminiscent of, or confused it with, the wild and fruity flavors of Yemeni coffee. Since then, the word “mocha” has come to mean many things, including the flavor combination of coffee and chocolate, while it is still used to describe coffee from Yemen (or even coffee from Ethiopia that tastes like coffee from Yemen).

As sixteenth century sailing ships carried goods from the Arabian Peninsular across the Mediterranean, the Italian port of Venice became coffee’s gateway to European markets.

Merchants in Venice and Turin opened the earliest coffee houses and when Spanish drinking chocolate was first introduced to Turin, it was mixed with coffee and cream into stimulating novelty called bavareisa.

Caffé Mocha is made by mixing chocolate (either sweetened, ground chocolate or chocolate syrup) with espresso. Steamed milk is then added to the mixture.

Most recipe specifically suggest that the espresso and chocolate be mixed before the steamed milk is added, in order to preserve the proper consistency and texture of the milk and to ensure that the mocha has a frothy, rich texture.
Caffé Mocha