Its winter time and this season, almost every region north of the Mexican border has been blanketed by snow, ice or sometimes both. Brr! Lucky, Mexico has a cure for those cold-winter blues, hot chocolate. It’s not your everyday hot coco. Instead this chocolate is deeply rooted in ancient history, locally grown with no importation of additives or additional ingredients. Now that’s sustainability.
Some recipes call for real vanilla extract or a teaspoon of honey while other recipes consist of nothing more of chocolate and water. It all depends on the sweet tooth.
In today’s society, Mexican drinking chocolate is for the chocolate lovers but the ancient Olmecas and Mayas native to the Yucatan Peninsula used it for medicinal purpose, from curing liver disease to mixing chocolate past with chili peppers to purge the body of toxins.
Once the Aztecs acquired chocolate, they used chocolate as currency in its most original form, cocoa beans.
Putting medicinal uses and currency aside, here is a recipe to warm up to:
2-4 segments from chocolate tablet or disk
1 cup of milk or water
1-2 teaspoons of honey (optional)
1 teaspoon of real vanilla extract (optional)
Some grocers in the United States and Canada sell Mexican drinking chocolate but there is really nothing like experiencing it while in the land of its origins. Visit the Riviera Maya and try Hacienda Tres Ríos’ Mexican hot chocolate.