Chocolate in Pre-Columbian America

Cacao was well known to the classic Maya, whose remarkable civilization flourished and died in Yucatan and Guatemala in the 1st millennium ad. Alongside deceased Maya dignitaries were buried implements for use in the afterlife, including jars and bowls for chocolate. The identification of the word ka-ka-w in the inscriptions on these pots was a breakthrough in the decipherment of Maya phonetic writing. Moreover, traces of theobromine and caffeine, two active constituents of chocolate, have been found in some of them. An 8th-century painted vase shows chocolate being poured from a cylindrical jar, held high, into a bowl, thus demonstrating how the Maya raised froth in their chocolate: the froth was the most desirable part of the drink. They sometimes flavoured chocolate with chilli, with vanilla, and with other ingredients less easy to identify. They probably liked to drink their chocolate hot, as did the Maya of Spanish colonial times.