Chocolate

I think there is simply no better start to the day than laying a piece of rich dark chocolate dipped in coffee on my tongue and letting its luscious taste dissolve. Many Mexicans are similarly fanatic about chocolate for breakfast, except they typically enjoy theirs as a cup of hot chocolate . . . and I continue to eat mine all day. It’s a passion.

Mexicans have been obsessed with chocolate since the Mayan people began cultivating the evergreen Theobroma cacao L. trees in the Yucatán rainforest. Almost two thousand years ago, this early culture had remarkably figured out the process of opening the cacao pods, fermenting and drying the beans, and then roasting and grinding them into a paste as a base for a beverage.