Advertisement
Chocolate
Appears in
Published 2001
When the Spanish came to Veracruz, cacao for chocolate was widely grown in the area. It remained fairly important in colonial times but has now been abandoned as a commercial crop. What a pity — cacao trees still grow wild in parts of Veracruz, and some people (like the family of Luisa Reyna Mortera Aguirre in Otatitlán) continue to gather the fruit and ferment the beans for a household source of chocolate.
One of the main pre-Hispanic uses of chocolate was as an element in intricately flavored sauces. This persists in modern Mexico, along with several chocolate-based beverages. When you see chocolate called for in a recipe, always use the grainy, spiced Mexican chocolate (Ibarra or La Abuelita brands) sold here in most Latin groceries. The effect is completely different from American and European sweetened or unsweetened chocolate.