Cacao and white chocolate

 The title of the chocolate recipe I have chosen is called “Xocolatl.” As one would already have imagined, this ancient mesoamerican word sounds very similar to the word used in English ”chocolate” and that is because there is indeed linguistic relation between the two. Some historians have speculated that the word Xocolatl is a word from the Nahuatl language which meant a sour and/or bitter drink. This was used to describe how the Xocolatl drink tasted to the people who were consuming (and hopefully enjoying) the drink. To this very day, there are many people who continue to enjoy this incredibly strong-tasting chocolate drink, this includes but of course not limited to parts of the modern-day country of Mexico, with some states in the country having more consumers than others, and even here in the United States, where a new trend of food always shows up for people to freely partake in. This chocolate recipe is an ancient Aztec hot beverage that was fairly easy to be made. One thing to remember is that this drink in this day and age is not necessarily a drink that requires many different expensive ingredients such as saffron (which has a price similar to gold) but rather ingredients that are considered to be everyday household items, which brings us to the following question, “what are the ingredients which make up the Xocolatl?” The ingredients which made up this very ancient Aztec drink were water, chili peppers (preferably green chili peppers) cocoa powder, and some extracts of vanilla. One thing that is important for readers to remember is that this is just a general recipe, it does not mean that every single Xocolatl has to include every single one of these ingredients, some families might have traditions as well as different family recipes which differ from another, also some make this hot Mexican drink sweetened, while others do not, but for the sake of this entry, I will use the recipe I have stated above. The nutritional content of this beverage is fairly good, especially since one serving of it only has about 50 calories, it makes great for a person who has the goal to lose weight off of their body. According to allrecipes.com the way to make this beverage is quite simple, it first requires water to be boiled with the chili peppers for 10 minutes, then to stir the cocoa powder and vanilla into the boiling hot pot for another 10 minutes, and after that, you have yourself the drink. This of course would be a fairly cheap drink to make at home, which can make the argument that with regards to the socio-economic background of this drink, today it can be in the hands of almost anyone of every economic class. While the ingredients of this drink are very cheap in terms of pricing today, it does not mean that this was always the case, especially when one knows about Mayan history, as well as Aztec history well enough to know that they used cacao as a form of currency to trade with each other, making cacao a very valuable resource, so valuable in fact that its value was worth more than even gold! According to an article titled "Xocolatl: The Mayan Food of the Gods" authored by Karen Harris from "historydaily.org, she makes mentions of how the Mayans were of the belief that chocolate was something very special to humans, a gift from their gods as their religion would put it, here is an actual quote from the article "The Mayans believed that chocolate was a gift to humans from the gods, and therefore, should be shared with all of the people. Anyone in the Mayan civilization could partake of the beverage, regardless of their social standing. The Mayans consumed Xocolatl on a daily basis, much like how we drink our morning coffee." This quote from the article gives some very important information that could further explain some of the socio-economic historical contexts of this ancient bitter-described chocolate drink. For one thing, the Mayans did not really have too much of a care of a person's wealth, as Harris explained how their social standing did not matter, and especially how their religion called for sharing this bitter and hot drink with all of the people who surrounded them within their civilization. For the Mayan people, this hot beverage seemed to be something that they adopted to bring themselves together, with very little care for wealth. One thing to also remember is that while the Mayans did share this drink with all of their people, without a care for wealth it definitely did not mean that they did not place  

a numerical value on the drink, because they indeed did, not only with actual wealth, but also a religious worth to it, which in some cases could make the value of the drink worth a lot more to the Mayan people than the actual currency worth ever would be able to do, simply because of the fact that their religion was used as a method of guiding their life, as well as giving them what they thought was an explanation for the afterlife. In order to summarize this chocolate recipe, what readers should take away from it should be a few things, and in no particular order it is that the ancient Xocolatl drink was something to be described as a very cheap to make, but incredibly valuable beverage served hot, which the Mayan people used as a way of bringing their people together. Their method was to employ the usage of inclusion of everyone, while at the same time using many different thoughts, especially their religion in order to make way for common knowledge and to fit into their morality. While the Xocolatl drink was not mixed with any sweeteners, it is incredibly important for people to understand that chocolate as we know it today, is not very much like the chocolate of the Mayan people and their Xocolatl drink. 

Bibliography

https://veggiedesserts.com/xocolatl-aztec-hot-chocolate/

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/216166/xocolatl-aztec-chocolate/

https://historydaily.org/xocolatl-the-mayan-food-of-the-gods