Mayan Spicy Hot Chocolate Recipe

• 2 minutes to make
• Serves 2

From the Chicago Tribune Drink what the Mayans drank! It was chocolate's invigorating, restorative qualities that Spanish explorers in Central America noted in accounts sent home about the strange beverage. It certainly wasn't the pleasing taste, for chocolate as the Europeans found it was bitter, often flavored with chili and other spices. Read more Inscriptions show the Mayans of the first millennium had drunk chocolate, pouring it high from jars to create a froth. Our modern name is of obscure origin, but it is believed to come from a Mayan word, "chocol," meaning "hot" and the Nahuatl word "atl," meaning "water." By the late 16th century, chocolate from the New World was becoming popular in Spain. Unsweetened and somewhat harsh, it was first prescribed as a medicine, a reviving tonic good for the spleen. Delicious but dangerous was its reputation at the court of Louis XIV. From Spain around 1680, Madame de Villars wrote to a friend in France of a wonderful discovery: "I am staying with my chocolate diet; to it alone I believe I owe my health. But I don't use it like a madwoman and without precaution. … It is, however, delicious." Sugar, not spice, was the key to the success of chocolate. To preserve the roasted beans, traders ground and mixed them with sugar syrup to sell as pastilles. Now a palatable candy and the basis of a zesty drink, chocolate hit the money. Gentlemen quaffed their chocolate in the new cafes and coffeehouses that were spreading throughout Europe. Ladies sipped their breakfast chocolate poured from silver chocolate pots. Sudden fashions in food can fade just as fast, but chocolate had two properties going for it: its caffeine content and the lush richness of its cocoa butter. Right from the beginning, Spanish cooks had picked up the Mexican habit of adding a spoonful of ground cocoa beans to their rich, dark stews. With sugar added, chocolate gradually became the flavor of choice for decadent desserts. Chocolate was found to have an affinity for milk, cream and eggs. By the end of the 18th century, every new cookbook had its share of creams, mousses and ice creams, with souffles and tarts a later development. Chocolate was still full of fat, but in 1828 a Dutchman called van Houten patented a process for extracting most of the cocoa butter, leaving the powdery cocoa. Our familiar chocolate products had arrived: cocoa powder (no sugar); powdered chocolate (sweetened cocoa); unsweetened (bitter) block chocolate; a huge range of dark to light block chocolates, all sweetened; milk chocolate (an English favorite); and white chocolate, which has a high proportion of cocoa butter. They all have different uses, but one destination remains unbeatable — a piping hot, heavenly brew made from a block of the very best dark chocolate you can find. The recipe for hot chocolate that follows is spiced to recall the early days when chocolate reached Europe from Mexico. Be sure to use really good dark chocolate so that the flavor comes through clearly. To add another historical touch, use a wooden whisk known as a molinillo to froth the drink. These utensils, developed by Spanish colonists in Mexico in the 1700s, can be found in specialty food stores and online. See less

• cream
• milk
• chocolatecinnamon
• vanilla
• red
• pepper
• salt
• spicy
• hot
• chocolate
• stovetop