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aztec drinks
As extracted from the "Diary of a foot soldier" by
Bernal Diaz from his observations while first traveling through Central
America on the conquest with the Spanish Conquistadors
Make your own chocolate
1-2kg (2-4pounds) of cocoa beans.
A manually operated grinder.
Roasting cocao beans
- Roast the green cocao beans over an open fire, while stirring, until they 'pop' (only 75% should be popped or the beans will burn)
- Peel as quickly as possible while hot (cold beans are harder to peel)
- Grind the beans with a pestle and mortar (the resulting oil that will be produced has a bitter taste)
There are now two alternatives:
With oil, which gives you a richer, yet bitter flavor and without oil
a milder form will result:
With oil (crude cocoa tablets)
- Spread aluminum foil or greaseproof paper on a tray, make small piles of the paste and allow to them rest overnight
- In the morning they should be hard tablets
- Remove them from the aluminum foil/greaseproof paper
Without oil (crude cocoa powder)
- Put the paste inside a fine cloth, close the cloth up and squeeze until the oil comes out (similar to making fresh curds and whey): the more that is squeezed out the better.
- What is left now is either crude chocolate tablets or a crude cocoa powder. You can now make a nice beverage by one of the following three methods:
Basic
- Boil a liter of milk (or water, like in the ancient Mexican style)
- When the milk is warm (not hot) add a chocolate tablet; broken into pieces
- Stir with a blender (but be careful! the blender's electric cord should NOT touch the pot or any other hot thing around it)
- When the chocolate has dissolved add ½ - ¾ cups of sugar (depending how sweet you like your chocolate) and blend in fast; make sure the sugar is completely dissolved in the chocolate otherwise it will be bitter no matter how much sugar you may add afterwards
- Add a teaspoon of cinnamon or natural vanilla flavor (artificial vanilla flavor with chocolate results in an awful medicine like flavor) if you like, and blend again
- Let the mixture boil, when it starts to get bubbly quickly remove the pan from the stove top, and rest the bottom against a soaked cloth
- Put again on stove top, it should get bubbly almost immediately, remove once again and repeat one last time. This aerates the chocolate which enhances the flavor.
- In a mug, put about 1/2-3/4 of the chocolate mixture, and add cold milk, until the temperature and/or the concentration of the flavor is right for your tastes
- Accompany with French/Danish pastries and enjoy!
Mayan "xocoatl"
- Add the crude powder or the chocolate tablets (broken down in a pestle and mortar) and add to cold water
- Bring to a boil over a medium heat while stirring
The Mayans were said to have added local herbs also; but what they might have been as far as I know as been lost in antiquity and no doubt no longer exist!?
Aztec "Cacahuatl"
- Add the crude powder or the chocolate tablets: broken down in a pestle and mortar and add to cold water (the Aztecs are said to have refined the Mayan "xocoatl", by grinding the powder finer than the Mayans)
- Add some chili water (chop chillies and soak in boiling water to make a 'tea'), vanilla beans/pods and honey
- Let the mixture boil while stirring constantly, when it starts to get bubbly quickly remove the pan from the stove top and allow to cool slightly
- Place back on the flame and continue to stir to the boil again
- Repeat the cooling and re-boiling
- Repeat again: this aerates the chocolate which enhances the flavor
You should now have a drink similar to the Aztec drink, which should be: finely ground, soft, foamy, reddish, bitter and spicy No amounts are given, as it is very much a case of producing them to suit your individual taste...Bon appetite and enjoy!
