Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

Cacao is a bean that grows in pods on the cacao tree.  It was used by the Olmecs 3,000 years ago who called it the “food of the gods,”  and it was transported back to Europe by Hernán Cortez and Christopher Columbus. But it remained an obscure curiosity to Europeans, as they didn’t know what to do with it, until they decided to mess around with the recipe and make it into something they enjoyed.  While the Olmecs, Aztecs and other native civilizations mixed it with chili and water to make a spicy/bitter drink, the Spanish left out the chili and replaced it with sugar.  That’s the short story of where our idea hot coco comes from.

Tasty Health Benefits:

Unlike spinach, chocolate is actually tasty (thanks in great part to sugar).  The fact of the matter though is that chocolate comes from cacao, and cacao is botanical.  Thus, it’s not surprising that it has been shown to have antioxidant properties.  It’s interesting that cacao has been the subject of two recent discoveries (by modern medicine) linking it’s antioxidants to the treatment of liver disease and heart disease.  Medical mumbo jumbo aside, the antioxidants in cacao lower abdominal blood pressure and liver cirrhosis (well, I guess that’s still medical mumbo jumbo).  Read more about that here.  In terms of heart disease, the same antioxidants and processes seem to be in play.  A German study of 20,000 people over 8 years found that 6 ounces of chocolate per day lowers the risks of heart attack and stroke by 39% (although there is no proof that chocolate alone is responsible.)

Good Chocolate:

In an ideal world we could eat the tastiest treats, lose weight and live forever.  Life doesn’t work like that.  I think the Olmecs had it right when they mixed crushed cacao with chili and water.  Chili is good for you and obviously water is too.  Of course it probably tasted terrible as neither cacao nor chilis are sweet.  Latin Americans have a notorious affinity for chili coated candy.  Thus, I’m guessing their ancestors probably liked the chili/cacao concoction a lot more than a European would.  Well, the European fashion won out and now we have our hot-coco and chocolate bars loaded with sugar.  Sugar makes you fat and kills your teeth and is generally a terrible food option.  If you were keen to get all the benefit of cacao and none of the harm then you’d drink it like the Olmecs and Aztecs did.  The next best thing is to find a dark chocolate bar with as much cacao and as little sugar as your sissy European taste buds can handle.  I’ve seen them with as much as 90% cacao and that’s not too bad.

Going Native:

Whole Foods sells Raw Cacao nibs (chopped up pieces of the semi-fermented beans).  If you wanted to get experimental with your hot coco you could try to make it the traditional way.  Be warned though that it’ll taste spicy and bitter, not sweet.  Here is a traditional recipe that I snipped from The University of Pennsylvania museum of Archeology and Anthropology website.

The Recipe:  If you try it, let me know how it turns out for you!

Into a deep pot, break 1 tablet Mexican chocolate.  Add 1 cup water (use milk if you must, but the more traditional ingredient is water).  Heat the water to boiling, stirring the chocolate until it melts. The result will be somewhat grittier than other chocolate drinks.  Add, to taste, cinnamon, a vanilla bean, and a small piece of chili (yes, chili!).  If you want to add further authenticity, stir in a teaspoonful or more of masa, the corn meal used to make tortillas.  Using a whisk, or wooden molinillo, whisk the chocolate until a thick froth forms.  Or cheat and use an electric blender or portable electric mixer.  Pour and enjoy!  To have chocolate the way Motecuhzoma liked it, pour the concoction over a glass of shaved ice.

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