You know it. You love it. It’s the #1 most popular wintertime drink in the US. It’s the drink kids
ask for when they come back inside from making snowmen and snow angels. It’s the name of
that one song from the movie Polar Express. It’s a holiday staple, and it is delicious. Hot
chocolate is a must-have drink for every winter season. The creamy chocolate, the burning
sensation on your tongue, the marshmallow and peppermint add-ons… What’s not to love?
Maybe the burning sensation is not to love, but we won’t talk too much about that.
The earliest evidence of hot chocolate can be traced back to the Mayans in 500 BC. Also the
ancient inventors of the taco (another wonderful thing to consume), the Mayans were the ones
to first cultivate the cacao tree (or the chocolate tree. Sometimes candy does grow on trees,
kids). The Mayans’ hot chocolate was bitter, with chillies and herbs added for spice. It wasn’t
even hot——xocolātl, or ‘bitter water’, was served cold.
The next phase in our chocolatey adventure was when the Aztecs modified the drink, adding
honey and vanilla. Along with using cacao beans as currency, the Aztecs drank their hot
chocolate on special occasions, believing it to grant them strength and vitality (spoiler alert; it
doesn’t. Please eat protein and vegetables for that. Just drinking hot chocolate will not work like
that. You’ll get sick.)
When Spanish explorers found the Americas, they also found hot chocolate. They modified the
recipe by warming it and adding sugar, making it the first “hot” chocolate. It wasn’t initially
popular, but all of a sudden there was a boom of popularity for Spanish hot chocolate.
In the 1650s, Sir Hans Sloane from England visited Jamaica and tried xocolātl. He found it too
bitter, so he mixed it with milk to sweeten it, modifying the recipe yet again. When Sloane
brought the recipe back to England, London coffee-houses started adding hot chocolate to their
menus, and it became a popular and elite morning drink for the wealthy, as the drink was
rumored to have medicinal properties (spoiler alert; it doesn’t. It’s just yummy). Eventually, hot
chocolate recipes and chocolate itself became more accessible to Englishmen, and it was no
longer only enjoyed by the wealthy; it became a drink to be enjoyed by the poor as well as the
rich.
After the Industrial Revolution, hot chocolate became much more popular for the main reason
that it was more accessible. Cocoa powder was invented, making it all the more convenient and
easy to prepare in the home. The modern hot chocolate is enjoyed year-round, but is very
popular in the wintertime. Initially invented by the Mayans, influenced by Aztec, Spanish, and
English tastes, and industrialized for accessibility, hot chocolate has come a long way since
xacolātl to be more aligned with modern tastes. Next time you enjoy a warm, chocolatey drink
with family and friends, remember its rich history and be, once again, grateful to the Mayans for
their contributions to the culinary world.