I swear that mesoamericans were the food scientists of the ancient times, they domesticated so many important species for today's society and developed techniques still relevant
Your videos on ancient American history are sorely needed educational media to close the giant hole in the education system. Thank you for making these!
That 14 page source list is something to behold. You obviously got really into this one! You have no idea how appreciated you are as youtube keeps attempting to shove alternate history ancient aliens bullshit onto my feed. I work in the field of public lands in New Mexico, and if you need any help with finding maps of the US and leads for Southwestern culture sites I'm happy to help you out.
We here in Mexico are retaking some of the more traditional methods of preparation, and I have to say, hot chocolate and water (with a tiny bit of sugar for an extra kick, or to ease the unaccostumed palate like mine) is actually quite delicious! Kudos to the first person that picked up cacao beans and saw their potential!
@@Alaskan-Armadillo I've tried the solid candy version (it's quite good, the spiciness hits you right at the end), but one of these days I'm doing the drink!
As someone who knows the region I can safely say that this is usually cope and people most often use these traditional methods as a way to save on milk and sugar. Perhaps you are not being cheap but if you invite someone into your house and give them (gasp) water-based hot chocolate they will definitely view you as cheap or poor.
I've gained a lot of respect for cacao. I'm recovering from congestive heart failure and have been eating mega doses to open up my heart . Usually organic raw powder sweetened with monk fruit in water. I can't prove it works but I'm definitely not having chest pains like I was and I walk several miles every single day. Certainly not laying on my back and dying in a hospital bed. I can see an ancient culture holding this plant in high esteem.
One extremely minor note. Cacao beans don't grind up into powder like coffee beans do. They're verry fatty and grind up into something more wet coffee grounds and if you go farther like peanut butter. Cocoa powder is made by pressing the coarsely ground beans (called nibs) to expel the cocoa butter and leave the powder behind. It's not me in the video, but it's what got me started doing it at home: ua-cam.com/video/hfrWPtjVuWU/v-deo.html.
@@d.strassler9080 Several people have pointed that out and I was not aware of it when I made the episode. I don't have an explanation for it other than the caca theory being wrong.
Yeah if you see what chocolate is made of, the ingredients almost always list cocoa powder and cocoa butter as separate ingredients, as these get separated during preparation.
Hey, I just discovered this channel a week or ago and have been really enjoying it. I have an anthropology degree and have been shovel bumming it for the last 5 years. All that time spent digging in super disturbed area, mostly finding 1950's whiteware kind of burnt me out a little, but seeing stuff like this is a reminder of why I like archaeology so much. One of my professors in undergrad was a Mayanist, and he did research on cacao using chemical analysis on pots. I think Michael Coe was the person who wrote the textbook we used.
Thank you! I hope you can work on some exciting projects in the future. Do you mainly excavate in North America? I wouldn't be surprised if Coe was the author, he wrote a lot on the Maya and I've got several of his books. His book, Reading the Maya Glyphs, is a fantastic resource for me whenever I cover Maya topics.
@@AncientAmericas I've only been able to do stuff in the USA. I do cultural resource management, so pretty much making sure no one builds a new power plant over something important. Most of the time we've found nothing. I would really love to do some archaeology outside the States, though! All the Mesoamerican stuff seems to be booming, so if I pivot to doing more academic work, I'll probably end up doing stuff down there.
Come shovel bum in cooper landing, Alaska next summer. I'm the tribal monitor for a highway construction project up there. It's super fun. Company is HDR for the archs
What blows my mind is that new research points to "aeroir" being responsible for cacao developing distinct tastes, not terroir. Turns out cacao is readily fermented by bacteria in the air. Each valley around the world has its own unique airborne concoction. So attributing that premium chocolate bar's price to its origin is spurious but also not necessarily wrong. When you say you enjoy chocoalte from Madaagascar Another cutting edge fact: cacao aficionados are now moving away from the 3 broad cacao varieties towards a model based on ten genetic clusters or primary varieties... Nacional is one of the more famed ones. For those curious about the other stimulants AA refers to in the video, I cover them in my new video. Do let me know if I missed any! ua-cam.com/video/EQMcp-BwbBU/v-deo.html
36:44 Interesting, in Russian we say with the instead of . And also cacao () in like a funny manner can be pronounced as which is surprisingly similar to how the Maya have written it down
YOU RIGHT. SO. THE WORLD CHOCOLATE CAME FROM MEXICAN. NAHUALT. LEANGUAGE. SO THEN. ITS BEING TRYING. TO PRONOUNCED THE MOST CLOSED. OF THE NAHUALT. CHOCOLATE. SO. I. GOOD THAT IN RUSSIA. PRONOUNCED SIMILAR ON MAYA REGARDS FROM MÉXICO 🇲🇽💚🤍❤️🇲🇽😀🙏
Where to begin? Words cannot describe how blessed I feel by having been born in that majestic land we now call Mexico! Without a doubt, chocolate is one of the most important contributions that our ancient cultures gave to the world. If you ever have the chance to visit Mexico, especially the southern states where indigenous cultures are still thriving, don't miss the cocoa-based traditional drinks such as cacao foam (espuma de cacao), tascalate and tejate. They are drunk cold and there is simply nothing more refreshing during the hot months of the year. As for the etymology, the "xoco atl" or "xocolatl" [bitter water] is the one that I've always heard, including during the Nahuatl language courses I took at the University of Mexico. I'm not sure where you got some facts from, but the 'ch' sound can absolutely be followed by an 'o' sound, like in the words 'choca' [to cry] and 'chochoca' [to whimper]. On the other hand, the inclusion of an 'l' sound in the middle of the word, or the change from 'sh' to 'ch' is not hard to explain at all, just by looking at the deformations of other Nahuatl words borrowed into Spanish. In particular, the 'sh' sound --absent in Iberian Spanish-- that Catholic friars transcribed with the letter 'x' became the modern-day Mexican Spanish mess it is today. Wherever the word comes from, we can only feel thankful for the joy of chocolate in all of its forms in our lives!
Thank you! The bit about the ch and o came from Michael Coe's book (check the bibliography) and I don't recall if that was specific to classic Nahuatl or all Nahuatl dialects but you've taken courses on it so I'm sure you know better than I. I should emphasize though that xocoatl could be the correct word it comes from, there's just a lot of disagreement from scholars about it.
Native Americans inherited their culture and where taught by more advanced cultures who built pyramids all over the world. Likely a white aryan race whom came from Atlantis.
Borrowed words from any language are a deep linguistics dive. In this case I believe "bitter water" is the most etymological correct term, as you're pointing out.. Chocolate before adding milk and sugar IS a very bitter drink and "cho-" and "xo-" do exist in other nahuatl words. We just have to think about how these words made the jump to other languages. We see cases where the way a word is spoken gets replaced by the way the "literate" read them, as in the word "Mexico" itself, in spanish pronounced as "me-jiko" and not "mehshee-koh" as in nahuatl... Both written form, pronunciation and stress changed. Why? Because of the many spanish variants within Spain where some wrote the "sh" sound as X and some as Ch and some read the X as a J, or even S sound, and so on, so spanish-only speakers reading the letters of friars and chroniclers of their time would just take those words as they were and not question written forms and pronunciations because they never heard them nor knew the people who originally spoke them. But with spices, fruits, food in general, most names have retained their closest phonology. This is because most cooks and farmers were indigenous so they used the names of the things they already knew (which had no other name because they did not exist anywhere else in the world) even if they also spoke spanish. Chilli became chile (funnily became chilli again in english), ahuacatl bacame aguacate (avocado), molli became mole, xocolatl then chocolate. In nahuatl these words have the same stress as their spanish counterpart, also pronounced the same except for the "tl" syllable that does not exist in spanish. The more a word is spoken, the more it is preserved.
I took my time to watch this video since i consider chocolate a personal thing for me. My ancestors (owners and servents) would grow cacao trees with coffee trees. My grandma would make chocolate drinks from scratch. She also made white chocolate drink with the white cacao butter. Sadly, most people don't know how to make that version. Even though I was in the kitchen with her when she made it, she passed away when i was 7. For thanksgiving, modern tradition I do is I bring the turkey to my mother in law so she can make turkey in mole and turkey mole tamales.
Your videos are getting better each time. I really appreciate how you cite all your sources (A rare thing for history UA-camrs to do unfortunately) and to take good faith feedback and corrections on your videos.
I look forward to each and every one of your videos, please keep them coming! Chocolate AND vanilla, two wonderful contributions to our palates by the Mesoamericans.
thanks for a wonderful feature on chocolate & its history! my heritage is Mexican so i've been on a journey to learn a lot of traditional culinary recipes, from nixtamalization with metate in tow, to cooking meat in an underground pib we had built a couple of years ago. i grew up, like anyone else, enjoying hot cocoa with milk. the thought of drinking chocolate with plain water seemed unappealing to me. but i had to try it! i'm in San Diego, so we go to Tijuana frequently. i was able to acquire a beautiful Oaxacan made jarrito & so i prepared the chocolate in it with water over a stove. i have to say, i fell in love with the pure flavor of chocolate with the water & was sad when i ran out of my Oaxacan made chocolate. i look forward to going to the artisanal shops again & getting my hands on plenty more. can't wait to try it with some powder made from ground chilies next time, as Chilcacahuatl. just wondering what kind!
Well why not use dried pasilla chiles? They have a nice dark fruity note, almost raisin-like. You are going to have to rehydrate it but considering the drink it may be worth it. (you can also use other types of dried chilies but tbh I'd look into sweeter Oaxacan mole recipes for insight on what chiles pair well with cacao).
There's a place near where I live that imports old-style mexican chocolate, and there's almost no wax or milk solids or anything in it, just cocoa mass and sometimes things like sea salt or hot chili for flavor. If that's the closest thing I can get to what chocolate was in the Mesoamerican empires, then I agree with them - it really is food worthy of the breakfasts of kings and gods.
I can't convey how much I'm inspired by your contribution to our understanding of history and the depth in which you delve to give us a glimpse into the past! Please know that you illuminate the rich cultural and historical significance of what is unknown to many. I appreciate and respect your incredible passion for this work. Thank you so much!
Hay I'm from NZ, we are somewhat tropical and on same ish latitude, do you think I could grow one of the trees here , are they hard to propagate and pollinate
Fascinating video. Years ago I had some presumably Mesoamerica-style spicy chocolate drink mix. It was really good. Those two flavors go great together.
You have NO IDEA how topical this is to a world we're presently developing! Thank you! We've been a fan for a while but legit... You coincidentally came out with this episode at the perfect time in our life! Hope you're doin great! Keep up the great work!
Here in the Philippines, we have a chocolate dessert called "champurado" which we started making after the Galleon trade began at the height of Spanish colonization. It's like an asian rice porridge but replace the savory ingredients with chocolate 😅
Great video. I've been studying Mississippian and Late Woodland cultures who made the Black Drink out of Yaupon holly. Now i'm curious how scientists can tell the difference between the residues of Yaupon and Cacao since both are leaving the same signatures of caffeine and theobromine.
Thank you! I suspect that the alkaloids in Yaupon Holly are in different proportions and produce a difference chemical signature than cacao but I'm not chemist or biologist so take that with a grain of salt.
It's worth noting that yaupon is the primary ingredient in kvti okchi, but not the only one--other herbs used in its preparation ought to leave some alkaloid signatures of their own that would make it stand out separate. Kvti okchi is of course a ceremonial preparation--yaupon was drunk by itself, too, but I do wonder if yaupon would actually leave enough of a signature to be effectively detected--it's so much less robust & far less bitter than cacao (or even coffee) when brewed by itself. Relatedly, kvfi (sassafras tea) was probably FAR more common as a day-to-day drink all throughout the southern half of the Eastern Woodlands. I have heard of roots from iti kvfi being used as trade items to places where the trees didn't grow so well. Iti kvfi (sassafras) and iti hishi halupa (yaupon) can serve as indicators of old village sites in our homelands & abandoned post-Removal homesteads to this day--they're one of a handful of useful tress that were deliberately planted wherever people lived, even far outside their natural range.
It is very common in Australia for chocolate shops or latin american cafes to have chocolate drinks or chocolate with chili in them :) Really interesting hearing both how it spread and the culture around it, but also why the challenges in cultivating it and making chocolate meant it didn't catch on as much around the Amazon :)
@@AncientAmericas you might be the best English speaking pre-Columbian history content creator on UA-cam. You've earned your position fair and square. I applaud you sir.
Excellent and very comprehensive history of chocolate and its relation to ancient cultures of Mesoamerica. With regards to Sahagun's mention of intoxication by cacao, when it's in its original form, if drunk excessively it can bring you to the state of bliss and excitement. It is mainly due to anandamide and other compounds which affect human psyche
Pure speculation, but intoxication back thn did not necessarily mean drunk, and it could be a reference to symptoms caused by excess amounts of caffeine and theobromine, so like the jitters with coffe or being "tea drunk"
Hell yeah, another food video!, i love food man, this is simply an enjoyment of actual culture and history along with tasty delicacies, great work bro.
A lot of countries in Europe will serve hot chocolate in the high pour method in fancy restaurants. So this ancient method of preparation eventually made it to Europe. And hot chocolate pots are quite different from teapots. Teapots are short and squat. A hot chocolate pot is tall with a very long neck - for the froth!
This was a great video and very informative. I'm currently in Mexico and I've been consuming more chocolate. I visited Mexico City and tried Agua de Cacao. I prefer this method of Cacao and water than what we're traditionally use to in the states. I also recommend the Museo de Chocolate in Mexico City as I learned about the history of Chocolate in Meso America.
Chocolate and jalapeño ice cream is 12/10 amazing (use fresh, not pickled!) Coca and chipotle make an excellent dry rub for roast meats or steak. For me, the only way I can manage the super-sweet US style hot chocolate mixes is to add in a heck ton of spices to balance it out...I had no idea other people didn't know about spicy hot chocolate! I was blessed to grow up in a majority-Hispanic area and knew that was an option from the start, thankfully. If you want to try some more traditional chocolate beverages at home but can't find any good Mexican chocolate bricks, you can take about 2 tablespoons of coca powder and add that to about 1 tablespoon of fat (coconut oil works well, obvi coca butter is best if you have some), then mix with water. If you've never had spiced hot chocolate, add in 1/8th tsp of cayenne. Allspice (often called "Jamaica pepper" in colonial era documents) was also likely traded and used as a spice pre-colonial & goes excellent in chocolate--just be cautious of how much you use or it'll taste more like pumpkin spice than chocolate.
Another wonderful essayist, and one who teaches native history! Its a subject I feel is severely underrepresented in American history classes today. Thank you, and great job on the video!
Gotta be my favourite youtube channel 😭 the research was so impressive. I like when you dispel myths, like about the etymology of "chocolate" or the conflation of the Toltec ruler and the god named Quetzalcoatl.
I got the chance to go to a shop that made their chocolate in-house and I ordered a milkshake and man, that was hands down the most amazing milkshake I've ever had, and now I wanna look into making chocolate myself. Freshly made, homemade chocolate is leagues above the store-bought stuff!
Thank you for spotlighting these world atrocities, only reason the swiss chocolate taste so good is because of colonialism. So much food that today is a world wide market is soley dependent on the Americans and those who lived on it.
What a Devilish stunt! I did not get more than two minutes or so into this documentary before I was salivating, and quickly ran to my pantry to scoop up a handful of chocolate bits! Y-U-U-U-M!!
Oh yeah! The ulluchus from the Moche episode! The photos I've seen of dried ulluchus are much smaller than cacao pods and are also more tear drop shaped.
Very interesting and informative, as always! I didnt know that chocolate was popular in Europe, even predating the arrival of tea and coffee. If you come to South America, as your episode mentions, home to the most wild varieties and therefore its probable earliest domestication, you will encounter an alternative cacao universe, which in some ways mirrors Meso-America, in other ways it is unique. In Peru, there are Moche ceramics showing "Mama Cacao", a woman with the body of a cacao pod, breastfeeding her infant, perhaps a metaphor for the nourishment cacao provides with its trace elements, particularly calcium, important since native people lacked dairy animals (and are often lactose intolerant) and minerals like iron and manganese (lacking in mountain communities whose water supplies were snow-fed streams). In Quillabamba, near Cusco, a region famous for its cocoa production, there is a variety called "Chuncho Cacao" that grows at the relatively high altitude of 1000m. Cusco has several chocolate outlets that also give half-day lessons where tourists graduate as a qualified chocolatier, and one shop even has models, some 4ft high, of Machu Picchu and the Lincoln Memorial, made of pure chocolate.
Thank you! I wish I had know about that Mama Cacao moche pot. I would have loved to include that! I'll have to keep my eye out for the cacao in cuzco. ;)
Thank you so much for this. Well researched video essays are so useful. No need to sensationalize it, history is interesting as it is. Can't wait to binge all your videos. I also really appreciate that you explain how certain things were investigated. That really clarifies doubts. Thank you again❤. I also love that you have sources and bibliography, I will try and read it.
To be fair, those are in very different areas of Mesoamerica at different times so there's no telling what supply and demand was doing to the price in those areas.
There were a bunch of "not sure if ur serious" moments... which is great, that's a compliment... but I figured I should mention that the Nestlé unsweetened baking powder and McCormick chili powder, stirred into water, is a sad simulacrum that could hardly inspire conquest of the spice rack, never mind empires.
Thank you! Yes, unsweetened cocoa powder is a crude substitute but its what I had on hand that wasn't sweetened with sugar and milk. I didn't mention this in the video but when modern chocolate gets made, a lot of the fats (like cocoa butter) get removed from the chocolate and those would have been present in Mesoamerican chocolate and would have enriched the flavor.
I'm so fascinated about how these people figured out the process to make chocolate out of a fruit that looks nothing like it. Also, find it interesting how similar the process is to making coffee beans. Makes me wonder. Great video!
Awesome video! I just happened to be eating my favorite 85% dark chocolate as I watched. I fully appreciated your correct pronunciation of the native words and names!
Great info!! The only thing I would like to add is that achiote is a condiment not a colorant... it does add color to anything that touches but the main use is to infuse flavor
Achiote is used in the southern States of Mexico and it is used for meats and drinks like Tascalate. The drink you mentored made from ground maiz and cacao, in Chiapas, Mexico is called Pozol de Cacao and it can be made from dried maiz or "reventado" which is made from dried maiz that has been rehydrated in hot water before grinding.
As always, a great and very informative video! I recently wrote an article on Facebook on a Cuban chocolate drink called Chorote and some of it's delicious variations. It involves using banana flour, fresh mint, honey, coconut milk, cinnamon and other spices. There are many variations of this recipe and it come from the region of Baracoa in eastern Cuba. I love the stuff!
Cacao beans can easily be grinded to make a solid chocolate product (tablets) which can be later stored for culinary use. The cacao bean when milled releases fat and its complex carbohyrates mix with it as well, making a paste similar to nut butters. This paste is also ground with spices, fruits, and nuts of choice, then later left to dry to solidify. This is still done in modern Mexico, either grandmas at home or commercial mills where people can purchase various blends of tablets which have mixes of spices, nuts, and of course cacao.
Hey, just wanted to say thanks for all this content. You do a great job, with everything from subject choices to research to presenting content in a balanced way (but an academic way, skipping the crazy that so often gets associated with ancient peoples on the Internet). Production quality is great too. It's been a while since i discovered a channel i enjoy this much. Really hope you keep it going! And if you're looking for subject ideas, a video on the Calusa - maybe focusing on Mound Key or the Pineland site, mentioning the Cushing expedition etc, might be fun. 👍 But yeah, thanks again.
I've been wanting to learn more about pre-Columbian Americas for a while now, but never got around to looking it up other than a few times of looking up the well known native groups (Haudenosaunee, Inca ect.). But thankfully UA-cam recommended me this video just after it came out, and boy am I glad it did. I just finished watching this and your video on potatoes and all I can say right now is god bless the algorithm. I'll definitely be keeping up with your channel. And I can't wait to see more, especially content on the northern American cultures.
Sometimes when I eat I put on a video about food to watch while eating. I don't know why, but it somehow makes the food taste better. So I watched this video while eating chocolate cereal. Delicious...
I returned from Belize a few weeks ago. I got to watch them produce chocolate by hand and taste the cacoa and fresh chocolate. It is hands down the best chocolate i have ever eaten. I am planning another trip just to eat more😅 chocolate 😅😅
I swear that mesoamericans were the food scientists of the ancient times, they domesticated so many important species for today's society and developed techniques still relevant
Your videos on ancient American history are sorely needed educational media to close the giant hole in the education system. Thank you for making these!
Thank you!
Are Jamaicans Americans?
Fr if i was a teacher, I would be showing some of this guy's videos in class 💯
That 14 page source list is something to behold. You obviously got really into this one! You have no idea how appreciated you are as youtube keeps attempting to shove alternate history ancient aliens bullshit onto my feed. I work in the field of public lands in New Mexico, and if you need any help with finding maps of the US and leads for Southwestern culture sites I'm happy to help you out.
Thank you!
dude needs to get into a Amerindian PhD program
Interesting reading your comment just after watching Milo Rossi's New Mexico volcanos video.
for some reason I believe citing your sources is very cool and popular right now
@@FeascoThanks Tommy for writing this comment! Your mother’s very proud ❤
We here in Mexico are retaking some of the more traditional methods of preparation, and I have to say, hot chocolate and water (with a tiny bit of sugar for an extra kick, or to ease the unaccostumed palate like mine) is actually quite delicious! Kudos to the first person that picked up cacao beans and saw their potential!
I highly recommend mixing chocolate with dried hot pepper then drinking it like that
I hope I can try it someday!
@@Alaskan-Armadillo I've tried the solid candy version (it's quite good, the spiciness hits you right at the end), but one of these days I'm doing the drink!
As someone who knows the region I can safely say that this is usually cope and people most often use these traditional methods as a way to save on milk and sugar.
Perhaps you are not being cheap but if you invite someone into your house and give them (gasp) water-based hot chocolate they will definitely view you as cheap or poor.
Meanwhile you have to pay good money for the experience in a restaurant 😂
@@darken2417
I've gained a lot of respect for cacao. I'm recovering from congestive heart failure and have been eating mega doses to open up my heart . Usually organic raw powder sweetened with monk fruit in water. I can't prove it works but I'm definitely not having chest pains like I was and I walk several miles every single day. Certainly not laying on my back and dying in a hospital bed. I can see an ancient culture holding this plant in high esteem.
That's awesome to hear!
Get well, friend!
@@AncientAmericas
Cacao is full of cadmium, it ain't healthy lol.
We have kidneys for a reason
One extremely minor note. Cacao beans don't grind up into powder like coffee beans do. They're verry fatty and grind up into something more wet coffee grounds and if you go farther like peanut butter. Cocoa powder is made by pressing the coarsely ground beans (called nibs) to expel the cocoa butter and leave the powder behind. It's not me in the video, but it's what got me started doing it at home: ua-cam.com/video/hfrWPtjVuWU/v-deo.html.
Thank you! I appreciate the clarification.
@@AncientAmericas I wonder what the etymology of the Spanish word for peanuts comes from
cacahuates sounds a lot like cacahuatl
@@d.strassler9080 Several people have pointed that out and I was not aware of it when I made the episode. I don't have an explanation for it other than the caca theory being wrong.
Yeah if you see what chocolate is made of, the ingredients almost always list cocoa powder and cocoa butter as separate ingredients, as these get separated during preparation.
Hey, I just discovered this channel a week or ago and have been really enjoying it. I have an anthropology degree and have been shovel bumming it for the last 5 years. All that time spent digging in super disturbed area, mostly finding 1950's whiteware kind of burnt me out a little, but seeing stuff like this is a reminder of why I like archaeology so much.
One of my professors in undergrad was a Mayanist, and he did research on cacao using chemical analysis on pots. I think Michael Coe was the person who wrote the textbook we used.
Thank you! I hope you can work on some exciting projects in the future. Do you mainly excavate in North America?
I wouldn't be surprised if Coe was the author, he wrote a lot on the Maya and I've got several of his books. His book, Reading the Maya Glyphs, is a fantastic resource for me whenever I cover Maya topics.
@@AncientAmericas I've only been able to do stuff in the USA. I do cultural resource management, so pretty much making sure no one builds a new power plant over something important. Most of the time we've found nothing. I would really love to do some archaeology outside the States, though! All the Mesoamerican stuff seems to be booming, so if I pivot to doing more academic work, I'll probably end up doing stuff down there.
That's sounds way more interesting than what I do. Don't get discouraged. You never know where you might find yourself in a few years.
Come shovel bum in cooper landing, Alaska next summer. I'm the tribal monitor for a highway construction project up there. It's super fun. Company is HDR for the archs
What blows my mind is that new research points to "aeroir" being responsible for cacao developing distinct tastes, not terroir. Turns out cacao is readily fermented by bacteria in the air. Each valley around the world has its own unique airborne concoction. So attributing that premium chocolate bar's price to its origin is spurious but also not necessarily wrong. When you say you enjoy chocoalte from Madaagascar
Another cutting edge fact: cacao aficionados are now moving away from the 3 broad cacao varieties towards a model based on ten genetic clusters or primary varieties... Nacional is one of the more famed ones.
For those curious about the other stimulants AA refers to in the video, I cover them in my new video. Do let me know if I missed any!
ua-cam.com/video/EQMcp-BwbBU/v-deo.html
Thank you for a wonderful review of the origins of chocolate!
36:44 Interesting, in Russian we say with the instead of .
And also cacao () in like a funny manner can be pronounced as which is surprisingly similar to how the Maya have written it down
Russians might have gotten the word from the French who pronounce it similarly (except minus the final consonant). Or vice versa, who knows.
YOU RIGHT. SO. THE WORLD CHOCOLATE CAME FROM MEXICAN. NAHUALT. LEANGUAGE. SO THEN. ITS BEING TRYING. TO PRONOUNCED THE MOST CLOSED. OF THE NAHUALT. CHOCOLATE. SO. I. GOOD THAT IN RUSSIA. PRONOUNCED SIMILAR ON MAYA REGARDS FROM MÉXICO 🇲🇽💚🤍❤️🇲🇽😀🙏
Where to begin? Words cannot describe how blessed I feel by having been born in that majestic land we now call Mexico! Without a doubt, chocolate is one of the most important contributions that our ancient cultures gave to the world. If you ever have the chance to visit Mexico, especially the southern states where indigenous cultures are still thriving, don't miss the cocoa-based traditional drinks such as cacao foam (espuma de cacao), tascalate and tejate. They are drunk cold and there is simply nothing more refreshing during the hot months of the year. As for the etymology, the "xoco atl" or "xocolatl" [bitter water] is the one that I've always heard, including during the Nahuatl language courses I took at the University of Mexico. I'm not sure where you got some facts from, but the 'ch' sound can absolutely be followed by an 'o' sound, like in the words 'choca' [to cry] and 'chochoca' [to whimper]. On the other hand, the inclusion of an 'l' sound in the middle of the word, or the change from 'sh' to 'ch' is not hard to explain at all, just by looking at the deformations of other Nahuatl words borrowed into Spanish. In particular, the 'sh' sound --absent in Iberian Spanish-- that Catholic friars transcribed with the letter 'x' became the modern-day Mexican Spanish mess it is today. Wherever the word comes from, we can only feel thankful for the joy of chocolate in all of its forms in our lives!
Thank you! The bit about the ch and o came from Michael Coe's book (check the bibliography) and I don't recall if that was specific to classic Nahuatl or all Nahuatl dialects but you've taken courses on it so I'm sure you know better than I. I should emphasize though that xocoatl could be the correct word it comes from, there's just a lot of disagreement from scholars about it.
thanks Mexico
Thmexico
Native Americans inherited their culture and where taught by more advanced cultures who built pyramids all over the world. Likely a white aryan race whom came from Atlantis.
@@shweet7891Bud, alternative history channels are that way. Were trying to learn historical facts here, not stupid conspiracy theories.
Borrowed words from any language are a deep linguistics dive. In this case I believe "bitter water" is the most etymological correct term, as you're pointing out.. Chocolate before adding milk and sugar IS a very bitter drink and "cho-" and "xo-" do exist in other nahuatl words. We just have to think about how these words made the jump to other languages.
We see cases where the way a word is spoken gets replaced by the way the "literate" read them, as in the word "Mexico" itself, in spanish pronounced as "me-jiko" and not "mehshee-koh" as in nahuatl... Both written form, pronunciation and stress changed. Why? Because of the many spanish variants within Spain where some wrote the "sh" sound as X and some as Ch and some read the X as a J, or even S sound, and so on, so spanish-only speakers reading the letters of friars and chroniclers of their time would just take those words as they were and not question written forms and pronunciations because they never heard them nor knew the people who originally spoke them.
But with spices, fruits, food in general, most names have retained their closest phonology. This is because most cooks and farmers were indigenous so they used the names of the things they already knew (which had no other name because they did not exist anywhere else in the world) even if they also spoke spanish. Chilli became chile (funnily became chilli again in english), ahuacatl bacame aguacate (avocado), molli became mole, xocolatl then chocolate. In nahuatl these words have the same stress as their spanish counterpart, also pronounced the same except for the "tl" syllable that does not exist in spanish. The more a word is spoken, the more it is preserved.
I took my time to watch this video since i consider chocolate a personal thing for me. My ancestors (owners and servents) would grow cacao trees with coffee trees. My grandma would make chocolate drinks from scratch. She also made white chocolate drink with the white cacao butter. Sadly, most people don't know how to make that version. Even though I was in the kitchen with her when she made it, she passed away when i was 7.
For thanksgiving, modern tradition I do is I bring the turkey to my mother in law so she can make turkey in mole and turkey mole tamales.
Your videos are getting better each time. I really appreciate how you cite all your sources (A rare thing for history UA-camrs to do unfortunately) and to take good faith feedback and corrections on your videos.
Thank you!
@@AncientAmericas If I could make one suggestion it would be to remind people that the sources are in the description in the video.
Very fair point. I'm inconsistent about mentioning where the bibliography is.
I look forward to each and every one of your videos, please keep them coming! Chocolate AND vanilla, two wonderful contributions to our palates by the Mesoamericans.
Thank you!
And tomatoes and Potatoes and ofc corn 🫵
Two of many. 60% or more of the global food supply has origin in Native American crops
Thank you for this wonderful video. As a senior citizen, chocolate is still my favorite go-to treat!
Way to start the day! Thanks for the video! Greetings from Mexico.
Have a great day amigo!
@@AncientAmericas Gracias!
thanks for a wonderful feature on chocolate & its history! my heritage is Mexican so i've been on a journey to learn a lot of traditional culinary recipes, from nixtamalization with metate in tow, to cooking meat in an underground pib we had built a couple of years ago. i grew up, like anyone else, enjoying hot cocoa with milk. the thought of drinking chocolate with plain water seemed unappealing to me. but i had to try it! i'm in San Diego, so we go to Tijuana frequently. i was able to acquire a beautiful Oaxacan made jarrito & so i prepared the chocolate in it with water over a stove. i have to say, i fell in love with the pure flavor of chocolate with the water & was sad when i ran out of my Oaxacan made chocolate. i look forward to going to the artisanal shops again & getting my hands on plenty more. can't wait to try it with some powder made from ground chilies next time, as Chilcacahuatl. just wondering what kind!
Thank you! I'll have to try that Oaxacan chocolate someday. Sounds delicious!
You have Olmec blood they are black original Mexicans
Well why not use dried pasilla chiles? They have a nice dark fruity note, almost raisin-like. You are going to have to rehydrate it but considering the drink it may be worth it.
(you can also use other types of dried chilies but tbh I'd look into sweeter Oaxacan mole recipes for insight on what chiles pair well with cacao).
There's a place near where I live that imports old-style mexican chocolate, and there's almost no wax or milk solids or anything in it, just cocoa mass and sometimes things like sea salt or hot chili for flavor. If that's the closest thing I can get to what chocolate was in the Mesoamerican empires, then I agree with them - it really is food worthy of the breakfasts of kings and gods.
So where do you live?
I'll have what he's having.
What's the brand ofrece that imports?
I can't convey how much I'm inspired by your contribution to our understanding of history and the depth in which you delve to give us a glimpse into the past! Please know that you illuminate the rich cultural and historical significance of what is unknown to many. I appreciate and respect your incredible passion for this work. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for your kind words! It means a lot to me.
i always get so excited when i see you've posted a new video. keep up the good work!
Thank you!
I'm a brazilian cacao cultivator and this one got me so hyped. lets effing go!
Enjoy!
Hay I'm from NZ, we are somewhat tropical and on same ish latitude, do you think I could grow one of the trees here , are they hard to propagate and pollinate
You need to take another look at a map haha
southernmost Brazil -33.4 ; northernmost NZ -34.5. So, taken liberally, same-ish can apply:)
Yes! New Ancient Americas video, and it's topical too!
Thank you!
Why this video doesn't have 1M views at this point boggles my mind!
My wife and I were literally just having this discussion yesteday about chocolate and Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures 😄
What a lovely coincidence!
From Mexico to the World 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽❤️🇲🇽🇲🇽❤️❤️
I’m proud if my culture this one of the reasons why our gastronomy and it’s so special
.🇲🇽
you have to wonder how people figured all this out thousands of years ago. excellent video!
Thank you!
Fascinating video. Years ago I had some presumably Mesoamerica-style spicy chocolate drink mix. It was really good. Those two flavors go great together.
Thank you! I'm looking forward to trying some made by a professional.
Interesting how something as delightful as chocolate has such a rich and divine history. Truly food for the gods.
You have NO IDEA how topical this is to a world we're presently developing!
Thank you!
We've been a fan for a while but legit... You coincidentally came out with this episode at the perfect time in our life!
Hope you're doin great!
Keep up the great work!
Thank you! I'm glad you found it inspiring. Good luck with the world building!
Here in the Philippines, we have a chocolate dessert called "champurado" which we started making after the Galleon trade began at the height of Spanish colonization. It's like an asian rice porridge but replace the savory ingredients with chocolate 😅
I was looking for this comment. This video just made me nostalgic for champorado the more I watched.
Interesting we have the same drink here in Mexico with the same name.
in Mexico too
Babe…wake up. Ancient Americas has returned, and brings knowledge of My People!
Feels appropriate to enjoy this episode with a warm mug of hot chocolate!
Same here lol
Indeed!
Great video. I've been studying Mississippian and Late Woodland cultures who made the Black Drink out of Yaupon holly. Now i'm curious how scientists can tell the difference between the residues of Yaupon and Cacao since both are leaving the same signatures of caffeine and theobromine.
Thank you! I suspect that the alkaloids in Yaupon Holly are in different proportions and produce a difference chemical signature than cacao but I'm not chemist or biologist so take that with a grain of salt.
It's worth noting that yaupon is the primary ingredient in kvti okchi, but not the only one--other herbs used in its preparation ought to leave some alkaloid signatures of their own that would make it stand out separate. Kvti okchi is of course a ceremonial preparation--yaupon was drunk by itself, too, but I do wonder if yaupon would actually leave enough of a signature to be effectively detected--it's so much less robust & far less bitter than cacao (or even coffee) when brewed by itself.
Relatedly, kvfi (sassafras tea) was probably FAR more common as a day-to-day drink all throughout the southern half of the Eastern Woodlands. I have heard of roots from iti kvfi being used as trade items to places where the trees didn't grow so well. Iti kvfi (sassafras) and iti hishi halupa (yaupon) can serve as indicators of old village sites in our homelands & abandoned post-Removal homesteads to this day--they're one of a handful of useful tress that were deliberately planted wherever people lived, even far outside their natural range.
It is very common in Australia for chocolate shops or latin american cafes to have chocolate drinks or chocolate with chili in them :)
Really interesting hearing both how it spread and the culture around it, but also why the challenges in cultivating it and making chocolate meant it didn't catch on as much around the Amazon :)
Thank you for another informative and entertaining episode
You're welcome!
Always excellent and never disappointing. Magnificent, thank you.
Thanks Sasquatch!
@@AncientAmericas you might be the best English speaking pre-Columbian history content creator on UA-cam. You've earned your position fair and square. I applaud you sir.
Excellent and very comprehensive history of chocolate and its relation to ancient cultures of Mesoamerica. With regards to Sahagun's mention of intoxication by cacao, when it's in its original form, if drunk excessively it can bring you to the state of bliss and excitement. It is mainly due to anandamide and other compounds which affect human psyche
Thank you!
Pure speculation, but intoxication back thn did not necessarily mean drunk, and it could be a reference to symptoms caused by excess amounts of caffeine and theobromine, so like the jitters with coffe or being "tea drunk"
I didn't think of that but that's a very good point.
Hell yeah, another food video!, i love food man, this is simply an enjoyment of actual culture and history along with tasty delicacies, great work bro.
A lot of countries in Europe will serve hot chocolate in the high pour method in fancy restaurants. So this ancient method of preparation eventually made it to Europe. And hot chocolate pots are quite different from teapots. Teapots are short and squat. A hot chocolate pot is tall with a very long neck - for the froth!
I didn't know that! Very cool!
This was a great video and very informative. I'm currently in Mexico and I've been consuming more chocolate. I visited Mexico City and tried Agua de Cacao. I prefer this method of Cacao and water than what we're traditionally use to in the states. I also recommend the Museo de Chocolate in Mexico City as I learned about the history of Chocolate in Meso America.
Mmmmm...chocolate. If I could go back in time I'd give them a hug for figuring this out.
You and me both.
That Coatlicue quote was amazing! One of my favorite deities... looking at her statue in the museum in Mexico City was amazing!
Chocolate and jalapeño ice cream is 12/10 amazing (use fresh, not pickled!) Coca and chipotle make an excellent dry rub for roast meats or steak. For me, the only way I can manage the super-sweet US style hot chocolate mixes is to add in a heck ton of spices to balance it out...I had no idea other people didn't know about spicy hot chocolate! I was blessed to grow up in a majority-Hispanic area and knew that was an option from the start, thankfully.
If you want to try some more traditional chocolate beverages at home but can't find any good Mexican chocolate bricks, you can take about 2 tablespoons of coca powder and add that to about 1 tablespoon of fat (coconut oil works well, obvi coca butter is best if you have some), then mix with water. If you've never had spiced hot chocolate, add in 1/8th tsp of cayenne. Allspice (often called "Jamaica pepper" in colonial era documents) was also likely traded and used as a spice pre-colonial & goes excellent in chocolate--just be cautious of how much you use or it'll taste more like pumpkin spice than chocolate.
Ooo! Thanks for the recipe!
the first page with all of the chocolate dishes made my mouth water.
imagine your cacao beans being so bad your bad Yelp! reviews become part of history
Another wonderful essayist, and one who teaches native history! Its a subject I feel is severely underrepresented in American history classes today. Thank you, and great job on the video!
Thank you!
Another interesting, informative and enjoyable video. Thanks.
Thank you!
This video is very detailed! Truly appreciate the breakdown and analysis of the history
Thank you!
Very interesting video! I never knew how widespread cacao was before Europeans.
Thank you! Who doesn't love chocolate?
Gotta be my favourite youtube channel 😭 the research was so impressive. I like when you dispel myths, like about the etymology of "chocolate" or the conflation of the Toltec ruler and the god named Quetzalcoatl.
Thank you!
I just grabbed some chocolate cookies, opened youtube and scrolled.
What a coincidence.
What a happy coincidence indeed!
Thanks for this and have a great holiday!
Thank you!
I got the chance to go to a shop that made their chocolate in-house and I ordered a milkshake and man, that was hands down the most amazing milkshake I've ever had, and now I wanna look into making chocolate myself. Freshly made, homemade chocolate is leagues above the store-bought stuff!
It is fascinating how chocolate got where it is today
I am in love with this channel! I was at Chaco Canyon for the annular eclipse, cool to hear it mentioned!
Thank you for spotlighting these world atrocities, only reason the swiss chocolate taste so good is because of colonialism. So much food that today is a world wide market is soley dependent on the Americans and those who lived on it.
What a Devilish stunt! I did not get more than two minutes or so into this documentary before I was salivating, and quickly ran to my pantry to scoop up a handful of chocolate bits! Y-U-U-U-M!!
Quetzalcoatl as the Mayan chocolate God - would be proud of this 🐍🙏🏻🍫
Yeah... about that... there's a problem with Quetzalcoatl's link to chocolate as you'll see later in the video.
Kukulkan is the Maya Itza name for the divinity 😊
@@xxxencryptacion sounds a lot like Hulk Hogan 🤔
not even close xd@@cartoontraveller
The pods on the trees resemble the pods you spoke of a few videos back. The video with the blood in the cups & the mystery pods.
Oh yeah! The ulluchus from the Moche episode! The photos I've seen of dried ulluchus are much smaller than cacao pods and are also more tear drop shaped.
Molé is a chocolate-Chile sauce used for protein
I enjoyed it immensely as well, thank you!!
Very interesting and informative, as always! I didnt know that chocolate was popular in Europe, even predating the arrival of tea and coffee. If you come to South America, as your episode mentions, home to the most wild varieties and therefore its probable earliest domestication, you will encounter an alternative cacao universe, which in some ways mirrors Meso-America, in other ways it is unique. In Peru, there are Moche ceramics showing "Mama Cacao", a woman with the body of a cacao pod, breastfeeding her infant, perhaps a metaphor for the nourishment cacao provides with its trace elements, particularly calcium, important since native people lacked dairy animals (and are often lactose intolerant) and minerals like iron and manganese (lacking in mountain communities whose water supplies were snow-fed streams). In Quillabamba, near Cusco, a region famous for its cocoa production, there is a variety called "Chuncho Cacao" that grows at the relatively high altitude of 1000m. Cusco has several chocolate outlets that also give half-day lessons where tourists graduate as a qualified chocolatier, and one shop even has models, some 4ft high, of Machu Picchu and the Lincoln Memorial, made of pure chocolate.
Thank you! I wish I had know about that Mama Cacao moche pot. I would have loved to include that! I'll have to keep my eye out for the cacao in cuzco. ;)
Always a brighter day when you upload, thx for your immence effort :)
Thank you!
Hey man! Will you do a video about Yerba Mate? Greetings from Argentina!
Maybe someday!
@@AncientAmericas it has a rich history, did you know that Argentina exports primarily to the middle east?
I didn't until I watched Atlas Alterra's video. He mentioned it when he discussed Yerba Mate.
Thank you so much for this. Well researched video essays are so useful. No need to sensationalize it, history is interesting as it is. Can't wait to binge all your videos. I also really appreciate that you explain how certain things were investigated. That really clarifies doubts. Thank you again❤. I also love that you have sources and bibliography, I will try and read it.
Thank you!
"Wake up babe, new Ancient Americas dropped."
Let the lady sleep. The video isn't going anywhere.
Another great video! I love your channel, it is part of what inspired me to pursue a career in archeology.
Thank you! Go get that career!
@@AncientAmericas I’m getting my undergrad in anthropology right now
wow a slave cost as much as a turkey
To be fair, those are in very different areas of Mesoamerica at different times so there's no telling what supply and demand was doing to the price in those areas.
Amazing video, would love to see one on the history of tomatoes!
We'll get to tomatoes someday!
There were a bunch of "not sure if ur serious" moments... which is great, that's a compliment... but I figured I should mention that the Nestlé unsweetened baking powder and McCormick chili powder, stirred into water, is a sad simulacrum that could hardly inspire conquest of the spice rack, never mind empires.
Thank you! Yes, unsweetened cocoa powder is a crude substitute but its what I had on hand that wasn't sweetened with sugar and milk. I didn't mention this in the video but when modern chocolate gets made, a lot of the fats (like cocoa butter) get removed from the chocolate and those would have been present in Mesoamerican chocolate and would have enriched the flavor.
Thank you for this video brother. Loved it!!!!
Thank you!
The Spanish really f up the peaceful life of the natives for financial gain
i just want to say i love love your videos so much im currently a history undergrad and your videos have helped me learn so much
Thank you! Long ago, I was once a history undergrad too.
You will have to pry the chocolate out of my dead, cold fingers before I give up eating it.
For anyone interested Nile Red, on his alternate channel Nile Blue, has a video where he makes chocolate starting from the cacao pod
Nice! I'll have to check that out!
The best channel on this plataform, as always. Keep going champ.
Thank you!
Great topic!
Great video as usual. I hope to make a video where I try making a traditional chocolate recipe in my Puebloan cylinder jar.
Thanks! I'll be on the lookout for that video!
The first screw on lids also means the first threading on things too, genius stuff right there.
watching this after finishing Sophie and Michael's book... ❤ the true history of chocolate. highly recommend!
That book is great!
Arguably the best chocolate advertisement ever made, on my way to get some now...
I'm so fascinated about how these people figured out the process to make chocolate out of a fruit that looks nothing like it. Also, find it interesting how similar the process is to making coffee beans. Makes me wonder. Great video!
Thank you!
The screw on cap is pretty cool
You do incredible work - thank you for producing such phenomenal content
Thank you!
Awesome video! I just happened to be eating my favorite 85% dark chocolate as I watched. I fully appreciated your correct pronunciation of the native words and names!
Thank you!
Great info!! The only thing I would like to add is that achiote is a condiment not a colorant... it does add color to anything that touches but the main use is to infuse flavor
Good to know!
Achiote is used in the southern States of Mexico and it is used for meats and drinks like Tascalate.
The drink you mentored made from ground maiz and cacao, in Chiapas, Mexico is called Pozol de Cacao and it can be made from dried maiz or "reventado" which is made from dried maiz that has been rehydrated in hot water before grinding.
7:44 Cacao butter is industrially produced in Brazil and used as balm against dry lips
Cocoa butter (as it's called in the US) is used in a lot of skin care products in the US too.
@@AncientAmericascool, I thought it was a Brazilian little secret
As always, a great and very informative video! I recently wrote an article on Facebook on a Cuban chocolate drink called Chorote and some of it's delicious variations. It involves using banana flour, fresh mint, honey, coconut milk, cinnamon and other spices. There are many variations of this recipe and it come from the region of Baracoa in eastern Cuba. I love the stuff!
Thank you! I'll have to check out Chorote!
Pochteca are nuts, one of my favorite aspects to study in "Aztec" history.
They are very interesting to read about.
Cacao beans can easily be grinded to make a solid chocolate product (tablets) which can be later stored for culinary use. The cacao bean when milled releases fat and its complex carbohyrates mix with it as well, making a paste similar to nut butters. This paste is also ground with spices, fruits, and nuts of choice, then later left to dry to solidify. This is still done in modern Mexico, either grandmas at home or commercial mills where people can purchase various blends of tablets which have mixes of spices, nuts, and of course cacao.
Chocolate?
Did you say…chocolate?
CHOCOLATE! CHOCOLAAAATE! CHOCOLAAAAAAAATE!
Nice vid man, I recently found a recipe for mesoamerica chocolate and I have been wanting to try it for a while
Thank you! Enjoy your chocolate!
Great video as always! Thank you!
Thank you!
I used to be a barista and adding cayenne to a mocha is soooo good
Another great one! I look forward to these videos so much!
Thank you!
Hey, just wanted to say thanks for all this content. You do a great job, with everything from subject choices to research to presenting content in a balanced way (but an academic way, skipping the crazy that so often gets associated with ancient peoples on the Internet). Production quality is great too. It's been a while since i discovered a channel i enjoy this much. Really hope you keep it going!
And if you're looking for subject ideas, a video on the Calusa - maybe focusing on Mound Key or the Pineland site, mentioning the Cushing expedition etc, might be fun. 👍
But yeah, thanks again.
Thank you!
I've been wanting to learn more about pre-Columbian Americas for a while now, but never got around to looking it up other than a few times of looking up the well known native groups (Haudenosaunee, Inca ect.). But thankfully UA-cam recommended me this video just after it came out, and boy am I glad it did. I just finished watching this and your video on potatoes and all I can say right now is god bless the algorithm.
I'll definitely be keeping up with your channel. And I can't wait to see more, especially content on the northern American cultures.
Thank you!
Thanks for this video, and happy holidays! ✨
Happy holidays!
Sometimes when I eat I put on a video about food to watch while eating. I don't know why, but it somehow makes the food taste better. So I watched this video while eating chocolate cereal.
Delicious...
I returned from Belize a few weeks ago. I got to watch them produce chocolate by hand and taste the cacoa and fresh chocolate. It is hands down the best chocolate i have ever eaten. I am planning another trip just to eat more😅 chocolate 😅😅