Domestication The cacao tree, native of the Amazon rainforest, was first domesticated at least 5,300 years ago, in equatorial South America from the
Santa Ana-La Florida (SALF) site in what is present-day southeast
Ecuador (
Zamora-Chinchipe Province) by the
Mayo-Chinchipe culture before being introduced in Mesoamerica. In Mesoamerica, ceramic vessels with residues from the preparation of cacao beverages have been found from the
Early Formative (1900–900 BC) period. For example, one such vessel found at an
Olmec archaeological site on the Gulf Coast of
Veracruz, Mexico dates cacao's preparation by pre-Olmec peoples as early as 1750 BC. On the Pacific coast of
Chiapas, Mexico, a
Mokaya archaeological site provides evidence of even earlier cacao beverages, to 1900 BC. In 2018, researchers who analysed the genome of cultivated cacao trees concluded that the domesticated cacao trees all originated from a single domestication event that occurred about 3,600 years ago somewhere in Central America.
Ancient uses Several mixtures of cacao are described in ancient texts, for ceremonial or medicinal, as well as culinary, purposes. Some mixtures included
maize,
chili,
vanilla (
Vanilla planifolia), and honey.
Archaeological evidence for use of cacao, while relatively sparse, has come from the recovery of whole cacao beans at
Uaxactun,
Guatemala and from the preservation of wood fragments of the cacao tree at
Belize sites including
Cuello and
Pulltrouser Swamp. In addition, analysis of residues from ceramic vessels has found traces of
theobromine and
caffeine in early formative vessels from Puerto Escondido, Honduras (1100–900 BC) and in middle formative vessels from
Colha, Belize (600–400 BC) using similar techniques to those used to extract chocolate residues from four classic period (around 400 AD) vessels from a tomb at the Maya archaeological site of
Rio Azul. As cacao is the only known commodity from Mesoamerica containing both of these
alkaloid compounds, it seems likely these vessels were used as containers for cacao drinks. In addition, cacao is named in a
hieroglyphic text on one of the Rio Azul vessels. Cacao is also believed to have been ground by the Aztecs and mixed with tobacco for smoking purposes. Cocoa was being domesticated by the Mayo Chinchipe of the upper Amazon around 3,000 BC. The
Maya believed the (cacao) was discovered by the gods in a mountain that also contained other delectable foods to be used by them. According to
Maya mythology, the
Plumed Serpent gave cacao to the Maya after humans were created from maize by divine grandmother goddess
Xmucane. The Maya celebrated an annual festival in April to honor their cacao god,
Ek Chuah, an event that included the
sacrifice of a dog with cacao-colored markings, additional animal sacrifices, offerings of cacao, feathers and incense, and an exchange of gifts. In a similar creation story, the
Mexica (
Aztec) god
Quetzalcoatl discovered cacao (: "bitter water"), in a mountain filled with other plant foods. Cacao was offered regularly to a pantheon of Mexica deities and the
Madrid Codex depicts priests lancing their ear lobes (autosacrifice) and covering the cacao with blood as a suitable sacrifice to the gods. The
cacao beverage was used as a
ritual only by men, as it was believed to be an intoxicating food unsuitable for women and children. Cacao beans constituted both a ritual beverage and a major
currency system in
pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations. At one point, the Aztec empire received a yearly tribute of 980 loads () of cacao, in addition to other goods. Each load represented exactly 8,000 beans. The buying power of quality beans was such that 80–100 beans could buy a new cloth mantle. The use of cacao beans as currency is also known to have spawned counterfeiters during the Aztec empire. File:Cacao written as 2ka-wa Kettunen-midres.png|
kakaw (cacao) written in the
Maya script File:Aztec. Man Carrying a Cacao Pod, 1440-1521.jpg|Sculpture of a man carrying a cacao pod. Aztec, 1440-1521 AD File:Codex Fejéváry-Mayer 01 cacao tree.JPG|A cacao tree in the Aztec
Codex Fejérváry-Mayer Modern history , 1903 The first European knowledge about chocolate came in the form of a beverage which was first introduced to the Spanish at their meeting with
Moctezuma in the
Aztec capital of
Tenochtitlan in 1519.
Cortés and others noted the vast quantities of this beverage the Aztec emperor consumed, and how it was carefully whipped by his attendants beforehand. Examples of cacao beans, along with other agricultural products, were brought back to Spain at that time, but it seems the beverage made from cacao was introduced to the Spanish court in 1544 by Kekchi Maya nobles brought from the New World to Spain by
Dominican friars to meet
Prince Philip. Within a century, chocolate had spread to France, England and elsewhere in
Western Europe. Demand for this beverage led the French to establish cacao
plantations in the
Caribbean, while Spain subsequently developed their cacao plantations in their
Venezuelan and
Philippine colonies (Bloom 1998, Coe 1996). A painting by Dutch Golden Age artist
Albert Eckhout shows a wild cacao tree in mid-seventeenth century Dutch Brazil. The Nahuatl-derived Spanish word
cacao entered scientific nomenclature in 1753 after the
Swedish naturalist
Linnaeus published his taxonomic binomial system and coined the genus and species
Theobroma cacao. Traditional
pre-Hispanic beverages made with cacao are still consumed in
Mesoamerica. These include the
Oaxacan beverage known as
tejate. == Gallery ==