Chocolate in Mesoamerica Essay Example

Would you exchange your life for chocolate? Most people would say no, but in both the Mayan and the Aztec societies, cacao symbolized human blood. In Mayan society, chocolate was revered. It was a gift from the gods, but it was a drink everyone could enjoy daily. According to History.com, “Despite chocolate’s importance in Mayan culture, it wasn’t reserved for the wealthy and powerful but readily available to almost everyone,” Chocolate was often consumed in a frothy drink named Xocolatl. The drink was a hot blend of chilis, water, and cacao beans. As you can probably expect, the drink was bitter and spicy, dissimilar to the modern chocolate most enjoy today. In addition to this, the Mayans had a cacao god, and they had extensive trade routes around their land to import and export cacao across the entire region. 

From this, you might believe that the Mayans were the kings of chocolate, but there is another civilization whose obsession dwarfs that of the Mayans. The Aztecs loved chocolate to such an extreme extent that they believed that chocolate in exchange for your life was fair. In many Aztec sacrifices, the captured slave would be allowed to consume cacao and Xocolatl before being executed, as a sort of consolation prize for having their heart ripped out with an obsidian dagger. Not only that, but cacao was a currency. According to History.com, “In Aztec culture, cacao beans were considered more valuable than gold,” Cacao beans in Aztec culture were priceless, and it was said that the Aztecs, upon meeting Hernan Cortes in 1519, gave him chocolate and Xocolatl as gifts when he asked for gold. Not only that, but Montezuma II was an absolute chocolate addict Quoting from History.com, “Perhaps the most notorious Aztec chocolate lover of all was the mighty Aztec ruler Montezuma II who supposedly drank gallons of chocolate each day for energy and as an aphrodisiac,” Most normal human beings don’t drink gallons of water every day, but supposedly Montezuma loved it so much that he was chugging down the frothy bitter drink by the barrel full.