All hail Quetzalcoatl: The god of chocolate

If you ever needed a reason to worship chocolate, here is your idol.

Quetzalcoatl was an Aztec god. He is the feathered serpent god of wind. He can bring on whirlpools and whirlwinds, which makes sense if you've ever watched chocolate melt in a tempering machine.

He was cast away by the other gods, because Quetzalcoatl shared the secrets of chocolate to us lowly humans.

Now the details of this transfer of information is fuzzy. But I imagine Quetzalcoatl was being tributed to by the Aztecs, who were giving him sacrifices of vestal virgins and corn (or as they called it maize), and he probably was getting tired of this routine. Everywhere he goes, sacrificed virgins and maize. So he then thinks, all this would be better with a little cacao.

We could not be more thankful for the knowledge passed down from this god.

So the Aztecs took to this news and stopped sacrificing virgins and replaced drinking their blood, by drinking a frothed chocolate drink and would add achiote to make it more red. Achiote is a natural dye and is used today to make butter yellow and cheddar cheese orange.

So the Aztecs began cultivating the Cacao bean, and used it for more than just drinks. They used it for money as well. In fact an avocado was worth three beans. Unfortunately, I don't know if my creditors would take chocolate beans for my debts though.

So this is how the Mayans were able to get cacao beans, as they couldn't grow cacao trees in their native land, but they ruled over many Aztec lands, and thus would demand cacao seeds for taxes.

The Mayans drank their chocolate hot, while the Aztecs as mentioned before liked it cold. The Aztecs would also season their drink with with chiles, allspice, vanilla and honey.

In Mexico, archeological digs have found residues in vessels showing that they used not only the bean, but the white pulp around the bean which is a source of fermentable sugars to make alcoholic drinks. Nothing like a Pre-Columbian Cocktail.

So I hope that the next time you enjoy a decadent truffle or sip a frothy cup of cacao, I hope you say a little thanks to the god who brought it to us.

All Hail Quetzalcoatl!

Next on the blog, we will continue with how cacao turned into chocolate.