CHOCOLATE, HOT
I have always liked a good mug of hot chocolate, especially in the fall and winter
days when there’s a natural chill about things and places. Air-conditioning hasn’t exactly
helped curb my yen one but, either.
I have gone though cycles over the years because for a time I am told it is good for
me to drink chocolate, then the environmental - health preservation pendulum swings to
the opposite extreme and I’m told drinking chocolate is not good for a person. Win or lose,
I always come back to it as a favorite drink.
Years ago I worked in radio with a mid-morning personality by the name of Russ
Gardner. He preferred the hot chocolate rather than the coffee which was available
from the vending machine . One morning there were cries for help from the corridor in
which the machine was located just outside the control room. “ I need cups! Anybody!
Bring me cups or glasses or anything to hold this hot stuff!” Help came by way of the
kitchenette nearby with a yard long “stick” of plastic cups. The machine had jammed in
some way and it continued to pour out hot chocolate without stopping. Russ had to get
back in the control room because his record onto turntable was finishing. We all had
plenty of hot chocolate that morning! One of the girls got a tray and delivered it to all
offices.
I have, as a rule, prepared hot chocolate by heating water or milk then pouring in a
“scoop” of mix... chocolate, cacao and powdered milk, with sweetener appended. The
scoop is subtle way of refusing to admit that you put at least two tablespoons of the
mixture. Stir a bit. Then, serve.
I have always thought chocolate originated with the Aztec or Mayan cultures.
When the Spanish took it back to Europe it became a fad food favorite among the
royalty of many nations.
I have recently come to know, through National Geographic studies, that I have
been woefully amiss in my preparation of the drink. The Aztec and Mayan peoples had
chocolate and used it, often to excess we are told. It seems to have originated much
earlier among the Olmec people, who preceded the Mayans at about 1500-500 BC. They
lived along the southern rim of the Gulf of Mexico. Both the words “chocolate” and
“cocoa” and “cacao” are Olmec words. Some sources say Nahutal or Uto-Aztecan.
Many early quaffers seem to have preferred their chocolate drinks thick and frothy.
The froth was deemed to be the best part, it seems, so they had a specific way to make
hot chocolate which I’d like try some time when the wife and kids are sure to be away.
The Mayans and others mixed their chocolate in a liquid and heated it. They then poured
a portion of the contents from a vessel held on high. It was poured from as high as
Mayan cook could reach. He or she held the one clay vessel high and poured the
contents down into a bowl on the ground or floor below. This was done, again and again,
aerating it and putting a fine head of it for royal consumption of a quality hot chocolate
drink.
See. We learn something new every day, don’t we? Well, maybe every other day,
perhaps?
A.L.M. July 22, 2002 [c566wds]
