In intro archaeology courses we talked about the importance of cacao as tribute/tax, it's use in ritual and ceremonial contexts, and even it's trade into the U.S. Southwest. I'm interested in learning more about the chocolate drink, and even, if possible, how to prepare a modern approximation.
Do we have information on how the Maya made the chocolate drink? Have we been able to guesstimate different recipes either through residue analysis, or through written/ethnohistorical sources? Anyone attempted to make this themselves?
Thanks in advance!
There actually were quite a wide array of fermented alcoholic beverages that were consumed throughout Mesoamerica over a very long period of time starting with the earliest reliably dated example from around 1200 BCE. The very early examples were akin to a mild and fragrant wine that naturally occurs during the fermentation of the cocoa fruit itself and was made from that fermenting pulp. Over time this process changed to one of fermenting the cocoa beans themselves which led to a more flavorful and more potent product owing to the higher sugar content of the beans in relation to the surrounding fruit. It was this frothy chocolate beverage that is mentioned by Diego de Landa when writing about the Aztec court.
As far as the recipes themselves we have a pretty good idea of what that later beverage contained thanks to the Spanish chroniclers and Jeff Berry talks about it a bit in his recent book Potions of the Caribbean which, while not an academic text, does contain a recipe for Yom Kakaw based on those chronicles containing honey, allspice and chiles. Dogfish Head Brewing also released a beverage called Theobroma in 2008 in which they fermented cocoa nibs and powder with similar additives as well as annatto which was a common color addivitive.
As far as home brewing, I personally haven't tried to make anything like this myself but it should be a pretty easy process with access to any home brewing set up, cocoa beans and yeast so if you ever were to try it I would enjoy hearing about the results.
I couldn't find any specific recipes. My go-to source, Sophie Coe's America's First Cuisines, says that no recipe has yet been discovered. However, her book was written in the 90s and a lot of translation and new discoveries have taken place. That being said, it seems as though a specific recipe still has not been uncovered. The closest we get to are some references chab kakaw on some Classic Maya ceramics. As Hull (2010: 240-241) says, chab is a well known "earth" sign, but the its use as "earth" makes little sense when paired with kakaw (cacao). An alternate meaning of chab is "honey" or "sweet" so that chab kakaw could be read as "sweet cacao". If so, chab kakaw may refer to a chocolate drink mixed with honey, possibly fermented.
We also have references to something called kal-kakaw from Piedras Negras (Hull 2010: 241). kal-kakaw is translated as "drunk [inebriating] cacao". Hull cites Aguilar-Moreno (2006) as a source discussing cacao drinks mixed with alcoholic substances. Hull also cites Nadaillac (1884) for some historic/ethno-historic references of cacao based drinks by Maya populations in the 19th century. These two sources may be worth tracking down. Unfortunately Hull does not discuss the topic of alcoholic cacao drinks further.
Beliaev et al (2009: 260) discuss in their article something called "fruity cacao". One would think that "fruity cacao" would be cacao mixed with fruit or fruit flavors, but Beliaev et al argue that perhaps the references to "fruity cacao" are to a drink similar to refresco de pocha made in Highland Guatemala. Refresco de pocha is a drink made from the pulp of the cacao pod that can be consumed fresh or allowed to ferment. And without any sort of residue analysis conducted on ceramic vessels to see if traces of refresco de pocha can be found, the hypothesis is undetermined.
Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel. "The Good and Evil of Chocolate in Colonial Mexico." Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao (2006): 273-288.
Nadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget de. (1884). Pre-historic America, edited by William Healey Dall. Translated by N. D’anvers. New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons: The Knickerbocker Press.