Hot Chocolate

Just because I didn’t have snow as a child does not mean I was never cold. This is far from the truth, and anyone who has spent their “coldest winter” in San Francisco, knows what I’m talking about. But there is one drink that banishes the cold, as if the cold were a Decemberist and this drink was a Tsar. (yes a Russian history joke, deal)

Hot Chocolate, Hot coco, or coco.

Chocolate is one of the new Amazing foods found in the New World when the Europeans came a calling, and they fell in love with it. But a chocolate beverage has a long history. The oldest known evidence of chocolate is from Honduras, where sweet chocolate residue was found at the bottom of a jar dated around 1100 BC. For those who need something else to grasp at how long ago this was, this was the time that Zarathustra was born, and King David ruled in Jerusalem. The Mayans are credited with creating the first chocolate drink, and Aztec culture actually had coco as a prominent part of their culture and religious ceremonies.

Which is how it came to be served to the conquistadors when they came. The locals called it xocolatl, which the Spaniards then changed to chocolatl. The drink was served cold with vanilla and other spices, and was an acquired taste as sugar hadn’t been introduced yet.
Hot chocolate was extremely bitter when it arrived in Europe and was slow to catch on. Then sometime between 1585 (the first chocolate shipment to Europe for commercial sale) and mid 1600′s Europeans added sugar and took the hot peppers out. Milk was added after one man drank it in Jamaica with milk, and the rest is, well history.

In America hot chocolate is extremely popular in instant pack form, and has been known to sell out fastest when blizzards are expected to fall onto cities.

Hot coco is also healthy. It helps with digestion and has antioxidants. YAY!

So today if its cold outside, or even if its only slightly chilly. Get a cup out of your cupboard, find your favorite hot coco. Put a marshmallow or two inside, and be thankful.

Thank you Hot Chocolate.