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past feature
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Mayan Chocolate
US
scientists have discovered residues of
cacao from which chocolate is made in
ceramic vessels found at the Maya
archaeological site at Colha, Belize in
Central America.
Most of the ceramic vessels were found in
the burial sites and were manufactured
during the period 900 BC to AD 250. This
pushes back the earliest chemical evidence
of chocolate use by about 1,000 years.
Residues from 14 jugs were sent to Hershey
Foods in Pennsylvania for analysis.
Jeffrey Hurst of the chocolate company
used a combination of high-performance
liquid chromatography and mass
spectrometry to analyse the tiny 0.5-gram
samples and found traces of cocoa in three
of the jugs. Hurst reports the scientists
were surprised by the findings but added
that the chocolate company had no interest
in reviving the Mayan's chocolate recipes.
"...the recipe is nothing like the
chocolate taste we gravitate towards
today."
The evidence suggests chocolate was not
eaten as an occasional snack or used as a
sweet ingredient. Instead, it was consumed
with most meals, usually mixed with
another ingredient, such as water, maize,
chilli and/or honey. The jugs would have
been used to pour the liquid from a spout,
in the same way we use a teapot today.
Documents written at the time of the
Spanish Conquest suggest liquid chocolate
was agitated to produce a foam.
The research appears in the July 18 issue
of the journal Nature.
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