Page 69 - Exploration10LLR

Ideas:
Chocolate
http://www.internationalfolkart.org
Hot chocolate service
Among the exotic items that the Mayans and Aztecs introduced to the Spanish was chocolate. The bean of
the cacao plant had long been used in the Americas to make a beverage that was typically served unheated,
unsweetened, and sometimes spiced with chili. The native Mexican Indians believed it to have spiritual
qualities, and the valuable beans were also used as money.

Aristocratic Europeans initially rejected this bitter drink. In time, however, by heating
the chocolate and mixing it with cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar cane, they created a
beverage that was more than acceptable. By the mid-1600s chocolate became the rage
throughout Europe and it was thought to have medicinal properties. In the 17th
century the Catholic Church attempted unsuccessfully to ban chocolate because of its
reputation as an aphrodisiac. Its consumption conferred status on those who could
afford to purchase, prepare and drink it properly.

Cerámica y Cultura: The Story of Spanish and Mexican Mayólica (Ceramics)
Drinking chocolate properly meant having the right equipment for storing, grinding,
Figure 45: Tibores
heating and serving the beverage. Chocolateras in Mexico were derived from pre-
Columbian cooking pots and were used solely to heat chocolate. Molinillos were developed
to froth it. Tibores, ceramic storage jars similar to the Chinese ginger jars, with heavy iron
lids, were used to keep the cacao beans under lock and key. A cup and saucer combination,
called a mancerina, was invented by Peruvian metal smiths for serving the beverage. Tile
panels depict people of the upper class imbibing chocolate and still life paintings feature
chocolate vessels.

Figure 46: Mancerina

Figure 47: Molimillo
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