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Science

2,600-year-old Mayan Chocolate Found 30

Posted by michael from the dark-and-bitter dept.
Peter T Ermit writes "In this week's issue of Nature, scientists report that they have discovered traces of chocolate in a Mayan spouted jug from 600 BC. (The Mayans liked to drink their chocolate rather than eat it.) This is about 1000 years older than the next oldest chemical detection of cocoa. Maybe the Maya rabbit in the moon was really the Quik bunny."
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2,600-year-old Mayan Chocolate Found More

2,600-year-old Mayan Chocolate Found

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  • ... A Mayan teenager has just been dumped by her boyfriend, she goes out with her friends for a nice jug of chocolate to drown her sorrows....

    Some things just don't seem to change, eh? :)
    • Anyone find it coincidental that the researcher was a guy by the name of Hershey, working at the choc maker? IIRC the Mayans consumed chocolate as a savoury food, not a sweetened one; they'd use it to add flavour to meat and veg, or supplement chilies of various types (ya, I know they did mention the last part). Apparently sweetening chocolate was a later European idea. Anyone willing/able to confirm this?
      • sweetening chocolate was a Spanish idea... when they brought it home, they experimented with it.

        http://www.fmnh.org/Chocolate/history_intro2.htm l
      • IIRC the Mayans consumed chocolate as a savoury food, not a sweetened one; they'd use it to add flavour to meat and veg, or supplement chilies of various types

        Yeah, I had one of those the other day. Funny, though, I couldn't taste the chocolate. It was called something like cocoa vin...
  • How long does it take chocolate to break down? When is it no longer chocolate?
    • The insides of the vessels bear traces of the characteristic chemical signature of cacao beans, which contain about 500 different plant compounds.

      If I'm reading the article correctly, the contents of the jugs aren't chocolate, but rather some residual chemical compounds from cacao beans.

  • Chocolate (Score:5, Informative)

    by wakaramon ( 301145 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @03:36PM (#3904448)
    (The Mayans liked to drink their chocolate rather than eat it.)

    That is why it is called "chocolate", from the Náhuatl choco ~= froth and atl ~= water: frothy water. Náhuatl is the language spoken by the aztecs and other peoples in Mexico.

    • According to dictionary.com [dictionary.com], it means literally "bitter water" rather than frothy water.

    • Re:Chocolate (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Sobrique ( 543255 )
      Chocolatl is an interesting drink. Got a sample when on a tour of a chocolate factory. An acquired taste, it is somewhat bitter, and the spices etc. are definitely not what a 'modern' chocaholic like myself expect.
      I rather liked it though.
      (That's not to say that the recipe was particularly authentic though, it was a chocolate factory tour and not an archeological re-creation).
      Want to try it? [whatscookingamerica.net]
    • I didn't know this, but it is interesting to note that in Pullman's The Golden Compass, Mrs. Coulter, in Lyra's world, refers to hot chocolate as 'chocolatl'. Perhaps Philip Pullman speaks Aztec?

  • remember (Score:2, Funny)

    by tps12 ( 105590 )
    It was all a waste of time until the white man brought them pretzels, the One True Chocolate Vessel.

  • Who.. How? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by lowtekneq ( 469145 )
    Actually only the kings and nobles drank chocolate, (mixed with water).. but the beans were common bartering items.

  • i wonder (Score:3, Funny)

    by isorox ( 205688 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @04:33PM (#3904863) Homepage Journal
    I wonder what the use by date is
  • Well as I know it..... my girlfriend always ate chocolate when she got her . so I had wondered what they did in the olden days? Now I know hmmmmmmmm who would have thunkin?

  • Ummm... (Score:3)

    by Zen Mastuh ( 456254 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @05:06PM (#3905056)
    that's not chocolate. Ewww...

  • They smoked it (Score:3, Funny)

    by GuyMannDude ( 574364 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @06:21PM (#3905449) Journal

    The Mayans liked to drink their chocolate rather than eat it

    No, actually a short filmstrip I saw at the Ah Fudge! chocolate factory said that they mixed it with tabacco, rolled it and smoked it. Nowdays, of course, it comes in a hygenic package.

    After that filmstrip, me and the others from the school field trip when ape shit in the factory, swiming in vats of chocolate and beating up the chocolate bean mascot they had.

    GMD

  • I'm sure Nestle are stoked to have gotten this ad onto the Slashdot front page.
  • 2600 years old. Just about the right age for MoonPies... But the vending machine in the second floor lab of CERL at the University of Illinois had older items.
  • Interesting enough, the current issue of Discover magazine has an article about Chocolate, and how it's in danger of becoming extinct.

    You can read a sample of the article at: Discover [discover.com]

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