Читать книгу Chocolate Busters: The Easy Way to Kick It! - Jason Vale, Jason Vale - Страница 28

This belief led to the beans being held in very high esteem, so much so that in the land of the Aztecs, the beans were more precious than gold. Cocoa beans were literally their currency and were exchanged for many goods and services. But because the beans were not only as good as money, but in those days were money, only the very wealthiest of people could roast and drink them. In fact, it was only those who literally had ‘money to burn’ who ever got to taste drinking chocolate (and that’s where the saying comes from!).

For the Aztecs, drinking chocolate was never about ‘Having A Break’ and it certainly wasn’t about the taste – it was about honouring their God, ceremonial occasions, religious beliefs and showing great wealth. It seems funny that in those days they made the ‘sacrifice’ of drinking this muck in order to honour their God and show off – now we have a nation that feels that they would be making a sacrifice by not having it. That’s because what we have today and what they had then are not remotely the same thing. But if you still feel that back then it could have been all about the taste, then this should seal it. In Aztecs times, priests would mix cocoa with the blood of human sacrifices and force their victims to drink it. Even now there are Italian villagers who make a concoction called ‘sanguinaccio’ which is a wonderful dish of stewed pig’s blood, numerous other ingredients and, of course, some grated black chocolate (‘see the face you love, and throw up’ springs to mind).

While we are talking about the taste of chocolate, it’s worth knowing that the Aztecs ‘special drink’ was called ‘chocolatl’ – literally meaning ‘bitter water’. Just to make this point crystal clear, the only reason they drank this incredibly bitter concoction was because they strongly believed it brought universal wisdom and knowledge which continued into the afterlife. It certainly wasn’t because of the taste! (Glad that’s now clear.) But even when the chocolate ‘bar’ was eventually born, and the vast majority of people had stopped mixing blood with their cocoa (good move!), it still needed heavily sweetening to gain universal appeal.