When I think of Oaxaca city, the first thing I recall is the rich, decadent aroma of chocolate on every street, in every corner of the city. Although I didn’t visit the city for its cocoa products, they are the first thing I remember about it.
I have never been in a place surrounded by so much chocolate. I always heard that that smell is one of the strongest memory triggers. Since my trip to Oaxaca I can attest that it is true. Every time I smell fresh-made chocolate now, I think of Oaxaca.
The opposite is also true; When I think of Oaxaca, I can almost smell the fresh-made chocolate that permeates the city center, especially around the Zocalo and Mina Street.
And I’m not even a chocoholic; I didn’t care much for this rich, aromatic dark treat before my visit to Oaxaca, nicknamed the chocolate capital of Mexico. But now I love it. Though I don’t love candy bars made with cocoa, I love the authentic Oaxacan cocoa products. No wonder; People in the city had centuries to perfect them.
The Origins of Chocolate
Chocolate is probably the most beloved flavor in the world, processed and enjoyed in many forms, from candy bars, hot chocolate, or even in meals like the chicken mole of Oaxaca. Locals make it from the seeds of the cocoa tree, grown in the rainforests of Central and South America. Ancient people who first came in contact with it considered it sacred and called it Theobroma cacao, food of the gods.
We see representations of hot cocoa on ancient Maya artwork, used in rituals, and offered to kings. Archaeologists uncovered vessels containing traces of chocolate all over Mesoamerica, and also in the Southwest US, proof that people traded and enjoyed it in ancient times.
The first civilization we know of to cultivate cocoa trees and use chocolate were the Olmecs, an ancient society of Mesoamerica predating the Maya. Though the cocoa tree grows wild in the rainforest, the Olmecs learned to cultivate it, as early as 1500 BC. They grew cocoa trees at the edge of the rainforest.
A few centuries later, the Maya of the Yucatan Peninsula grew them in natural wells or cenotes, and in irrigation canals they created. They used the cocoa drink in rituals, and traded the beans, using them as currency. Yes, their money grew in trees.
Later, the Aztecs followed suit. They also cultivated cocoa trees and created trade routes to bring the cocoa beans to all the corners of their empire. They also used them as currency.
But until the Spanish learned about chocolate, none of it was sweet; the cocoa drink was a bitter liquid, though people still seemed to love it.
Spaniards in the New World
When the Spaniards arrived in Mesoamerica, the Aztecs ruled the Valley of Mexico. During that time, they used cocoa-derived products as natural remedies for different ailments. This impressed the Spanish enough to include it in a book about natural remedies used by the native population.
The earliest known drawn image of a cocoa tree is in an herbal remedies book dating from 1552, called “Little Book of the Medicinal Herbs of the Indians”. It describes the medicinal properties of plants used by the Aztecs. The original text was written in Nahuatl, a language still used today by the descendants of the Aztecs, and translated into Spanish.
According to some scholars, Spanish writers translated the manuscript for the King of Spain to show the intellectual sophistication of the indigenous people of Mesoamerica.
Etymology: the Origins of the Words Cacao and Chocolate
The Spanish word for cocoa is cacao. It originates in Nahuatl, one of the indigenous languages of Mesoamerica still spoken by over 1.5 million people. They call the cocoa bean cacahuatl.
Some scholars believe that the word chocolate also derives from the Nahuatl, though from a different word. Xocoatl means bitter water (xoco means bitter and atl means water). Which makes sense; if you ever tried to make chocolate without sugar and milk, it is a bitter liquid.
How Did this Bitter Liquid Become the Chocolate We Know and Love Today
Most chocolate today is not bitter even in Mexico, thanks to the Spanish influence. Though they must have enjoyed the liquid in its original form they first tasted it, the Spanish added other ingredients to it. One of them was sugar. Others included cinnamon and almonds.
Oaxaca, the Chocolate Capital of Mexico
Oaxaca is the center of chocolate production in Mexico, though the cocoa tree doesn’t grow here. But since the city was on a major cocoa trade route since ancient times, over time it became an important center of its production and use.
Oaxaca is one of the cities of Mexico where chocolate is not only a dessert but a daily staple. Cocoa is embedded in the daily life of this town. Children drink it with water for breakfast, others have it as a mid-day meal or snack, and they might also eat or drink it for dinner.
Locals also still use chocolate as they had for thousands of years, for ceremonies like weddings, births, rites of passage, and funerals.
How to Enjoy Chocolate in Oaxaca
In Oaxaca, you don’t need to search for chocolate; the strong, fresh aroma envelopes you as you walk down the street. The only challenge is deciding which store to stop by for a sample.
Although, when you say or hear about chocolate in Oaxaca, it is usually in liquid form. You won’t find candy bars here, and few places offer chocolate-based pastries. On the other hand, you’ll find a cocoa drink on every corner, be it simple hot chocolate, or tejate, the traditional cocoa drink still made like in ancient times.
I was amazed to find a chocolate shop on just about every corner of the city. As soon as you enter, they offer you a sample: a spoonful of sweetened half-made chocolate, that looks like dark mud but tastes delicious. Sometimes they offer two different ones when they make different combinations. Or, you get a taste of a cold, frothy chocolate drink sample. Then, you decide to stay and order something or move on to the next one, until you get your fill.
Cocoa Is Not Only Reserved for Chocolate
People of Oaxaca use cocoa in everything. It is as if it was growing on trees. Wait, that is actually true, it does grow on trees. And then it gets processed. By hand, with very little help from machines. And they make everything from it, including a sauce for their meals.
Oaxaca is known for its mole dishes. On this weekend trip, I tried red, black, and green mole. Black is my favorite, the only one that uses cocoa, as you can guess by its color.
At the restaurants, they serve a few different mole sauces with chips as appetizers before you even order.
I always thought there was only one kind of mole sauce, served with chicken. That was before I visited Oaxaca. In a few days I tasted so many mole dishes, my head was spinning. But I liked every single one of them. They are all spicy, because of the chilies used, but tasty. The extra bit of cocoa in the black one adds a whole other dimension to it.
In The Chocolate Shops
While you can have a nice sit-down meal in an upscale restaurant and order your mole and chocolate drink for dessert, you’ll find some of the same meals in the small shops on every corner. Most are Mayordomo, though you’ll find a few other brands and small local shops scattered around town. Since we only stayed one weekend and visited the center of town, we ended up stopping at the Mayordomo stores every time.
Even before you see it, as soon as you are in the vicinity of the store, you smell the strong aroma of hand-processed cocoa. The small shops sell cocoa beans by the kilo, or freshly ground cocoa beans, plain or mixed with sugar and cinnamon to order, or cocoa paste, or an innumerable variation of hard chocolates.
On another side of the shop, you can stop for a quick meal of a variety of mole dishes, and chocolate drinks, served at narrow tables along the wall, with bar stools to sit on.
We stopped for the sweet dark drink several times a day, but sometimes it was just enough to walk by a shop and smell the aroma that permeated the vicinity.
We always encountered locals, stopped for a quick cocoa drink or meal, or waiting for their own mix, and watching as the attendants made them to their specifications. With little or no sugar, with or without cinnamon, and the combination of their choice.
I could get used to this, I could live in this town, filled with the decadent aroma of chocolate.
