The Ancients – Origins of Chocolate

Podcast: The Ancients (History Hit)
Host: Tristan Hughes
Guest: Dr. Cameron McNeill, Associate Professor, City University of New York
Date: December 4, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode explores the ancient origins of chocolate, focusing on cacao’s pivotal role in the cultures of Mesoamerica—including the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec (Mexica). Host Tristan Hughes and archaeobotanist Dr. Cameron McNeill delve into chocolate’s journey from its first domestication to its many ceremonial, culinary, and economic uses in the ancient world. The conversation reveals chocolate as much more than a sweet treat: it was a luxury drink, a ritual element, a culinary condiment, and even a currency and symbol of status.

Key Points and Insights

1. What “Chocolate” Meant in Ancient Mesoamerica

• Cacao vs. Chocolate:
  • The ancient counterpart of our chocolate was a drink made from the seeds and fruit of the cacao pod.
  • The term “chocolatl” appears in print around 1580, likely from the Nahua but not commonly used by the Maya, who called it “cacao” or “caca” instead.
    [05:12 – 05:47]
  • “The word chocolatl...that’s not a word I use when I’m working in Mesoamerica ... we tend to think of it as the food that’s being consumed as cacao.” – Dr. McNeill (05:12)
• Varieties:
  • Different regions domesticated different strains of cacao, with Spanish chroniclers noting up to four kinds with distinct flavors.
  • There was likely significant regional diversity and trade driven by these preferences.
    [07:47 – 08:54]

2. Origins and Domestication of Cacao

• South American Roots:
  • The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) was first domesticated in the Amazon basin of South America.
  • The oldest evidence: 5,300-year-old cacao DNA found on grinding stones at Santa Ana La Florida, Ecuador.
    [09:52 – 10:23]
  • Mesoamerica adopted and further domesticated cacao after it was introduced via likely trade routes along the Pacific coast.
    [12:09 – 12:49]
  • “The oldest cacao that’s been found being used by people...is from a site in Ecuador...about 5,300 years ago.” – Dr. McNeill (09:52)
• Spread to Mesoamerica:
  • Early Mesoamerican adopters: the Olmec, Makaya, Lenka, and later Maya.
  • The Olmec word “kakawa” is the source for the term “cacao.”
    [13:01 – 13:25]

3. How Ancient Peoples Used Cacao

a. As a Drink

• Preparation:
  • The traditional drink blended maize with cacao, sometimes with honey, fruits, or various flowers.
  • Preparation involved extensive grinding (often with ancestral metates), mixing, and whipping to achieve a hearty, foamy beverage.
  • Rarely sweetened – mostly “hearty,” “gruel-like,” “thick,” and “unsweetened.” [21:24 – 22:54]; [25:52 – 26:53]
  • “It doesn’t taste anything like hot chocolate today ... it’s kind of like a gruel, like an oatmeal sort of flavor ... extremely hearty.” – Dr. McNeill (25:52)
• Contemporary Tradition:
  • Many aspects of this preparation persist today in rural Mesoamerican communities. [23:24 – 24:08]

b. As a Food

• Culinary Uses:
  • Cacao featured as both sauce and ingredient, notably with tamales, meats (deer, turkey), and even fish.
  • Archaeological evidence: cacao residue found on tamale platters, meat dishes, and fish bowls from royal tombs at Copan.
    [15:29 – 16:53]
  • “My favorite discovery was a very small bowl full of riverine fish and cacao inside it ... a sweet sauce made of the pulp on fish sounds better to me.” – Dr. McNeill (16:17)

c. In Ritual and Ceremony

• Spiritual Role:
  • Frequently found in royal burials and elite tombs—sometimes perfectly preserved in painted vessels (notably the “Dazzler”).
  • Consumed during feasts and life events: birth, naming, marriage, death.
  • Associated with the underworld, rebirth, offerings to gods, and feasts of the elite. [27:41 – 30:19]
  • “There’s a...famous vessel that came out of a queen’s tomb ... and when they lifted the lid, there was just this thin, dark layer of perfectly preserved residue in it ... yes, it had cacao.” – Dr. McNeill (28:06)

d. As Currency and Tribute

• Economic Value:
  • Cacao seeds served as currency; a turkey could be worth 100 seeds.
  • Counterfeit cacao seeds (clay-filled husks) have been archaeologically documented.
  • Spanish chroniclers and early 20th-century accounts confirm its economic role.
    [35:16 – 36:32]
  • “A turkey costs a hundred cacao seeds...they could use it just like a form of money.” – Dr. McNeill (36:22)

4. Cacao as a Symbol of Power, Fertility, and Rebirth

• Iconography:
  • Cacao imagery abounds in Mesoamerican temple art, sculpture, and ritual censers.
  • Often depicted as emerging from the body of the Maize God—a symbol of creation, fertility, and rebirth.
  • Cacao trees and pods were used in artistic representations of ancestors and the afterlife, believed to aid in the spiritual rebirth of elite individuals. [32:00 – 33:48]; [39:13 – 40:21]
  • “Cacao is often used as a tree that brings the dead back to life...they’re reborn as cacao trees.” – Dr. McNeill (39:13)

5. Trade, Accessibility & Social Hierarchy

• Limited Growth, Elite Consumption:

  • Cacao trees are finicky; only thrive in specific environments.
  • In areas where cacao wouldn’t grow, it was a privilege of the elite, often only accessible to rulers and high-status individuals.
  • Cacao’s value derived from both its restrictiveness and its ritual necessity. [34:00 – 35:07]

• Trade Networks:

  • Demanded as tribute, especially by the Aztecs (Mexica), who often imported it from Maya areas and traded it over long distances.
  • The Codex Mendoza documents non-cacao-growing regions forced to supply cacao as tribute through trade. [42:24 – 43:12]

6. Rituals and Color: Blood, Sacrifice, and Symbolism

• Achiote Coloring:
  • Cacao drinks were often dyed red with achiote, making them resemble blood.
  • Spanish observers were unnerved by this, unaware of the deep cultural connections between blood, sacrifice, and cacao drinks in Mesoamerican society. [46:51 – 48:02]
  • “When you put it into cacao, it makes the cacao look like blood. And how freaked out they [the Spanish] are by seeing people drink this...and I’m sure that was the point ... blood is incredibly important to Mesoamericans.” – Dr. McNeill (46:51)

7. Living Traditions & Enduring Recipes

• Continuity:
  • Some communities in the Pacific coast of Guatemala and Oaxaca still use cacao in daily and ritual contexts (e.g., offerings, festive arches, combining cacao with balam and coconut).
  • Ritual uses face challenges from modern pressures and cultural change. [44:13 – 45:45]
• Favorite Recipe:
  • Dr. McNeill’s favorite: “Tejate” from Oaxaca, a blend of Theobroma cacao, Theobroma bicolor (balam), and coconut—thinner, unsweetened, and crowned with a thick, foamy head. [45:52 – 46:33]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The beverage is always going to have maize mixed with cacao ... not what we think of as chocolate.”
  – Dr. McNeill (20:09)
• “They tout that they have indigenous Maya chocolate ... They absolutely don’t ... I’ve never been to a community anywhere and had it sweet ... Ritual beverages of cacao are never sweet, like absolutely not.”
  – Dr. McNeill (25:52)
• “The Spanish and Italians claim that they invented cacao sauce ... and honestly, that’s ridiculous. It’s really offensive to people in Mexico...”
  – Dr. McNeill (17:44)
• “Cacao is often used as a tree that brings the dead back to life—that they’re reborn as cacao trees...”
  – Dr. McNeill (39:13)
• “When you put [achiote] into cacao, it makes the cacao look like blood. And how freaked out they [the Spanish] are by seeing people drink this... I’m sure that was the point.”
  – Dr. McNeill (46:51)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction to ancient chocolate: [02:14 – 04:45]
• Definitions (“chocolate” vs “cacao”): [05:02 – 05:47]
• Cacao varieties and domestication: [07:47 – 08:54]; [09:48 – 10:23]
• Earliest uses in South America: [09:52 – 10:23]
• Spread to and adoption by Olmec/Maya: [13:01 – 14:07]
• Culinary & ritual uses (Maya evidence): [15:29 – 17:44]
• Drink preparation & taste: [21:24 – 22:54]; [25:47 – 26:53]
• Ritual importance/artistic representation: [28:06 – 33:48]; [39:13 – 40:21]
• Currency/tribute and counterfeits: [35:16 – 36:32]
• Trade (Aztecs, Maya, Codex Mendoza): [42:24 – 43:12]
• Modern traditions & Tejate: [44:13 – 46:33]
• Achiote & “chocolate as blood”: [46:51 – 48:02]

Final Thoughts

This episode provides a sweeping and vivid picture of chocolate’s journey from a South American forest fruit to a Mesoamerican marker of status, spirituality, and sustenance. Dr. McNeill’s insights bring to life the diversity, significance, and enduring traditions of cacao, highlighting how fundamental—and how different—the ancient reality of “chocolate” was from our modern, sweet conception.

Recommended reading:
Dr. Cameron McNeill’s edited volume, Chocolate in Mesoamerica (mentioned at [48:27]).