The fermented, roasted, and ground beans of the Theobroma cacao have been consumed by pre-Olmec people since 1900 BC; later, the Aztecs and the Maya used the beans as a currency and a valued beverage. Indeed, the drink called Xocoatll was employed in religious rituals because of its special aphrodisiac and strength properties.

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Mythology and Symbolism of Cacao
April 15, 2019
The fermented, roasted, and ground beans of the Theobroma cacao have been consumed by
pre-Olmec people since 1900 BC; later, the Aztecs and the Maya used the beans as a currency
and a valued beverage. Indeed, the drink called Xocoatll was employed in religious rituals
because of its special aphrodisiac and strength properties.
In Mesoamerica, cacao symbolizes fertility in marriage rituals and it is also employed in agricultural ones to
fertilize the earth. Speci cally, cacao had stimulated a symbolic world of images associated with sh, sun,
rain, blood, fertility, maize agriculture, human regeneration, and the greater cycles of death and rebirth.
Such images combined in a narrative about solar burning and sh resurrection as it can be seen in the
Palenque Triad representing the planet Venus and solar immolation through sh and waterbird gurative
images to represent the solar and agricultural rebirth from the watery underworld (caves, cenotes, etc.).
Similar imagery is present in the Central Mexican Quetzalcoatl.
Evidence about such conclusions is based on pottery and stoneware of the Maya Classic period revealing
the link between cacao and maize in representing the cycle of death and rebirth paralleling the agrarian
cycle of planting and harvesting. The myth represented in such iconography is based on images of self-
sacri ce and rebirth to represent the cacao processing but it also includes references to the ancestral
versions of the Maya creation story traditionally based on the Maize God.
In Europe, the beverage has been introduced in Spain in 1528, in France in 1615, and in England in 1662.
However, chocolate, as we are used to, has been invented in Switzerland in 1874 where the addition of milk
transformed the bitter compound in something tastier.
If you are interested in the traditional processing of the beans of Theobroma cacao, the Museo de Cacao in
Cahuita, managed by natives Costa Ricans, offers a nice tour recreating the history of chocolate production
from the indigenous people who mixed cocoa with maize, pepper and hot chiles to the Europeans who
re ned it with milk and sugar. The Museo is a nice opportunity to visit the local community and take a look at
the issues of the natives who are struggling for the legal recognition of their rights, notwithstanding Costa
Rica did sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007.
References.
Grofe, M. J. (2007). The Recipe for Rebirth: Cacao as Fish in the Mythology and Symbolism of the Ancient
Maya
Chocolate Was Invented In Mesoamerica 1900 B.C. Retrieved from
http://www.ancientpages.com/2016/01/17/chocolate-was-invented-in-mesoamerica-1900-b-c/
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