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    Home » Drinks » Hot Beverage

    Xocolatl | Aztec Spicy Chocolate

    Published: Sep 29, 2013 · by Nisha

    Everyone loves the classic hot chocolate and with the cold season approaching we resort to all these special hot beverages and the sales go through the roof of many coffee shops in town. This time how about diving into something new, relishing the ancestor of our dear hot chocolate, Xocolatl - Spicy hot chocolate of the ancient Aztecs. Historians believe that the cocoa was first discovered in the MesoAmerican region. The ancient rulers of the Mexico, the Aztecs used this cocoa to prepare their traditional drink. Xoco means bitter beverage and atl means water. So typically this is a bitter drink but spiced with jalapenos. This is how the raw cocoa was used in the olden days until Colombus took this back to Europe where it was mixed with milk and sugar and made more palatable. In the ancient time it was just mixed with water and sometimes vanilla bean and honey, with the ingredients readily available. It was the Europeans that refined it and made it a vital ingredient in many of the desserts.

    Traditionally this drink made by grinding raw cocoa and water. But we can substitute this with cocoa powder and add milk if the taste is very bitter.

    mango, Salad, Ginger, radishXocolatl | Aztec Spicy Chocolate

    Jalapeño spiced Hot chocolate, traditional ancient chocolate drink of the Aztecs.

    Prep time: 2 mins | Cook time: 2 mins | Total time: 5 Mins | Serves: 2

    Ingredients

    • 2 Cups Water
    • 1 Jalapeño, sliced with seeds
    • 2 tablespoon Cocoa powder
    • 2 teaspoon Sugar or more as per taste
    • 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract 
    Instructions

    1. In a saucepan add water and jalapeños and bring it to a boil.
    2. Then add the cocoa powder, vanilla extract sugar and mix it well until it dissolves completely.  Serve it hot. 

      This recipe is for letter "X" under "Misc" theme.  Check out other BM #32 Marathon runners' posts here in this page.  

      Logo courtesy : Preeti

      View other "Drinks" recipes

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      Reader Interactions

      Comments

      1. Archana Potdar says

        October 20, 2013 at 12:50 pm

        Love this new version. I will be surely trying out for we have a jalapeno crazy creature at home.

        Reply
      2. Rajani S says

        October 11, 2013 at 2:46 pm

        I read about xocolatl while looking for X recipes..Love the spicy version..

        Reply
      3. Pavani N says

        October 08, 2013 at 10:35 pm

        Very very interesting drink. It must have tasted so good. Love your presentation.

        Reply
      4. Preeti Garg says

        October 02, 2013 at 2:35 pm

        Wonderful recipe... love the variation with chocolate.

        Reply
      5. Priya Suresh says

        October 02, 2013 at 1:34 pm

        Fantastic spicy chocolate..Loving it.

        Reply
      6. The Pumpkin Farm says

        October 02, 2013 at 11:36 am

        lovely find Nisha, this is indeed good one, i have read a lot of aztec cuisine, made some truffles in the past

        Reply
      7. Nivedhanams Sowmya says

        October 02, 2013 at 11:21 am

        Looks fabulous... Should have tasted awesome

        Reply
      8. Sandhya Karandikar says

        October 02, 2013 at 4:42 am

        Spicy cocoa drink. A new recipe indeed.

        Reply
      9. Chef Mireille says

        October 02, 2013 at 4:36 am

        I actually made this already for one of my BM posts for next month - but I made it with milk - nice to see the traditional way of making it also

        Reply
      10. Srivalli says

        October 02, 2013 at 2:05 am

        That's a wonderful twist..I have seen chili chocolate..never tried..this looks very tempting..

        Reply
      11. vaishali sabnani says

        October 02, 2013 at 1:43 am

        This is interesting. .we saw some ready cocoa drinks with chilli in US chocolate show....the mingling of flavours will make it delicious.

        Reply

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      About Nisha

      Nisha freelances as a food & product photographer/recipe developer & content creator in the F&B space.

      She loves everything about food and their stories! You can find her mostly in the kitchen trying to whip up something or reading culinary anecdotes.

      Learn more about me →

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