Mexican Hot Chocolate Recipe

Photo credit: Fiamma Piacentini-Huff/Phaidon

Mexican Hot Chocolate
Serves 6

Chocolate has been traced back to 1900 B.C. with the discovery of drinking vessels containing chocolate residue in the ancient land of the Olmecs and pre-Olmecs. The Olmec people lived from around 1500 B.C. to 400 B.C. in a small region on the south coast of the Gulf of Mexico, west of the Mayans on the Yucatan Peninsula. Chocolate soon spread to the Mayans and later to the Aztecs, and Christopher Columbus and Hernándo Cortés both noted how valuable the cacao bean was. The Aztecs used them as currency and collected them as taxes.

Powerful Aztecs were fond of drinking spiced hot chocolate with foam on the top, and their ruler Moctezuma was the greatest xocóatl indulger of them all. Cortés and his party were served the drink at one of his feasts. It was not to their taste, being bitter, but they soon began to appreciate it when they added sugar.

3½ oz/100g dark Mexican chocolate, chopped
6¼ cups (50 fl oz/1.5 liters) milk
1 cinnamon stick (optional)

Put the chocolate into a saucepan, add the milk and cinnamon stick, and heat gently, stirring until the chocolate has melted.

As the mixture begins to bubble in the pan, reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes.

Transfer 1 cup (9 fl oz/250 ml) of the chocolate to a bowl and whisk with an electric mixer until it is foamy, then pour into a mug. Whisk and pour the remaining chocolate milk in the same way. Serve immediately.

Reprinted from Mexico: The Cookbook by Margarita Carrillo Arronte from Phaidon Press. It’s on sale now for $49.95.

For more Mexican recipes, try these:
Guacamole Recipe From ‘Mexico: The Cookbook’
'Divorced' Eggs: A Twist on Huevos Rancheros
Behold, the Breakfast Taco

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