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Its winter time and this season, almost every region north of the Mexican border has been blanketed by snow, ice or sometimes both. Brr! Lucky, Mexico has a cure for those cold-winter blues, hot chocolate. It’s not your everyday hot coco. Instead this chocolate is deeply rooted in ancient history, locally grown with no importation of additives or additional ingredients. Now that’s sustainability.

Mayan and aztec chocolateMexican drinking chocolate comes in squares or disks that are to be melted in either milk or water. It is not super-sweet but instead it is the right kind of sweet for all chocolate connoisseurs.

Some recipes call for real vanilla extract or a teaspoon of honey while other recipes consist of nothing more of chocolate and water. It all depends on the sweet tooth.

In today’s society, Mexican drinking chocolate is for the chocolate lovers but the ancient Olmecas and Mayas native to the Yucatan Peninsula used it for medicinal purpose, from curing liver disease to mixing chocolate past with chili peppers to purge the body of toxins.

Once the Aztecs acquired chocolate, they used chocolate as currency in its most original form, cocoa beans.

Hot Chocolate Recipe

Putting medicinal uses and currency aside, here is a recipe to warm up to:

1 Serving

2-4 segments from chocolate tablet or disk

1 cup of milk or water

1-2 teaspoons of honey (optional)

1 teaspoon of real vanilla extract (optional)

Some grocers in the United States and Canada sell Mexican drinking chocolate but there is really nothing like experiencing it while in the land of its origins. Visit the Riviera Maya and try Hacienda Tres Ríos’ Mexican hot chocolate.

4 Reviews

  1. what kind of coffee do you serve at your resort for room service – what brand is it? and where can it be purchased?
    We stayed there in the summer, and I’m still craving your coffee!
    Thank you

    Paddy Rose

    Reply


  2. This looks amazing! I live in Canada and have no idea where to get my hands on the “chocolate tablet or disk” referenced in this recipe. What can I use instead? Is there a particular percentage of cocoa in chocolate that I should use and how many grams could I substitute in place of “segments”? Thank you!

    Patricia Sumter

    Reply


  3. Google Mexican chocolate and you’ll see it. Amazon has Ibarra brand for $2.99 US. Abuelita is another brand made by Nestlé. They sell it pretty much anywhere there are Mexican immigrants which is all over Chicagoland where I live. I have never made it up quite this dark, but it is distinctively different from regular hot cocoa, a bit cinnamony, and very delicious.

    Susie

    Reply


  4. When i went to Puebla, Mexico we were served a brand named “Don Gustavo” chocolate & even though I grew up drinking Ibarra & have also had Abuelita brand I just LOVED “Don Gustavo” so much better. So if you can find it try it out.

    norma mier

    Reply