Did you know that chocolate originates from Mexico?
The Olmecs of southern Mexico were probably some of the first people to grind cacao beans to make a chocolate drink for rituals and medicine almost 4,000 years ago! Aztec and Mayan people also used chocolate. Mayans have an earth goddess and goddess of the cacao tree that they called Ixcacao pronounced like eesh-cah-cow. Can you say that? IX means ‘her’ while cacao, of course, means ‘chocolate.’ Ixcacao was often called into prayer along with the corn mother and the rain god.
In today’s lesson, get to know the different foods of Mexico with a fun coloring sheet! Then, learn how to make Mexican hot chocolate with a grown-up using our favorite recipe. Did you know that in Mexico people sometimes use this wooden whisk called a Molinillo that makes the chocolate foamy? Also, in some parts of Mexico, hot chocolate is made with water and not milk, which makes each drink taste different. Lastly, people in Mexico don’t use a lot of sugar so that you can taste a bit of the spice from the chocolate itself.
