Chocolate and Toasted Maize: What a Drink
Many countries still have drinks that go back deep into the past. One such is taxcalate from Chiapas in the far south of Mexico. Here’s the powder base: ground toasted maize, ground cacao, and ground achiote (Bixa orellana, used in many societies for color and also flavor). It turns the mixture a bright orangey color.
I find it interesting for several reasons.
It is a grain-based drink. Almost forgotten in modern societies, drinks based on ground grains (gruels) were an important part of the diet in many societies.
The grain was toasted before grinding. Again, not something we think about now. But in this case (and in many others in Mexico) toasting the grain (in this case maize) before grinding gives an appealing aroma and taste. It also creates an instant food. It can be eaten as a powder or mixed with hot or cold water to make a drink.
Taxcalate is not that far removed from the way cacao was consumed in pre-hispanic Mesoamerica. According to Sophie and Michael Coe, in The True Story of Chocolate (1996) the ingredients of the Lacandón Maya sacred and secular chocolate drinks from the time of contact to the present included ground toasted maize and ground cocoa beans. The omnipresent metate is the link.
And it’s delicious. My husband and Emilia who works for us prowl the kitchen sniffing to find the source of this enticing aroma. To make a drink, you simply whizz a few tablespoons in the blender with hot or cold water or milk.
Thanks to Lic. Jesús Antonio Ruiz Monroy for introducing me to and keeping me supplied with this elixir.
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Rachel, I love your blog too! This is the same concept as genmaicha, more or less, right? Toasted grain for the nuttiness of the flavor?
Hello Rachel:
I just stumbled upon your most informative blog, and wanted to say hello.
We were in Chiapas a couple of years ago, and it was quite fascinating (especially the piece of road that slices through the “free, independent state” that will not respect any of the government’s dictates!)
Couscous and tagines still beckon!
All the best,
Kitty
Kyla, the nuttiness of the flavor is certainly appealing. But I think toasting grain before grinding also (a) made it easier to grind and (b) gave you an instant food. I am working my way around to Asian toasted grains and grain drinks. So more later.
Great to hear from you Kitty. And lucky you. I have never been to Chiapas. But I am going to post soon on cous cous in Mexico–at least in Mexico’s past,
Rachel
The Scots had a huge range of beverages based on oats. Mostly this was a variation of mixing oatmeal in a tub, allowing this to sour then draining the liquid and drinking the result. Barley is toasted and used as a coffee substitute by some Greeks. Abortive attempts at producing booze I wonder?
Taxcalate does sound a lot like the Maya sacred drink, although I always thought of it looking like blood and there is no foam in this case. I wonder if there is a direct connection?
I’m not sure these are necessarily abortive attempts at producing booze. I am sure they are a huge and almost forgotten genre. Has anyone written up the oat beverages of the Scots?
As to looking like blood, some people say achiote makes the drink look like blood but to me it looks too orange. I think you could make this foam but the friend who sent it to me never mentioned foam.
F. Marian McNeill wrote two books “The Scots Kitchen” (1929) and “The Scots Cellar” (1956). Both are very interesting books in their own right, being produced at a time when it was the last chance to record a lot of native dishes.
In regards to oat beverages she mentions:
Sowans and swats: which is the innner husks of oats left in a barrel with water until sour. The drained liquid are “swats”, the sediment is the “sowans”.
Lots of gruels were thin enough to be drank and some of these were used to produce up market bevages. “Atholl Brose” is the creamy liquid expressed from soaked oatmeal with heather honey and whisky.
There are also oatmeal possets/caudles, “Stoorum” (oatmeal, salt, milk, water), “Blenshaw” (oatmeal, sugar, nutmeg, milk, water). The are also mentions of other drinks that contain oatmeal, including harvest drinks for workers.
I remember when I was a child that when I was sick my grandmother would make “Barley Water”, so I imagine that this grain was used as a beverage like this also, with some of the drinks surviving as invalid recipes.
Thanks so much Adam. I feel stupid because I have the Scots Cellar (though not the Scots Kitchen) on my bookshelf. It just never occurred to me to look there for non-alcoholic grain drinks. What a rich haul.
Interestingly oatmeal is used in Mexico to make an “atole” that is a drink rather than the solid we are used to in the English-speaking world.
Barley water is another huge topic. It’s use as an invalid drink goes back to Classical Times at least.
Rachel
Hello Rachel, could you please give the proportions of ingredients? I read your blog post and realized that I have all the ingredients to make the drink. (whole corn-Rainbow Inca variety originally from Seeds of Change, raw cacao nibs, achiote seeds, and a good hand grinder.) This sounds like a very tasty beverage.
Cheers,
Scott
Scott, Sorry to take so long about replying. These mixes are part of oral tradition. I’d suspect 93% corn, 5% chocolate, 2% annato but it’s really just a guess. Today they’d add sugar to taste too in many cases. But see my next post on pinole.
On grain drinks – in the health food world, a commonly known drink is made of sprouted wheat and water that ferments for a few days then is strained to drink for it’s beneficial bacteria. Your site is fascinating, I’ve just linked to it through Rancho Gordo’s blog and can see that I have some interesting reading up ahead! Thank you ~