I had this post in my mind about all the wonderful tropical fruits here, I even have pictures and everything. But, of all the great foods that Mexico has given the world - like turkey and corn and vanilla - one trumps them all... Chocolate! If that was the only thing Mexico had ever contributed to the world, it would be enough.

Manuela brought me that bag of chocolate beans you see there. She comes from Tabasco in an area where they grow a lot of chocolate and her family makes sure she is never out of the elixir of life.

I roasted some as directed in a dry frying pan and those are the roasted beans on the plate.

Once they had cooled a little, I rubbed them between my fingers to take off the brittle outside husk.

I then had the small plate of husked beans and that big pile of cocoa husks.

I used to buy cocoa husks in Calif and use them as a mulch, I don't think I'll ever make enough of them by hand for that but I probably should have thrown them in the potted palm.

Next I ground the beans in my coffee grinder. They were not as dry as coffee beans, they made a bit of paste that stuck to the blades. I got most of it out and left the rest to flavor the coffee in the morning.

From that plate of beans I got this baggy of ground chocolate. It really didn't take that long although hulling them was the most tiring part.

A beverage made from chocolate was the drink of the Gods and their earthly relatives the Aztec and Mayan rulers. From some of the pictures and translations I've seen, they drank it like a Brit drinks tea, any occasion at all calls for a cuppa.

The beans were also used as currency which gives a whole new meaning to drinking your money away.

Always one for cultural and historical accuracy, I heated the ground chocolate and whipped it into a froth. Of course, the Mayans used water and I used milk. I also threw in some cinnamon and vanilla but hey, they are from Mexico. Oh... they didn't sweeten their drink but I added a little nutrisweet. In this instance, sugar was just as foreign as nutrisweet so, why not? I also added some dark Caribbean rum, another local product. There are some accounts that they made a fermented chocolate, no doubt for those all night sacrificial parties.

I've got to say that those Mayan Lords were really on to something, this stuff is fantastic! I slept well too.