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Guatemalan Cacao

Cacao

Agricultural region

Cacao in Guatemala is Maya in its cultural elaboration, and the Maya record for it is unusually explicit: cacao appears in the POPOL VUH, on Classic-period vessels bearing dedicatory texts naming their cacao contents, and in the Postclassic as CURRENCY with documented exchange rates. It was drunk — frothed with water using a molinillo or by pouring between vessels, flavoured with chile, achiote, vanilla and ear-flower (orejuela), and taken unsweetened; ⚠ SUGAR AND MILK ARE A EUROPEAN LATER ADDITION and the sweet drinking chocolate is not the ancient one. Grown now in Alta Verapaz, the Verapaz lowlands, Izabal, Suchitepéquez and the bocacosta, much of it fine-flavour and increasingly made into chocolate in Guatemala rather than exported as beans. ⚠ CEREMONIAL USE AMONG Q’EQCHI’ AND HIGHLAND MAYA COMMUNITIES IS RECORDED AS EXISTING; no ritual content is published here. ⚠ AND THE EARLIEST EVIDENCE OF CACAO USE ANYWHERE IS UPPER AMAZONIAN, not Mesoamerican — Mesoamerica holds the earliest evidence of the DRINK as an institution. Both stand.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Maya community documented
  • Q’eqchi’ community documented

Languages: Q'eqchi', K'iche', Spanish

What is recorded

  • Cacao appears in the Popol Vuh, on Classic-period Maya vessels bearing dedicatory texts naming their cacao contents, and in the Postclassic as currency with recorded exchange rates. It was consumed frothed with water and flavoured with chile, achiote, vanilla and orejuela, unsweetened; sugar and milk are a later European addition. Ceremonial use among Q’eqchi’ and highland Maya communities is recorded as existing without publication of ritual content. The earliest evidence of cacao use is upper Amazonian; the earliest evidence of the cacao beverage as an institution is Mesoamerican. documented

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