Theobroma cacao
Jonathan Ott is undoubtedly the person who has written most eloquently and profoundly about Cacao. In The Cacahuatl Eater: Ruminations of an Unabashed Chocolate Addict, Ott delineates the fascinating history of this plant in Mesoamerica and, in so doing, creates a broader definition of the sacred and why certain plants have more cultural significance than others. According to Ott, “Mexican tradition holds that the man-god Quetzalcoatl had been led into the lost paradise, wherein dwelt the children of the sun god.
When he returned to the world of men, Quetzalcoatl brought with him the seeds of cacaoquauitl, our beloved cacahuatl.
Thus stimulated, he gathered disciples, taught them the civilized arts of agriculture, astronomy and medicine, and became the ruler of Mexico.”
Quetzalcoatl then cultivated cacao in his garden, nourished himself with its seeds and became inebriated with the liquor made from the fermentation of the pulp of the cacao fruit.
Ott also mentions another important characteristic of cacao as a medicinal plant and admixture: “Like ayahuasca, cacáhuatl was an all-purpose pharmaceutical vehicle for administration of many medicinal plants; both curative specifics and shamanic inebriants.”
In The Falling Sky, Yanomami shaman and social activist Davi Kopenawa tells the story of how in a remote past his ancestors were crushed or thrown underground except in one place where the sky finally came to rest on a wild cacao tree, which bent under its weight but did not break. The first people were then able to escape through a hole created by this tree’s canopy.
In a chapter on cacao that appeared in Fruit and Vegetable Phytochemicals: Chemistry and Human Health, a team of Mexican researchers with lead writer Alfonso A. Gardea state that “cacao was first presented to Charles V in Spain as a chemical weapon, based on the belief that once warriors had taken the drink, they were capable of fighting nonstop for the whole day. However, the sour and even pungent cocoa drink – prized by the Aztecs – was not wholly acceptable to local taste.” The authors go on to say that, globally, “cocoa production has given rise to serious concerns about sustainability because of factors such as child labor, harsh working conditions, abuse of the environment, changing weather, and low profit.” Did you know that the largest chocolate company in North America, Hershey’s, generates US$3.72 billion in annual sales and that most of the cocoa beans they purchase are from Ivory Coast, by far the world’s largest producer at 1.4 million tons annually? In terms of cocoa’s biologically active components, studies have shown that cocoa lowers blood pressure and also prevents cardiovascular disease. It also “has been reported to increase the total antioxidant capacity in human blood plasma.”
A 2023 study by a team of scientists from the Borough of Manhattan Community College (City University of New York) and Rutgers University led by Nadjet Cornejal investigated the antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of Theobroma cacao, which, as the authors mention in their introduction, originally was domesticated in the upper Amazon region some 1,500 years before these Indigenous groups from South America migrated with this plant to Mesoamerica. The authors cite research demonstrating how cacao beans “were also used for currency, for trade, for ritualistic practices, and for large feasts among Mayans and among Aztec elites.” There is also abundant and aesthetically-appealing archeological evidence depicting cacao in jade, obsidian, stonework and pottery. The comparative study of four plants (T. cacao, Bourreria huanita, Eriobotrya japonica and Elettaria cardamomum) widely used in traditional medicine in Central America showed that whole cacao beans from La Antigua, Guatemala “showed the highest total phenolic concentration, antioxidant activity, and selective antiviral activity.”
Three researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, led by Anabel Ford published a study in 2022 that no doubt will upend widely-held conceptions that cacao in ancient Mesoamerica was reserved for use by an elite. They analyzed 54 sherds (broken, jagged pieces of pottery from an archeological site) from Late Classic Period Maya residential contexts around El Pilar (Belize/Guatemala). Using the technique of laser mass spectrometry, they detected “a significant amount of the key biomarker of theophylline, to signify cacao.” Using this cutting-edge technology to undertake chemical residue analyses, the authors hoped to answer questions such as: “What is cacao consumption among the Maya populace? Is consumption restricted to higher ranking houses? Are farmers who might grow cacao, like those of Ceren also consuming cacao?” Based on the findings of this fascinating study, the scientists affirm: “These results dispel any doubt as to the importance and inclusiveness of cacao consumption among the Late Classic Maya. That cacao is generally available does not diminish its value but contextualizes its formal and ceremonial importance as a cultural phenomenon that experienced wide participation by the populace. Well beyond the elite ritual civic-ceremonial realm, we interpret the identification of cacao in vessels belonging to people of all walks of life as confirmation that cacao’s prestige was consumed by all in Maya society.”
