[Aztlan] FURTHER NOTES ON THE EARLIEST USE OF CHOCOLATE DISCOVERY

[michael ruggeri]

Listeros,

In the most complete description of the discovery of fermented  
chocolate use in Puerto Escondido, Honduras starting in 1400 BC, the  
UC Berkeley News explains the scientific process of detecting this  
use by way of pottery fragments.

A team from Berkeley and Cornell did a chemical analysis of residues  
extracted from 13 pottery fragments in two parts of Puerto Escondido  
by heating fired-clay pottery in distilled water or methane or  
choloform and through liquid chromatography, they saw evidence of  
theobromine, a chemical component unique to the cacao plant. Some of  
the samples may go as far back as 1400 BC.

The Ocotillo phase pottery used to pour the fermented chocolate is  
tied to trade along the Pacific coast of El Salvador, Guatemala and  
Mexico thus showing the ritual of pouring fermented chocolate drinks  
was tied to a far flung network of trade. This lends itself to the  
concept that the Olmec style was not a one way wave emanating from  
the Gulf Coast.

Here is the story below;
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/11/13_cacao.shtml

Mike Ruggeri






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