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2,600-year-old Mayan Chocolate Found

Posted by michael on from the dark-and-bitter dept.

Peter T Ermit writes "In this week's issue of Nature, scientists report that they have discovered traces of chocolate in a Mayan spouted jug from 600 BC. (The Mayans liked to drink their chocolate rather than eat it.) This is about 1000 years older than the next oldest chemical detection of cocoa. Maybe the Maya rabbit in the moon was really the Quik bunny."

30 comments

  1. Picture it - 600BC... by Slipped_Disk · · Score: 1

    ... A Mayan teenager has just been dumped by her boyfriend, she goes out with her friends for a nice jug of chocolate to drown her sorrows....

    Some things just don't seem to change, eh? :)

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    /~mikeg
    1. Re:Picture it - 600BC... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you said "nice jug"

  2. mmmmm stale by fryguybob · · Score: 1

    How long does it take chocolate to break down? When is it no longer chocolate?

    1. Re:mmmmm stale by Blob+Pet · · Score: 1

      The insides of the vessels bear traces of the characteristic chemical signature of cacao beans, which contain about 500 different plant compounds.

      If I'm reading the article correctly, the contents of the jugs aren't chocolate, but rather some residual chemical compounds from cacao beans.

      --
      "...today consumers have been conditioned to think of beer when they see a bullfrog..."
  3. Chocolate by wakaramon · · Score: 5, Informative
    (The Mayans liked to drink their chocolate rather than eat it.)

    That is why it is called "chocolate", from the Náhuatl choco ~= froth and atl ~= water: frothy water. Náhuatl is the language spoken by the aztecs and other peoples in Mexico.

    1. Re:Chocolate by Reality+Master+101 · · Score: 2

      According to dictionary.com, it means literally "bitter water" rather than frothy water.

      --
      Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
    2. Re:Chocolate by Sobrique · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Chocolatl is an interesting drink. Got a sample when on a tour of a chocolate factory. An acquired taste, it is somewhat bitter, and the spices etc. are definitely not what a 'modern' chocaholic like myself expect.
      I rather liked it though.
      (That's not to say that the recipe was particularly authentic though, it was a chocolate factory tour and not an archeological re-creation).
      Want to try it?

    3. Re:Chocolate by Tar-Palantir · · Score: 1

      I didn't know this, but it is interesting to note that in Pullman's The Golden Compass, Mrs. Coulter, in Lyra's world, refers to hot chocolate as 'chocolatl'. Perhaps Philip Pullman speaks Aztec?

  4. remember by tps12 · · Score: 2, Funny

    It was all a waste of time until the white man brought them pretzels, the One True Chocolate Vessel.

    --

    Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
  5. Hm... Hershey Foods dood? by twilight30 · · Score: 2

    Anyone find it coincidental that the researcher was a guy by the name of Hershey, working at the choc maker? IIRC the Mayans consumed chocolate as a savoury food, not a sweetened one; they'd use it to add flavour to meat and veg, or supplement chilies of various types (ya, I know they did mention the last part). Apparently sweetening chocolate was a later European idea. Anyone willing/able to confirm this?

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    ========================================
    Death will come, and will have your eyes
    -- Pavese
    1. Re:Hm... Hershey Foods dood? by dev0n · · Score: 2, Interesting

      sweetening chocolate was a Spanish idea... when they brought it home, they experimented with it.

      http://www.fmnh.org/Chocolate/history_intro2.htm l

    2. Re:Hm... Hershey Foods dood? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      His name is not Hershey, it's Hurst.

      But I do find it amazingly coincidental that Hershey Foods is in Hershey, Penn.

    3. Re:Hm... Hershey Foods dood? by Eccles · · Score: 1

      IIRC the Mayans consumed chocolate as a savoury food, not a sweetened one; they'd use it to add flavour to meat and veg, or supplement chilies of various types

      Yeah, I had one of those the other day. Funny, though, I couldn't taste the chocolate. It was called something like cocoa vin...

      --
      Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
  6. Who.. How? by lowtekneq · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually only the kings and nobles drank chocolate, (mixed with water).. but the beans were common bartering items.

    --
    Carpe meam simiam!
  7. i wonder by isorox · · Score: 3, Funny

    I wonder what the use by date is

  8. I always wondered by Hacker'sEdict · · Score: 1

    Well as I know it..... my girlfriend always ate chocolate when she got her . so I had wondered what they did in the olden days? Now I know hmmmmmmmm who would have thunkin?

  9. Ummm... by Zen+Mastuh · · Score: 3

    that's not chocolate. Ewww...

    --
    "What is the sound of one belly slapping?"
  10. They smoked it by GuyMannDude · · Score: 3, Funny

    The Mayans liked to drink their chocolate rather than eat it

    No, actually a short filmstrip I saw at the Ah Fudge! chocolate factory said that they mixed it with tabacco, rolled it and smoked it. Nowdays, of course, it comes in a hygenic package.

    After that filmstrip, me and the others from the school field trip when ape shit in the factory, swiming in vats of chocolate and beating up the chocolate bean mascot they had.

    GMD

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    watch this
    1. Re:They smoked it by satanami69 · · Score: 2

      I only threw up on the bus.

      --
      I really hate Dan Patrick.
    2. Re:They smoked it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think maybe you are confusing yourself with Lisa Simpson again.

  11. Astroturf by Kris_J · · Score: 2

    I'm sure Nestle are stoked to have gotten this ad onto the Slashdot front page.

    1. Re:Astroturf by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Certainly not worth paying for...

  12. Vending machines by kmahan · · Score: 2, Funny

    2600 years old. Just about the right age for MoonPies... But the vending machine in the second floor lab of CERL at the University of Illinois had older items.

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    Invalid Checksum. Retrying.
  13. Discover article about chocolate by dolphinuser · · Score: 1

    Interesting enough, the current issue of Discover magazine has an article about Chocolate, and how it's in danger of becoming extinct.

    You can read a sample of the article at: Discover

    --
    The drops of water don't know themselves to be a river; and yet the river flows.
    1. Re:Discover article about chocolate by Schwarzchild · · Score: 2
      and how it's in danger of becoming extinct.

      Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

      --

      "sweet dreams are made of this..."