Chocolate

There is evidence that chocolate has been consumed in central and southern America for thousands of years, so the chocolate museum seemed like a reasonable destination with a couple of my classmates.

We learned a great deal about the history of chocolate – added to by Alexandra who is Swiss and so clearly felt a proprietary interest in the subject. Mexico is not an enormous producer of cacao but it does have a significant species of the tree which is greatly prized. They also consume a lot, not least as mole which is a savory paste based on the cacao bean.

The history of chocolate is somewhat disturbingly tangled with colonial usurpation of the local cultures as the rituals were andopted and then the whole idea modernized. That said, I was very taken with the display of chocolate drinking mugs from the 19th Century including the mugs designed to protect a gentleman’s moustache.