In this episode, we leave the chocolate yurt and head into the Melt kitchen to do something we have wanted to try for a while: recreate traditional Mayan chocolate drinks.

After speaking to archaeologist Dr Ed Barnhart about the Olmec and Maya, we became slightly obsessed with one question: what did chocolate actually taste like before Europe added sugar and turned it into the version most of us know today?

So we got to work.

Using ingredients the Maya would have known, we experiment with chilli, honey, herbs, flowers, corn, spirulina and cacao to make a series of drinks inspired by ancient Mesoamerican chocolate culture. Some are ceremonial, some are medicinal, some are fiery, and all of them are far more complex than modern hot chocolate.

Along the way we talk about:

How the Maya and Olmec prepared cacao

Why the Spanish changed chocolate so dramatically

The role of women in traditional chocolate making

Why Mayan chocolate was often frothed, spiced and unsweetened

How cacao was tied to ritual, medicine, status and daily life

This is one of the most fun episodes we’ve made and also one of the most eye-opening. Ancient chocolate was not just a drink. It was a craft, a ceremony and a whole different way of thinking about flavour.

If you enjoy chocolate history, food culture, archaeology, hot chocolate, or just watching us attempt to recreate ancient recipes in a modern kitchen, this one is for you.

Let us know in the comments which Mayan chocolate you’d actually try.

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