What if everything you’ve been told about the Inca… is wrong?

In this episode, Andrew and Ed go deep into one of the most fascinating civilisations in history - not through war or politics, but through food, science, and chocolate.

From 4,000 metres up in the Andes, the Inca built an empire that could transport fresh fish from the Pacific in under 24 hours, engineer vast agricultural systems with thousands of crop variations, and store food on a scale that rivalled anything in the ancient world.

But here’s the question that sparked this episode…

Did the Inca really NOT eat chocolate?

The common answer is no. But after boots-on-the-ground research in Peru, conversations with locals, and digging into recent scientific findings, we’re starting to question everything.

In this episode, we explore:

• How the Inca fed millions in one of the harshest environments on Earth
• The genius behind their roads, storage systems, and agriculture
• Why your fish and chips might actually be mostly “Inca food”
• The role of cacao, coca, and other powerful plants in their society
• And the growing evidence that cacao may have been far more important to the Inca than we’ve been told

We also taste some of the rarest Peruvian chocolate in the world - and try to understand why Peru might be home to the original cacao.

This is part history, part investigation, and part theory… but it might just change how you think about chocolate forever.

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If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to follow along as we continue the journey into the origins of chocolate.

Next episode: we head into the Amazon to uncover where cacao really began.

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