This mix of flavors, devised more than five centuries ago by Spanish settlers, is still enjoyed at breakfast or as a snack as a very hot drink.
Cinnamon was for decades one of the main ingredients that accompanied the chocolate that was produced in Spain with cocoa grown on the American continent since the XNUMXth century.
Brought from the Asian continent, the cinnamon It was adopted by the Spanish as one of their main ingredients to flavor sweet dishes, such as custard and rice pudding, and, of course, why not add it to chocolate?
What was added to the chocolate?
Upon discovering that other types of condiments could be added to the Drink of chocolate From the Mayans and Aztecs, the Spanish settlers began to add their own ingredients to chocolate that did not exist in America, such as sugar, cinnamon, cloves, anise, almonds, hazelnuts, vanilla, rose water and musk. .
In one of the writings of the English Jesuit Thomas Gage, he describes how they prepared the chocolate to drink.
“They would let the cocoa beans and spices, dry together, grind and mix everything. They then heated it to melt the cocoa butter and form a paste. They then applied the paste to a large sheet or piece of paper, allowed it to solidify, and peeled it off as a large tablet. The chocolate could be prepared both hot and cold.
Around 1580, the first factories were built in Spain, where spiced chocolate paste was made; and in less than 70 years, this drink began to be known in other European countries such as Italy, France and England, where they also changed its flavor, eliminating almost all the ingredients added by the Spanish, with the exception of sugar and the vanilla.
It is believed that it was the English, at the end of the XNUMXth century, who added milk to this drink in the innovative "chocolate shops", a kind of specialized cafeterias; an ingredient that was added to the recipe as it is known today of the well-known cup of hot chocolate with cinnamon.
