Maya chocolate ingredients
Find out about the plants featured in this year’s Maya themed chocolate adventure trail.
Seeds from the cacao tree are the source of chocolate’s distinctive taste. The ancient Maya, a civilisation from Central America, prepared special drinks using the cacao seeds. They were drunk during important ceremonies and were given to elite Maya people. The bitter cacao drinks were flavoured using plants from the forests where they lived.
Below you can find out more about four plant species, three of which were added to cacao to make a special chocolate drink.
Learn more about Maya ingredients for chocolate
Pimenta dioica
allspice
Capsicum annuum
chilli pepper
Theobroma cacao
cocoa tree
Vanilla planifolia
vanilla
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