New research found out that chocolate already existed thousands of years ago than previously thought. Scientists learned that the earliest consumption of cocoa, chocolate's main ingredient, was dated far back 5,000 years ago in South America.
A group of scientists went to Santa Ana-La Florida, an archaeological site of Ecuador and part of Mayo-Chinchipe civilization. They examined artifacts like ceramic bowls, jars, stone bowls, mortars, and bottles, and found starch grains of cacao. They even saw it on a 5,450-years-old ceramic.
So the study just proved that chocolate existed 1,500 years earlier than everyone thought. Archaeologists long believed that cacao was first used as a drink in Central America 3,900 years ago.
"This is the oldest trace of cacao identified so far and it's also the only archeological trace of the use of cacao discovered in South America," geneticist at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development and the study's co-author Claire Lanaud said, via the South China Morning Post. University of British Columbia anthropologist and archaeologist Michael Blake, who also helped to lead the study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, added that cacao was drunk as a beverage as its particles got seen in stirrup-spout pots and bowls.
Blake claimed that the presence of cacao starch grains on those ceramics likely mean that people at the time ground its seeds to turn it into beverages. They could also ferment the seeds before they grind it, per News.com.au.
He even described that the "freshly picked riped cacao pods have a delicious sweet pulp around" it. So when all of its ingredients get mixed, it produced a "very mild chocolate taste."
Compared to chocolates today, which contain a high amount of sugar, it is very distinct to the reported historical records of the 1500s and 1600s indigenous uses of cacao. There is also archaeological evidence that showed that the domestication of cacao moved to Central America and Mexico about 4000 years ago.
When the European conquerors arrived in the Americas 500 years ago, great civilizations like Aztecs and Maya made chocolate with different spices and ingredients as a drink. Aside from being a refreshment, cacao was also honored for its medicinal properties.
It was also usually served during religious ceremonies. Cacao was even used as the main trading commodity, and its seeds were used as payment and currency in some Central American regions.
