Hello to everyone welcome to Travel In Oaxaca, today I will tell you the origin, elaboration process and my reasons for you to consider oaxacan chocolate as the best or one of the best in the world.
HOW DID THE OAXACAN CHOCOLATE ARISE?
The base of chocolate is cocoa, as legend sais, the god Quetzalcóatl brought the cocoa (Theobroma Cacao that means food of the gods) to Mexico.
Human raze discovered how to toast, grind and to churn the cocoa grains to get a primitive chocolate, to this chocolate they added water and even vanila and this was drunk by the nobles and leaders.
The oaxacan people were dominating this technique that since the start was all by hand and as the corn to make tortillas the grains were grinded in a metate, and to churn it, it was done with a molinillo and the molinillo is still used today.
Oaxaca with Tabasco and Chiapas are the greatest consumers and producers of chocolate in Mexico.
HOW IS OAXACAN CHOCOLATE MADE?
In Oaxaca a diverse variety of chocolate is made, this can be more handmade and totally by hand or with machinery but still is a very manual process, also the process is very manual. Also the flavors can be very different.
In this post I will tell you about how oaxacan chocolate is elaborated in the city markets and also the most basic way.
The most antique form of chocolate is quite limited at least in the city and its surroundings, but it still exists, this method consists in having the cocoa grains toasted and from there start the process of grinding the grains in the metate until they get a kind of pasta to which you can add ingredients such as vanilla, almonds, and actually even sugar.
The chocolate in this form can be consumed mainly in liquid form, you can get this by adding chocolate to hot water but since the arrival of the spaniards also milk is added. The kind of consumption is your election.
The other process is still very handmade and the ingredients are natural but it is not totally handmade because machines are used to do it in this form and also to do it faster.
The method of elaboration starts in the same way, with the raw material that is the cocoa and other ingredients, the cocoa grains are washed, dried and toasted, when they get to the place were the process is going to be made, the grains are introduced in the machine with some almonds and cinnamon, the obtained mix is similar to the one made only by hand, sugar is added and the quantity depends on the kind of chocolate that wants to be made, once it is mixed, it is reintroduced to the machine to obtain a better mixture, after this the paste is shaped and wrapped in packages for sale, after this you can consume it as hot chocolate or as it comes.
WHY IS IT THE BEST CHOCOLATE?
Oaxacan chocolate is one of the best because it does not have an industrial process, because it has a handmade process and depending on the kind of chocolate that you want, it will have more or less natural ingredients but most of the ingredients will be natural.
Other reason is because the chocolate comes from America, specially the principal comercial zones of Spain that were the New Spain and other regions in South America.
Also oaxacan chocolate is one of the best because it is elaborated with artisan and ancestral techniques that we have to maintain because they are part of our culture.
I hope that you liked this post, and remember to try oaxacan chocolate in your visit to Oaxaca I am sure you will love it, remember to follow me on social networks and comment what you thought of this post and if you have already tried this delicious chocolate.
Translated from the spanish version of the post by: Alejandro Favero Cruz.
El chocolate mexicano como uno de los mejores:https://www.ngenespanol.com/traveler/el-mejor-chocolate-del-mundo-antojo/
