People all over the world love chocolate these days, but it actually originated in Mexico. Apparently cacao beans (the main ingredient in chocolate) originated in Mexico, and the country has been cultivating them since ancient times. They know this because cacao exists on the murals found in Mayan and Aztec ruins.
Chocolate was discovered by the Olmecs, who came from the tropical lowlands of Mexico around 1500 BCE. It was extremely precious to them—so much so that in ancient Mexico, it was considered the food of the gods. It was even used as currency during the age of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations.
When the Spanish colonized Mexico in the 16th century, chocolate spread to Europe.
According to one theory, Hasekura Tsunenaga was the first Japanese person to try chocolate when he made the journey to Mexico in 1617.
There’s a museum in Mexico City dedicated to this long history of chocolate.
The building isn’t very big, but it has a nice feel to it since it’s a renovated old house.
The official name of the museum in Spanish is the MUCHO Museo del Chocolate (MUCHO is an abbreviation for mundo chocolate). The Japanese word chokoreto comes from the English, but the English comes from the Spanish word chocolate (pronounced choco-latte). The original word was xocolatl, a Nahuatl word that means “bitter water”. They say that chocolate was a spicy food in ancient times—not sweet like it is today. People started adding sugar to it once it took hold in Europe.
The museum is full of exhibits showing the history of cacao and chocolate. Unfortunately the explanations are all in Spanish, so I couldn’t understand them, but I still had a great time with the ones that let me smell things or draw pictures with cacao powder.
These are Japanese ceramics.
They’re from the 1920s. It was a little strange to see them, since I didn’t expect anything from Japan to be on display here.
There’s also a tiny room with chocolate covering the wall. People love to take pictures in there.
The skull-shaped chocolate on the wall is such a classic Mexican design.
There’s also a café on the first floor where you can get chocolate and other things to eat.
The café has a really distinctive look, with beautiful murals on the wall.
People can also just come in and go to the café, so if you have a few moments next time you visit Mexico City, it’s a great place to drop in.
The famous cafés and large museums are great too, but if you’re going to go to the birthplace of cacao, you might as well have some fun learning a little more about the history of chocolate.
