EARLY USE OF COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. 



and Indian ways of making and drinking chocolate some t\vo hundred 



and fifty years ago : 



"Now, for the making or compounding of this drink, I shall set 



down here the method. The cacao and the other ingredients must be 



beaten in a mortar of stone, or (as the 

 Indians use) ground upon a broad stone, 

 which they call Mctate, and is only made 

 for that use. But first the ingredients are 

 all to be dried, except the Achiotte (an- 

 notto), with care that they be beaten to 

 powder, keeping them still in stirring that 

 they be not burnt, or become black ; for 



" A1C.1 A 1 r,. 



if they be overdried they will be bitter and 



lose their virtue. The cinnamon and the long red pepper are to be first 

 beaten with the anniseed, and then the cacao, which must be beaten by 

 little and little till it be all powdered, and in the beating it must be 

 turned round that it may mix the better. Every one of these ingredi- 

 ents must be beaten by itself, and then all be put into the vessel where 

 the cacao is, which you must stir together with a spoon, and then take 

 out that paste, and put it into the mortar, 

 under which there must be a little fire, 

 after the confection is made ; but if more 

 fire be put under than will only warm it, 

 then the unctuous part will dry away. 

 The Achiotte also must be put in in the 

 beating, that it may the better take the 

 colour. All the ingredients must be 

 searced, save only the cacao, and if from 

 the cacao the dry shell be taken, it will 

 be the better. When it is well beaten 

 and incorporated (which will be known by the shortnesse of it) then 

 with a spoon (so in the Indias is used) is taken up some of the paste, 



CHOCOLATE-GRINDING IN THE 



SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



Prom an early engraving. 



