28 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. 



the West Indies," first published in 1648, 

 gives the following interesting account of 

 the Spanish and Indian way of making and 

 drinking chocolate some two 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 ingre- 

 dients must be beaten in a mortar of stone, 

 or (as the Indians use) ground upon a 

 broad stone, which they call Metate, and 

 is only made for that use. But first the 

 ingredients are all to be dried, except the 

 Achiotte (annotto), with care that they be 

 beaten to powder, keeping them still in 

 stirring that they be not burnt, or become 

 black ; for if they be ovsrdried 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 



