Cacao Trail · Maya Drink
Chocolate Maya (Cacao Drink)
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Missvain / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0
Toledo's Maya farmers still hand-grind roasted cacao on a stone metate the same way it's been done for centuries, without electric grinders.
Roasted cacao beans are ground into a paste and whisked with hot water, corn masa, and sometimes chile or black pepper into a frothy, unsweetened drink. Village cooperatives and market stalls in Punta Gorda sell it to visitors and locals alike.
Why it's made this way: Toledo is Belize's cacao heartland, farmed by Mopan and Q'eqchi' Maya communities whose ancestors were among the first people anywhere to cultivate cacao.
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