Hand Made Chocolate: the Aztecs, the Spanish and Us: A Class in Chocolate Craft

Sooooooo, did I mention CHOCOLATE? Creating, savoring, eating chocolate? Our day will be spent exploring all things chocolate. The Aztec rulers drank their chocolate dark and bitter and used cocoa beans as money; after 1530 the Spanish added sugar and spices creating a drink for the European aristocracy. The students in this class will start by making a basic chocolate paste using authentic New World ingredients and the same lava-stone tools as the Aztecs; metate and mano. We will enjoy an Aztec-inspired mole sauced lunch. Heading back to the metate we will add European inspired spices and sugar to create that modern sweet essence we all love to drink and nibble. Everyone will take home a sample of our class chocolate production. Classes will be scheduled May through October as students sign up.

Soooooooo, again, did I mention Chocolate? As you swoon contemplate the following historical medicinal diagnosis: The Florentine Codex (compiled by priest Bernardino de Sahagún in 1590) warned that “[Green cacao] makes one drunk, takes effect on one, makes one dizzy, confuses one, makes one sick, deranges one. When an ordinary amount is drunk, it gladdens one, refreshes one, consoles one, invigorates one. Thus it is said: I take cacao. I wet my lips. I refresh myself.”

Classes have a 5 student minimum – view full class listings at The View from Indigo House www.indigohousehistory.com
Put together a group. Give as a gift. Email me re scheduling and price.