Malinche and Montezuma’s Golden Cup of Chocolate

Everyone’s heard of Montezuma’s famous cup of hot cacao.

Although cacao was drunk for thousands of years before by the Mayo-Chinchipe people, drinking cacao hot is generally credited to the Maya and Mexica communities.

One of the most famous examples cited in history is the emperor Montezuma’s multiple cups of hot chocolate.

A Spanish chronicler, Bernal Diaz Del Castillo, recorded that women would prepare “a good fifty large jugs of chocolate, all frothed up”1 for Montezuma. It was also noted that “the women served this drink to him with great reverence”.

The chocolate was presented “in cup-shaped vessels of pure gold”, and along with the “limitless quantity of fruit” that was also presented to the guests, our Spanish chronicler records in awe that “his expenses must have been very great”.

But one of the reasons Montezuma and others in power could enjoy this lavish chocolate, was partly due to the labour of enslaved people.

While at the market, Castillo observes the “Indian slaves both men and women” who were sold alongside “cacahuateros who sold cacao”.

Unlike European slavery, much of the Mexica’s enslaved people came from those who were captured during war, or those who were being punished for crimes.

They were often made to work in the palaces of the wealthy, or alternatively could be sacrificed to the Gods.

The Downfall of an Empire

In a twist of fate, a young enslaved girl from the Mexican Gulf Coast would be Montezuma’s downfall. This girl would be called “the betrayer” for generations to come.

La Malinche.

Just like the women who prepared food for the Emperor Montezuma. She was forcibly made to work under the Maya at Potonchán, preparing food and drinks for her captors.

Malinche never wrote a word down about her life. From our knowledge of other women’s roles under their captors, she would taken on the same hard physical labour of grinding corn on a metate, and preparing cacao and other luxuries for her superiors to enjoy.

When the Spanish captured Malinche, Cortes allegedly promised Malinche “more than liberty” if she could help the Spanish find Montezuma.4

Why? Because Malinche could communicate with multiple Mesoamerican communities. She was multi-lingual. With her skills of communication, Malinche became the key for unlocking the safe passage for the Spanish in their march towards Tenochtitlan (Montezuma’s central power).

After the Fall

The Spanish, among with their allies attatcked  Tenochtitlan and lavish palaces where Montezuma drunk his cups of chocolate were ransacked.

This is often defined as the moment that New Spain started.

A new social hierarchy was implemented, Christianity was enforced, the Aztec education system abolished, thousands of people were forced into labour, and Spanish goods and people arrived on the continent.

But food changed too. The Spanish brought over domesticated meats like pork, beef, and chicken, grains like wheat and rice, and seasonings such as sugarcane, garlic, and onions.

The introduction of milk, as well as Spanish-favoured spices like cinnamon and aniseed, would then change how chocolate was drunk forever.

If you are interested in the recipes – you can make your very own historical hot chocolate in our top-rated hot chocolate making experience in London. 

And what about Malinche?

It is recorded that she lived as a free, wealthy noblewoman.

She died around 1529 likely due to an epidemic of smallpox that killed so many others in the years after the Spanish invasion.

She was a key figure in the fall of the Aztec Empire and therefore the export and expansion of cacao back to Spain, and eventually Europe.

The rest of the world would soon become as obsessed over its flavours and health properties as Montezuma himself.

The hot chocolate would go through many hundreds of years of change at the hands of history before getting to the hot chocolate we’d recognize today.

Written by Kitty Nason

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