The Chocolatera on the Spanish Colonial Frontier: Insights into Global Foodways and Economics

Summary

If one artifact signals the birth of the modern world economy it is the chocolatera. Before the wide-spread use of coffee or tea, hot chocolate was the beverage of choice in early modern Europe and the American colonies. Found in Spanish colonial sites fat-bellied ceramic or copper jars with constricting necks and shoulders ‘the chocolatera is an artifact associated specifically with the making of this comestible. The hot beverage made of cinnamon, sugar, and chocolate was beaten to a froth in boiling water and served as a popular stimulant. To illustrate the variable forms of this artifact and chocolate within the global economy this presentation draws on archaeological and documentary evidence from both shipwreck and terrestrial sites in California, Texas, Florida, New Mexico, Mexico, the Philippines dating from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Small Finds, Big Implications: the Cultural Meaning of the Littlest Artifacts   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-13,11