Check out almost any history of chocolate, and you will learn that the original hot chocolate drink was unsweetened, with the addition of sugar and, later in history, milk being European innovations.
Does anyone know where I can find a recipe (using modern ingredients, natch, as I don’t know how easy it is to lay hands on cocoa beans) that simulates these earlier beverages?
Ah, so that’s what it was about. We wondered…but we didn’t let it stop us from babbling.
Well, there’s an Aztec hot chocolate recipe here. I think I like the Spanish modification at the end of the recipe–it sounds like it would be rather nasty without some kind of sweetener. I might go with honey instead of refined sugar, though, and leave the pepper in it.
Fan-tabulous, Balance. Precisely what I was looking for.