Chocolate Instead of Coffee in Early America

I make 18th century breakfast chocolate from raw cacao beans.

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[abidingdude]

At some point Townsends needs to turn the Nutmeg Tavern into a real tavern so I can drive over and try all this food.

[Vincent-S]

I’m now of the firm belief that everyone should have a special chocolate pot to make chocolate drinks in

[lazygardens]

There was a chocolate maker near me in Mexico - they roasted the beans daily, shelled and ground them to order with whatever sugar, nuts and spices you wanted. You could get it with chili peppers, black pepper, almonds, etc.

Just walking past them was delicious.

[efretheim]

In the Philippines, it's a very old tradition to make rice with chocolate in it for breakfast. It's called champorado, and very delicious. There's a kind of cocoa tablet sold there that has been imported from Mexico for centuries to be used in this dish and in tsokolate (Filipino hot chocolate drink.)

[DrTurtleBee]

Cocoa husk tea is a favorite of mine now. Martha Washington knew what she was doing.

[fockjesus]

everytime I'm feeling down, which unfortunately is more often these days... Townsends videos pop up and I go to a different world for 10 minutes. cant thank you guys enough

[noellegaige]

These are some of my favorite videos on the internet. They’re incredibly comforting. Thank you so much for making these!!

[Paragonnova]

This is how chocolate is made in Mexico to this day! Northern Mexican states definitely prefer it with milk over water but in the South it’s more common with water. Super good also it’s pronounced ka-kow! haha

[plainjane]

I don’t drink coffee, so I’ve thought about brewing chocolate over the fire at camp

[MetokursGhost]

Greetings from The Netherlands.

A wonderful and chocolate filled Easter to all!

[scaper]

It's really interesting to see these and compare them to more modern takes on the idea like Choffee and Crio Bru that take roast cocoa, grind them, and brew them just like coffee.

A four-way side-by-side test between Mesoamerican chocolate drinks, the colonial/European chocolate drinks, chocolate husk tea, and modern chocolate coffee-like drinks would be an really neat idea I may have to try sometime.

[cearachonaill]

Love that tea strainer of his. My favorite channel here. Sometimes, I’ll find an older season and just let them play while sewing.

[feorge]

In the Philippines, we do like our hot chocolate drinks for breakfast. Especially during Christmas time, when there are midnight masses being held, people line up for hot food in stalls near the church. Chocolate drinks (tsokolate from tablea), ginger tea, steamed rice cakes... good memories.

[skykid]

It occurs to me that historically in America chocolate is a lot more mundane and so we created cheap plentiful chocolate candy for kids, whereas in Europe it was seen more as an expensive refined delicacy and so is more often created for adults in finer forms. Furthermore, other types of candy are more common such as hazelnut

[eriathdien]

We still have hot chocolate drink for breakfast in many homes in Colombia, with a very similar recipe (we just get the tablets already made) with milk. Have some cheese, bread and Colombian tamales or arepas and you've got a proper breakfast.

[mattkuhn]

That frother is a very traditional implement - in its original form, chocolate was a beverage much like that which was frothed between two cups. I have to say though, I was constantly getting distracted by the pronunciation of cacao - both A’s are short, not long, so with the diphthong it’s more like “cahcow” than “cacayo”.

[craberrations]

as someone who has trouble understanding people speaking sometimes i really cannot explain how much i appreciate having really good subtitles, thank you

[az]

The husks/shells are called chaff. An Even roasting will make them break away easier. The heat changes the sugars, just like coffee and roasted dandelion or chicory or grains.

[pejnismiggle]

This guy is like a Bob Ross for foods.
Love it

[mattsmith]

I got a big bag of cacao shell tea from Oliver Pluff & Co tea, they have wonderful colonial style teas and that's where I learned Martha Washington loved cacao tea. Definitely worth checking out!