We all enjoy chocolate as a luscious sinful treat, a drink for children, even as a coating for bacon. The world loves its caramel, nuts and nougats, but those treats are often served coated in chocolate. Chocolate is the glue that holds the confectionery world together. Beyond that, we use it to alter our mood, bribe our children, fix our emotional problems, cope with romantic breakups and offer it as a token of love.

In Chocolate: Pathway to the Gods, The Sacred Realm of Chocolate in Mesoamerica, Meredith L. Dreiss and Sharon Edgar Greenhill illuminate the earthy, ancient origins of chocolate. Far from being a mere dessert, chocolate is a chemical powerhouse that is still considered a substance of divinity in Mesoamerican cultures. Lately, chocolate's popularity as a sweet confection has overshadowed its potential as a robust elixir, an earthy savory and a meal all its own. As Dreiss and Greenhill so persuasively argue, chocolate is more than just a cutesy truffle.

The book is complemented by a documentary film of the same name, which comes bundled with the hardcover edition in DVD form. The film offers a broader global examination of chocolate, and provides a fascinating look into both the production of chocolate and its history as a ritual drink, an alchemical intoxicant and the sweet treat it is today. The book focuses largely on chocolate's role in ancient Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Maya and the Aztec, revealing the chocolate ribbon of history that runs from the beginnings of these cultures, through the Mayans' ritual and religious lives, across the Mesoamerican economic system, and into modern Mexican society.

Because of its emphasis on Mayan material culture (pottery, chocolate cups, paintings, etc.) the book is best enjoyed with a pre-existing appreciation or understanding of Mayan history. I recommend watching the film first. Otherwise, the many photographs of pottery in the book may feel a bit like a tour through a highly specialized museum. That said, the book contains an impressive array of images relating the enjoyment and preparation of chocolate (also called kakao), as well as the vessels from which it was — and in some cases still is — served
and consumed.

Kakao was served as a divine elixir in the religious and ritual lives of the pre-Columbian Mesoamericans. It was also equated with money, providing the specie by which all other goods were measured. There were even instances of merchants counterfeiting kakao, filling empty bean rinds with dirt and passing them off as genuine. Kakao beans are small and this must have been a tedious and difficult process, one not to be undertaken if the worth of the beans didn't justify the labor — or the possible ramifications, if caught in the act.

Also interesting is the role that foam played in the consumption of Mesoamerican chocolate. Once thought to be a concern only for yuppie coffee fanatics and Starbucks devotees, the ancient Mesoamericans considered the foam to be the "spirit" of the kakao. The foam is created when the chocolate is whipped vigorously with water, calcifying the beans and creating a mixture that develops a high, sturdy head of foam. (Today, a wooden tool called a molinillo is used to create the foam. Its origins are often disputed, but it has been used for foaming chocolate for centuries).

Kakao is still revered in Mesoamerica, playing a major part in religious rites, including Catholic rituals and offerings to saints. The film examines this in detail, presenting footage of Mexican women preparing chocolate, parades of chocolate-bearing farmers, and ritual offerings of kakao to the dead.

Chocolate's intense impact on people has chemical explanations: chocolate contains large amounts of both theobromine and caffeine, both of which have a stimulating effect on the body. Kakao has been regarded as a curative since its discovery, often mixed in elixirs prescribed for all manner of maladies, though it is possible that the chocolate — rather than being the cure itself — served as the spoonful of sugar that helped the medicine go down, so to speak. Still, kakao contains such high concentrations of vitamins and antioxidants that we all might be excused for insisting that we eat or drink it at least once a day. The Spanish conquistadors noted that the Aztec warriors could march all day on nothing but kakao. Kakao was attributed to all manner of positive effects on human health, not the least of which was its power to energize the libido. The Aztec king Montezuma, a true chocoholic, had a massive harem, further reinforcing chocolate's reputation as an aphrodisiac. With that in mind, it is no wonder it has become the symbolic food of love.

The book reveals a fascinating fact: There is evidence that the ancient Mayans equated the kakao pod with the human heart and chocolate with blood, often offering a kakao pod instead of a heart in ritual sacrifice when a human specimen wasn't necessary. Even during actual sacrifices, the lucky subject was given a drink of chocolate tinted red with achiote (a paste made from annatto seeds) to drink before having their heart ripped, still-beating, from their chest. This provides an interesting cultural pretext for the tradition we currently observe of offering heart-shaped chocolate to those who have an effect on our own hearts.

Tapping into chocolate's Mesoamerican roots is currently a culinary fad — Häagen-Dazs' "Mayan Chocolate" ice cream and Green & Black's "Mayan Gold" chocolate bar are two popular treats. Interestingly, both rely heavily on cinnamon for their flavoring. Cinnamon, an Old World spice, was not available to the Mayans. Cinnamon is now the predominant spice in most modern Mexican chocolate, making the allusions to pre-Columbian flavoring in most commercial versions a mere marketing ploy — albeit a very delicious one. Lately, chocolate has been in the news. Research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in January reveals that people inhabiting the arid Chaco Canyon/Pueblo Bonito region of New Mexico consumed drinking chocolate about 1,000 years ago, providing evidence of a pre-Columbian, pan-American trade route.

To taste "real" Mayan chocolate this side of the Mexican border, you have to go to Kakawa Chocolate House, which is conveniently located in Santa Fe at 1050 E. Paseo de Peralta, between Canyon Road and Acequia Madre. At Kakawa, owner/operator Mark Sciscenti serves up a dizzying selection of faithfully reproduced chocolate recipes culled from the annals of antiquity, serving ancient Mayan brews flavored with chile, vanilla and pepper, as well as some heady, floral concoctions with ties to 17th-century France. Sciscenti has spent the last eight years researching chocolate, reading voraciously about chocolate, and traveling to the places where chocolate makes its ancestral home. Most of his creations are sweetened (if sweetened at all) with agave and honey, resulting in a flavor that, though it may not be as sweet as the chocolate most people are used to, is close to the substance consumed by chocolate's original discoverers and producers.

From 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Dreiss and Greenhill will give a 40-minute talk and sign copies of their book at Kakawa Chocolate House, and Sciscenti will be on hand to give out samples of his Mayan elixirs.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Meredith L. Dreiss and Sharon Edgar Greenhill sign copies of Chocolate: Pathway to the Gods, The Sacred Realm of Chocolate in Mesoamerica; No charge, free chocolate-elixir samples, copies of the book will be available for purchase.

WHEN: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday

WHERE: Where: Kakawa Chocolate House, 1050 E. Paseo de Peralta,

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Call 982-0388.