Why Mexico City is the Center of the Chocolate World

Everybody loves chocolate. The intoxicating aroma of freshly roasted cacao. The decadence of a deep, dark chocolate dessert that melts in your mouth. The joy of hot chocolate.

When people associate the idea of chocolate with a place, they usually think of a European place — Switzerland, Belgium or Vienna, for example.

But Mexico City is by far the greatest city in the world for exploring chocolate — especially during our Mexico City Cocktail Experience. And here’s why.

Europe’s relationship with chocolate began in the 19th Century when, in 1828, Dutch chemist Conrad van Houten invented the cocoa press, separating cacao butter from the solids and, in doing so, invented cocoa powder. The commercial availability of cocoa powder enabled pastry chefs and home cooks alike to buy, store, cook and bake with chocolate far away from where it's grown or roasted.

Van Houten’s work also enabled the invention of chocolate bars by Joseph Fry in 1847, as well as chocolate candies.

Today, Europe produces a dizzying array of delicious chocolate foods and drinks —pralines, chocolate truffles, chocolate bonbons, chocolate cakes, mousses, custards, cookies, chocolate tarts, soufflés, milk-based hot chocolate, chocolate liqueurs like crème de cacao, chocolate covered nuts, chocolate spreads like Nutella, and, of course, chocolate bars.

Every kind of cocoa powder-based European treat is available in exquisite form in Mexico City as well, both in the most traditional European form, and also in a Mexican flavors-infused variation (like chocolate candies with chiles). The city’s restaurants, pastry chefs, bakeries and confectionaries make all the European chocolate foods, often matching European quality.

While Europe’s relationship with chocolate began 200 years ago, Mexico’s began 5,000 years ago. That’s when the Olmec civilization starting using and eventually domesticating the cacao bean in Southern Mexico, which was used by Olmecs and later Mayans, Aztecs and other Mexican civilizations as both an important beverage and a currency.

Our word “chocolate” is from the Aztec word “xocolātl” (pronounced something like show-ko-LA-tull), which means “bitter water.” Mesoamericans typically mixed chocolate with corn and spices (but no sweetener) and drank it.

Because chocolate has served as an important food in Mexico for millennia, regions, indigenous groups and even small villages have their own unique ways to prepare and consume chocolate.

Mexicans in various parts of the country enjoy ways to consume chocolate that few Europeans have ever even heard of, such as chocolate atole (made with corn and milk), chocolate tamales, chocolate-dipped chiles, chocolate-covered fruit and, of course, the ultimate use for chocolate — black mole. Mexicans also use species of cacao never used in European chocolate.

The most common way for Mexicans to consume chocolate, though, is water-based hot chocolate containing sugar, almonds and cinnamon mixed and frothed with a molinillo — (a mixing stick introduced by the Spanish).

Mexico City is also great with American chocolate ideas like chocolate beer and chocolate cocktails, chocolate chip cookies, brownies and chocolate muffins.

Markets throughout Mexico offer custom chocolate blending and grinding. While European cooks mainly use industrially produce cacao powder from cacao grown in Africa, Mexicans buy freshly roasted and ground-to-order chocolate with custom mixes of sugar, cinnamon and other ingredients from cacao grown in Mexico. The quality of Mexican chocolate is far higher than European chocolate, on average.

But Mexico City is the greatest city in the world for chocolate for one simple reason. It’s the only place on Earth with all styles of European chocolate, all styles of American chocolate and all styles of Mexican chocolate. (If there’s an obscure style of chocolate in some remote Mexican region, you can also find it somewhere in Mexico City.)

And while everything we do during the Mexico City Cocktail Experience is a secret surprise, it’s a safe guess that there may be chocolaty deliciousness involved. - Mike

On the places you won't find in the travel guides

When you’re on a two-week vacation, you need to turn to the travels guides — books, sites, apps, blog posts, social media posts and maps recommendations. But when you’re living abroad as a digital nomad, you have the time to explore, find the stuff that’s not in the guides and try them out.

In this picture, I’m in line for a dive Xochimilco pulqueria (I’m the gringo at the back of the line with the giant backpack). This bar is purely local. And, in fact, it’s unlikely to spot gringos even in the neighborhood.

We love this kind of discovery. And the reason is that once any bar, restaurant or other thing blows up in the travel guide, it changes. It’s great to experience the unchanged places, which authentically cater to locals.

The only way to discover local-only establishments at scale is to spend months and months in a place, wandering around and relying on serendipity.

The wonderful world of horchata

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Everywhere you go in Mexico, you can find wonderful beverages called aguas frescas — water-based refreshments. And these typically have some natural flavor, plus sugar. So you can find hibiscus, tamarind, pineapple, cantaloupe, guava, passion fruit, watermelon and dozens of others. 

We have them in the United States, too. Just about every restaurant or street vendor in the US will offer at the very least lemonade or iced tea, both of which are "aguas frescas" — natural flavor, sugar and water. 

One of the most interesting agua fresca is horchata, which is widely available in Mexican restaurants and taco stands in the United States. I suspect that most Americans and probably most Mexicans think horchata is from Mexico. In fact, the Americas are merely the final destination for a beverage that goes back thousands of years. 

Americans got horchata from Mexico. Mexico got it from Spain. Spain got it from Valencia. (Valencia was independent from Spain when Spain conquered Mexico.) Valencia got it from North African Muslims (the "Moors"). The “Moors” got it from Egypt. The Egyptians got it from sub-Saharan Africans in what is now Nigeria and Mali.

They've been drinking horchata in that part of Africa since at least 2,400 B.C -- and they still drink it there. They call it kunnu aya.

The truth is that horchata has a long history, and every culture that embrace it made it their own. 

Horchata began as a drink made from an African weed called cyperus esculentusk by the scientists, and colloquially as chufa sedge, chufa nut, nut grass, yellow nutsedge, tiger nut sedge, tiger nut, edible galingale, water grass or earth almond. 

The weed also grew in the Americas. Plants in the tiger nut family were used as a food source by Native Americans, Africans and others at least 9,000 years ago. 

(Our word "horchata" comes from the Valencian word "orxata." Because of New World bastardizations and novel ingredients, the Valencians now call it "horchata de chufa" to differentiate the newer innovations.)

Everybody changed it. The Africans and egyptians drank their tiger nut drink straight. The Moors or Valencians probably added sugar and cinnamon. The Spanish in the New World swapped the tiger nut for local substitutions.

Mexicans have always made horchata with rice. Central Americans use a roasted seed called morro. Various countries like Puerto Rico and Venezuela added sesame seeds. Ecuador makes pink horchata using flowers and herbs. 

Both Mexicans and Americans started adding milk and other ingredients and flavorings. You can find crazy innovation and mashups around horchata in trendy restaurants in the US and Mexico. Now you can get horchata coffee drinks at Starbucks, horchata cocktails at bars and restaurants and find other variations on the horchata theme. 

Regardless of nomenclature, horchata's journey is just like any other food's journey, traveling across geography, time and culture and evolving as it goes.  

We have lived extensively in three of the major horchata-obsessed places — Valencia, Mexico and El Salvador — our favorite by far is Salvadoran horchata made with morro, which is flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander seeds and allspice. Horchata there is sweet, but that sweetness is balanced by a nutty roasted flavor that's amazing. 

The place most obsessed with horchata is Valencia, which lack's Mexico's incredible diversity of drinks, but which does use tiger nut to make it. Valencia is Europe's only major producer of tiger nut, and they cultivate their own variety that doesn't exist outside of Valencia. 

But we also love Mexico City’s best rice-based horchata during our Mexico City Experience (pictured) and enjoy very good Horchata during our Oaxaca Experience. 

Horchata is a wonderful drink no matter where you enjoy it. But enjoying the local varieties in the places where they make it is a true joy. 

Taking chips and salsa to the next level

Everybody loves chips and salsa. On our Gastronomad Mexico City Experience, we turn it up to 11, enjoying heirloom corn tortilla chips and salsas made with the rarest varieties of chili peppers. (These are grown only in Oaxaca and are used by only two or three exclusive restaurants in the city.)

A Gastronomad truism: Food always tastes best in the land where it originates. It’s about tasting the terroir of food, and also learning from the people that grow and make food with so much passion that your taste palate is forever transformed with every bite.

Join us in Mexico in 2021 for the Mexico City Experience or the Oaxaca Experience! Get ready to have your mind blown and palate thrilled by these delicious culinary adventures of a lifetime!

We ate these amazing vegan street tacos in Mexico City

Amira and I don’t often eat street food, even in Mexico, but made an exception for these two amazing places. As expected, they were both cheap, delicious and fast. Listen to the Mike Elgan Radio podcast to hear our detailed comments, which we recorded on the streets walking home after eating at these places. (Go to the 28 minute mark to hear just the taco part, and go here to subscribe to the podcast.)

Still happily glowing from The Mexico City Experience

We just concluded our Mexico City Experience Sunday. OMG, what a wonderful and mind-blowing week it was!

Every Experience is different, and this one was unlike any past Mexico City Experience and also unlike any future one.

We began during Día de Muertos and celebrated along with the rest of Mexico City with traditional face painting, ofrenda, Mexican delicacies made on a comal over a wood fire, Mexican chocolate from cacao bean to cup. We enjoyed authentic Mexican fun at our friend’s beautiful house in the San Angel neighborhood of Mexico City. So much fun!

Mexico City astonishes at every turn. The exquisite food, exotic drinks (tomato pulque was just one of many rare beverages that delighted our palates) and incredible tastings of wine from all the wine-making regions of Mexico. Of course, we dove deep during exquisite mezcal and tequila tastings. We got to enjoy some very special bottles not available to the public, which another friend generously made possible.

The funnest part is that we surprise our Gastronomads at every turn. They never know what we're going to do until we're doing it.

It was an extraordinary week filled with profound joy and continuous laughter that nourish my soul and fills my heart with enormous gratitude.

Our local Mexican friends and visionary food artisans are remarkable and inspiring people whom Mike and I love. We are grateful for their passion and friendship. We’re very lucky to have them in our lives.

My favorite quotes of the week from our new friends: “It was beyond expectation,” “life-changing,” and “I will be looking into next year when I get home so you shall hear from me soon.” Music to my ears!

We'll be staying in Mexico City, with a brief trip to Guadalajara, and we'll head back to California for awhile to visit family. Then it's back to Mexico City for the unique December Mexico City Experience. (We still have one room left and, if I'm honest, you'd be nuts to miss it!) -Amira

Having mind-blowingly great tacos right now in Mexico City

This incredible taco from a little-known hipster joint called Chetito in the Roma neighborhood contains shrimp, cheese, avocado, crunchy tortilla strips and spicy sauce of some kind. So delicious. It starts out tasting mild, but by the end your mouth is pleasantly burning.

We discovered a brand-new restaurant in Mexico City

This new restaurant in Mexico City is pushing the envelope with ingredient innovation and also preserving ancient Mexican (mostly Oaxacan) traditions. You can hear all about it — and our interview with the chef — by listening to the Mike Elgan Radio podcast below, or subscribing here.

Can't wait to get back to taco city!

I mean Mexico City. Amira and I are returning in a couple of weeks to resume our exploration of the world's most perfect food.

Tacos are perfect because they're endlessly various, and almost always delicious. We've eaten a great many tacos. We've paid 20 cents for a taco; we've paid $20. And everything in between.

Later this month during our Mexico City Gastronomad Experience, we’ll introduce some cool people to the best tacos we’ve ever encountered. We’ll learn to make tacos from scratch from one of Mexico’s most famous chefs. We’ll have tacos at the best restaurant in Latin America — and some killer street tacos. We know a couple of newish spots that are doing some very innovative and delicious things with tacos.

(And, of course, we’ll eat a lot more than tacos — we’ll sample the full range of Mexico’s greatest foods, drinks, wines and more, all in stunning locations.)

Did I mention we’re going to have tacos? Can’t wait!

Oh What Fun It Is to Do The Mexico City Experience!

What a rewarding year 2018 was! And it was so fun to end the year with a wonderful New Year’s Eve celebration with awesome friends and a rooftop party overlooking Mexico City’s Zocalo Square during The Mexico City Experience.

It was a privilege ringing in the new year with such beautiful human beings.

Bringing together our Gastronomad friends with our dear friends around the world is something that fills me with deep joy every time.

The Mexico City Experience was more than we ever dreamed of. We learned some Mexican culinary skills, we cooked and tasted the most traditional and delicious Mexican dishes, we gathered joyfully around magical dinner tables with our wonderful Mexican friends, and we drank delightful wine and drinks.

We meandered through the most idyllic cobblestone streets, we visited the most enchanting places, we picnicked in the most dreamy of places in Mexico City. We shared meaningful and joyous moments, we laughed, we sang, we danced, we embraced and became fast friends.

I loved seeing the magic of friendships blossoming as we gathered to learn about Mexican food and traditional drinks, Mexican traditions as well as Mexican gastronomy, history and heritage.

Immersed in authentic Mexican culture, the heartfelt joy we all shared and the friendships we formed will forever live in my heart.

I’m deeply grateful to see our gastronomad family of friends grow with every Experience in all these beautiful places around the world.

Our time together can best be described as joyful and magical. We learned, we explored and ate so much — surely the most delicious Mexican food in all of Mexico! The magic that happened this week is simply unforgettable.

We’re blessed to have a wonderful community of amazing people we’re so lucky to call friends.

Join us for more Mexican Magic when the scent of spring flowers infuse the air during The Mexico City Experience this spring!

Space is limited, so grab your spot today and immerse yourself in the magic of a gastronomad experience. - Amira