A hot, thick, frothy drink made from grated cacao beaten in water or milk with a little raw sugar and cinnamon. Bitter and comforting, whipped until it forms foam using a wooden whisk.

Why this dish? Cacao appears explicitly in his field diet, and Humboldt, as a naturalist, studied and described cacao cultivation in the Venezuelan provinces. Whipped chocolate was THE morning drink of the Spanish-American colonial world he traversed.

Here is a drink whose tree I have studied as much as I have tasted its liquor. Cacao, which the ancients held as a gift from the gods, is roasted, ground on a hot stone, then beaten in boiling water with the molinillo until a brown foam rises. I add a hint of cinnamon and very little sugar, for I like to taste the fruit's bitterness. Take it at daybreak: no other liquor better sustains the spirit of the traveler about to climb.

How it was made : Chocolate was drunk, not eaten: the solid bar is a later invention. Throughout Spanish America, cacao was beaten with a molinillo to raise foam, a sign of quality. Cinnamon and sometimes achiote flavored the liquor. Humboldt devoted pages to the economy of Venezuelan cacao.

The contemporary twist : Serve 'old-style' in a jícara (half-calabash) with a cloud of beaten foam, and grate a little raw cacao bean on top.

Sources : Alexander von Humboldt, Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne (1811)

Alexander von Humboldt · Charactorium