Lifestyle
The Story of How Cacao Became Chocolate Complete
It’s an extraordinary and rich story, starting with how cacao (or kakau, kakaw, etc.) was the unlikely “Rosetta Stone” that helped archaeologists unlock the secrets of Mayan “glyphs” (writing). From there, we’ll explore how cross-cultural linguistics and colonial history led to a widespread misunderstanding of the word “chocolate’s” origins—and, spoiler alert, it really does seem as if a fear of confusing cacao with Spanish slang for faeces (caca) played a role in the rise of the term chocolate. And in the next blog, we’ll also untangle the contested historical and modern definitions of chocolate (and explain why many Europeans still don’t accept British or American “chocolate” as proper chocolate).
July 09, 2025 |
It’s an extraordinary and rich story, starting with how cacao (or kakau, kakaw, etc.) was the unlikely “Rosetta Stone” that helped archaeologists unlock the secrets of Mayan “glyphs” (writing). From there, we’ll explore how cross-cultural linguistics and colonial history led to a widespread misunderstanding of the word “chocolate’s” origins—and, spoiler alert, it really does seem as if a fear of confusing cacao with Spanish slang for faeces (caca) played a role in the rise of the term chocolate. And in the next blog, we’ll also untangle the contested historical and modern definitions of chocolate (and explain why many Europeans still don’t accept British or American “chocolate” as proper chocolate).
