Gingerbread Man with Hot Cocoa

About this drawing

A gingerbread man and cocoa make a classic winter pair, but the drink started out as something few kids would enjoy. The Maya and Aztecs ground cacao beans into a bitter, frothy beverage, sometimes spiced with chili. It was usually served cool, and cacao was so prized that beans were used as money.

Spanish explorers brought cacao back to Europe in the sixteenth century. Sugar and cinnamon soon replaced the chili, and Spanish nobles started drinking it hot. Chocolate houses later opened in cities like London, where wealthy customers gathered to sip and talk. Spain still loves a cup so thick you can dip churros into it.

The cocoa most Americans know came later. In the 1800s, a Dutch chemist found a way to press out cocoa butter, leaving a powder that dissolved easily in milk. That made the drink cheaper and much simpler to prepare at home. Marshmallows, once made from a plant called marsh mallow, floated into the picture around the start of the twentieth century. Peppermint fans later began stirring their mugs with candy canes, adding a cool bite to all that sweetness. Today, a steaming cup after sledding or tree trimming feels like an American holiday ritual, even though its story reaches back thousands of years to Mesoamerica.

• gingerbread man
• hot cocoa
• marshmallows
• candy cane