How to turn an Aztec aristocrat into a purple cow

What you and I know as chocolate, began its life as a drink made of water and ground cocoa beans, referred to by a Nahuatl (Aztec) word xocolatl. And in Nahuatl it meant no more, no less: bitter water. But since cocoa beans were also used as currency, it was an extravagant drink - sort of like burning money just to show off. The surprising adventures of words are sometimes quite surprising: I hate to break it to you, but xocolatl is not the only Nahuatl word whose offspring is to be found at the grocery store.

There is, of course, the inocuous tomatl, (although, surprisingly, there is no patatl), and not last, and certainly not least, the scandalous aguacatl, which produced Spanish aguacate, and then English avocado, and which originally meant testicle tree. Not kidding here. A certain lingusitics professor at my grad school told us that (about 10 times a year). Now, you'll never look at avocados the same way again. While we're talking about indigenous words for "water," I cannot help mentioning Winnebago, in Algonquian, and this one means stinking water. Alas, that's the name of the nearby lake around here. Let's not go there (or, if you want to...). Back to the topic, though...

Over time, the Europeans, who found the flavor of the original xocolatl too intense and too bitter, made it milder by adding milk, and then sugar (which they appropriated from the Arabic as s(u)kr). And there goes the bitter part of bitter water; they also added both milk and skr to tea, too tannic for Imperial British palate. With time, the whole protracted xocolatl affair (it was not sweet love at first sight) got rid of the water too, so that now when someonse says chocolate, few people think of a drink first - most think of a chocolate bar. And fewer people think Aztec aristocrats; most think Swiss, the hills, and my favorite things. That's how you turn an Aztec aristocrat into a pruple Swiss cow.

Even fewer people think "spicy" when they think chocolate. But the Aztec, unlike the Europeans, didn't find their bitter-water xocolatl too tangy - they found it too mild, and often added hot chili peppers to turn it up a notch (Bam! they also filed their teeth into triangles and painted them black). And so, mixing the flavor of dark, bitter chocolate with spicy flavor of chile varieties is not something unusual - it goes back to the source. The smart people at Lindt have launched a new chocolate bar - 70% dark chocolate, with cherry + chili pepper filling. Originally, I thought - big deal - sort of like the chocolate coyote ice cream in (Madson, WI) State St.

Not so. Much better. Yum-better, although bitter.

The big advantage, from a chocholate addict's point of view (i.e., as I see it), is that you cannot eat too much of it in one sitting; it needs to be savored slowly, and deliberately. I bet one bar can last a few days around here. Not a usual ocurrence with chocolate bars at my house.

It's hot. Go, get one. :)