Cacao grows in abundance in Guatemala and chocolate making is an art form.  Hot chocolate is rich and delicious and served everywhere.  At one time there was a chef turned chocolatier who infused chocolate with basil, sundried tomatoes, chili and other unlikely flavors to create taste sensations.  Sadly for his customers, he and his wife left to travel several years ago, but other stores in Antigua have taken up his mantel.

 

Last year I gained a new appreciation of the makers of cocoa when my friend Sarah and I collected some cacao pods and made cocoa at home – it is quite the process.  Maybe similar to coffee with drying and roasting.  It was fun but I’m going to leave it to the experts.

 

Our family always makes a ritual trek in Antigua to Café Opera to enjoy the chocolate gelato.  I’m told the other flavors are also good but I wouldn’t know!  This year we added a new “must” on the chocolate tour:   Bistrot Cinq, a delicious French restaurant, serves a Mayan Chocolate Pot which is INCREIBLE.  (Not a misspell, in Spanish there is no d).

 

Chocolate bars that have appeared all over Antigua since last year are called IxCacao.  IxCacao was the Maya goddess of chocolate.  I think I may have found my deity!

 

At Oh My Maya, we don’t have chocolate for sale, but we do have lots of other wonderful and unique handmade goods from Guatemala, which support Maya artisans and charities in Guatemala.