Belize, the land of Chocolate- fascinating facts by Raga Akena, VA

Belize is known as the home of chocolate, with a chocolate-loving history that goes back thousands of years. As long ago as 600 AD the Maya Indian first discovered the delight of chocolate. Farming in Belize started around 250 B.C. and cocoa trees have been growing in the wild for 3,000 years. Belize has a very long history, let’s take a bite into the fascinating facts of Belize.

In Belize, cocoa and chocolate are equal to god and they are very important in their daily life. Cocoa and chocolate are so important to Belize that they created a god made with cocoa. Evidence also suggests that the Mayan had chocolate every meal. They mix chocolate with ground corn, honey, and hot chili. Regular chocolate drinking was also very common in Belize, they believed it was a very healthy habit and much better than tea or coffee. Till today many Maya farm families use the chocolate drink as a normal part of their diet.

Although, the Maya are well known for creating art, sketches, wood carvings, and stonework. They are best known for their pottery. Driven by both function and aesthetics, pottery became a ceramic canvas for the Maya to tell stories, venerate the gods, commemorate the deceased, and much more. Some of the pieces of pottery were found. Like a Maya chocolate pot that is over 2600 years old. The chocolate pot is a ceramic teapot that was used to make a chocolate drink. Fourteen of these pots were found in Belize in 1981. Some ceramic teapots still had traces of chocolate.

Belize is the home to chocolate, it is where sweet flavors begin and never end. The flavor and their pottery are what Belize is famous for. They continue this tradition still to this day. Thousands of years ago Belize had no idea that the chocolate ideas they had would spread all around the world.