Mexican Chocolate: Roaming the Chocolate Trail in Oaxaca

Roaming the Chocolate Trail in Oaxaca

by Phil Saviano

Oaxaca may be famous for its green granite cathedrals, pre-Columbian ruins and outstanding handicrafts. But it is the sensual assault of Calle Mina, the historic chocolate street, that tourists remember most. Pay a visit to where the sounds of crunching and grinding fill the air, and wrap yourself in the alluring scent of chocolate. Here in Oaxaca, where strong traditions link the generations, enjoying chocolate remains one of the best!

It doesn't matter whether you are weak for chocolate, or looking for a high-brow history lesson in the cuisine and culture of Southern Mexico. Strolling and nibbling down Oaxaca's "chocolate trail" is a great way to spend an afternoon.

Start at Calle Mina, home of the city's three, best-known chocolate grinders. Their names are Chocolates La Soledad, Chocolates Mayordomo and Chocolates Guelaguetza. You don't need the exact address to find them. Just walk three blocks south of the zocalo, then turn the corner onto Calle Mina. From there, let your nose and the sweet aroma of chocolate gude you along.

Chocolate La Soledad, the most renowned of Oaxaca's chocolate emporiums, has been located here for more than 50 years. You'll find a retail store and a row of busy grinding machines. The complex also includes a relaxing cafe in a back courtyard, and their "chocolate hotel" on the upper level.

La Soledad's trademark--an Indian woman serving steaming hot chocolate to an Aztec chief-- plays up the fact that native tribes drank chocolate for centuries before the arrival of Columbus. Shopping bags also proclaim a more recent honor. La Soledad was the winner of the "Best Chocolate Award" at the 1994 International Chocolate Festival held in Montbeliard, France.

At the counter, deep plastic trays hold bushels of roasted cacao beans, displayed side-by-side with large metal bowls of cinnamon sticks and roasted almonds. If you split a few beans open, you'll see that there are two grades--one darker and more fragrant than the other.

Oaxacan chocolate, processed and flavored with sugar and spices, tastes quite different from American chocolate. It's blended mostly for drinking, and Oaxaquenos drink an awful lot of it. In fact, according to statistics, they consume five times more than the rest of Mexico; about 5 1/2 pounds a year for each person. In general, they prefer a formula that is one part cacao beans, ground with 2 parts granulated sugar, and 1/4 part each of cinnamon and/or almonds, plus perhaps some vanilla.

Arrive at La Soledad before noon, and you will find a flock of women and children gathered at the counter. Everyone seems very patient! Perhaps, since the place smells so good, no one is in any hurry to leave. A clerk weighs out portions of cacao, sugar and spices for each customer's private recipe. Some prefer more cinnamon, others more almonds, according to their long-held family recipies. After paying, each woman takes her sack of ingredients then moves to another line at the left side of the store.

Here's where the magic happens. A team of young men gowned in rubber boots and protective jump suits operate a row of noisy, electric grinders. In fifty years, the technology hasn't changed a bit. The red cast-iron machines are about four feet tall, with a hopper to receive the beans, an electric motor to turn the grinder. Down below, a large metal basin catches the warm, flowing chocolate before it slides into a zinc tub set on the floor.

The machines have been whirring and crunching since 7:00 a.m. By mid-morning, business is brisk, and the guys can barely keep up with the demand. The operator begins by splashing a pile of sugar into the bottom of the catch basin. Then he loads beans, almonds and cinnamon sticks into the hopper above, and switches on the motor. As the young man pushes the coarse, dry mixture through the grinder, a black, satiny sauce begins to ooze out of the spout, dripping onto the sugar below. It's an amazing sight to see the crunchy beans and twigs turning to liquid. But it is no less wondrous is the heavy scent that comes wafting through the air!

When the hopper is empty, the attendant scrapes every bit of the sugar and chocolate mixture out of the catch basin and into a zinc tub. Then he pours it back through the hopper to give it a final, more even mix. More customers line up, and the pressure builds on him to keep working faster. Before long, his arms and hands are covered with chocolate. Such a sweet occupational hazard! Every customer leaves with a smile, typically carrying out with a 3-kg. sack, which costs about $6.

La Soledad also sells its chocolate in small, ready-made packages. It comes sweetened or bitter, packaged either as a thick paste or compressed into bars. Ask for a bite before you buy. Purse-sized 1/4 kg. boxes, selling for about $1 each, make it easy to bring home a little taste of Oaxaca for your friends. They have also recently launched two new products which are proving popular with the tourists--hollow chocolates filled with Mezcal liquor, and chocolate-covered Oaxacan coffee beans.

Just down the street from La Soledad is the Chocolates Mayordomo store. There is another row of chocolate grinders here, but Mayordomo is also set up to make moles, the spicy sauces Oaxacan's traditionally serve over chicken, roast pork or enchiladas. Oaxaca has been called "the land of the seven moles," but the most acclaimed recipe is for mole negro, a spicy, nearly black sauce made from chocolate and over a dozen other ingredients, including fried chiles, sesame seeds, raisins, garlic, and cinnamon.

In one stall, a grinder combines the key ingredients to this famous sauce, pulling chiles from one bucket, peanuts from another, tossing them into the hopper along with cacao beans and cloves of garlic. When he switches the motor on, a choking mist of chile spreads through the air, and customers cough and cover their faces. Clearly, waiting in line for mole is not so much fun, and customers here are quicker to hurry on with their business.

Next stop on the "chocolate trail" is the nearby Benito Jaurez market, at the junction of 20 Noviembre and Las Casas. Along the aisles of this colorful emporium, you'll see all the authentic ingredients for Mexico's rich cuisine.

Be ready for peddlers of all ages to seek you out as soon as you enter the iron gates. An elderly woman approaches, waving a fistful of molinillos. These are hand-carved, wooden chocolate beaters that she is selling for about $2. She will show you how to twirl the handle between your palms, quickly whipping a mixture of chocolate and hot water into a frothy brew. It is said that ancient peoples offered the bursting bubbles and the fragrance rising in the air as a gift to the gods. Even today, Oaxquenos consider it impolite to serve someone a cup of chocolate without a thick layer of foam bubbling on the top.

Thinking that you need something to munch on, young girls from the nearby village of Santa Lucia may approach you with straw baskets filled with crunchy, red chapulines. These dried, spiced grasshoppers are a popular Oaxacan snack. Try some, if you dare. But if you are not ready to cross that sort of line in your life, stick with the chocolate!

In this market, many small tiendas specialize in Oaxaca's two most famous foods--the ever present chocolate products and "quesillo," a stringy, white cheese that is rolled into balls or braided into rounds. You can work your way from one end of the building to the other, sampling cheese and chocolate all the way. You'll also pass mounds of juicy pineapples and melons, rows of plucked, whole chickens hanging by their feet, and stacks of burlap bags brimming with dried chiles.

As you make your way through the market, make a point to stop at "Nieves Chonita," the ice milk stand. Early in the morning, adolescent boys pack metal cylinders with scoops of fruit, sugar and milk, then twirl them by hand inside frosty tubs of salt and ice. Chonita sells 27 exotic flavors, including mango, tamarind, and cactus. This being Oaxaca, they also have ices flavored with mescal and tequila. Treat yourself to a double scoop! How about, say, chocolate, topped with mango?

For many years, Oaxacan visitors who are interested in Mexican cooking, or the history of chocolate in the cuisine, have sought the help of Susana Trilling, the renowned chef and food writer. A former New Yorker, she now lives in Oaxaca and runs the Seasons of My Heart cooking school on a ranch outside the city. Her one-day and weekend classes include market tours and instruction in making chocolate and moles.

"Chocolate is one of the essentials of Mexican cuisine," she says, "and enjoying it is one of the oldest traditions that Oaxacans have."

Chocolate is made from cacao beans, which are native to Mexico. They are still cultivated in the fertile southern states of Tabasco and Chiapas. It was first grown by the Aztecs. They drank their chocolate cold, unsweetened and considered it to be a drink worthy of the gods. Only the rich and noble were allowed to drink it, and they thought it conferred on them both wisdom and energy. The legendary, 16th century emperor Montezuma was said to drink chocolate from gold-filigreed gourds that he stirred with a tortoise-shell spoon.

After the Aztec conquest, Cortez brought chocolate back to Spain. There, heated, and sweetened with sugar, it quickly became the Spanish Court's favorite beverage. Trilling says that devotion to chocolate is still particularly strong here, since the state of Oaxaca has one of the highest indigenous populations in Mexico.

"Chocolate plays an important part in all celebrations, whether village fiestas or weddings and baptisms," Susana explains. "A cup of chocolate, with pan de yema (sweet bread made with egg yolks) is one of the first things served to guests at a wedding. If you are invited into someone's home here, no matter whether in the morning or the evening, you'll likely be welcomed with a cup of hot chocolate, not a glass of soda or a bottle of beer."

"Every family has favorite recipes for chocolate, as well as for moles," she says. "There are many variations, and families have their secret formulas, handing them down through the generations."

Many local residents, in fact, still prepare chocolate using the ancient techniques. They roast the beans in their homes on a round, clay comal. Then they grind them by rolling a cylindrical "mano" on a warm, stone platform called a "metate."

After touring Calle Mina and the market, you'll be ready to sit for a hearty mid-afternoon lunch. Susana's tips for restaurants that make a good mole are Maria Bonita at Alcala 706B, and El Topil at Plaza LaBastida 104.

A few blocks north of the zocalo, not far from the Santo Domingo cathedral, you stop for lunch at El Topil restaurant. The tiny dining room opens to a small park, and is decorated with gourds and framed Day of the Dead cutouts. As the massive cathedral bells begin to toll outside, restaurant patrons summon the waitress by ringing one of the black ceramic bells that decorate each of the tables.

The menu features such Oaxacan specialties as Cecina a la Parilla (thinly sliced pork smeared with chili paste, then grilled) and Nube Sola (a fondue made with white local cheese), but since you're on the "chocolate trial," you'll want to order the Mole Negro Oaxaqueno.

A blue and white ceramic platter arrives before you. It is filled ½ inch deep with a glistening, black pool of chocolate mole sauce, poured over a leg and thigh quarter of chicken. The meat is served at room temperature, which is the custom. The rich, smooth sauce, however, is piping hot, and it's wonderful. Both spicy and sweet, it has inspired and fortified Oaxacans for generations. You won't want to waste a bit, so do as the locals do, and sweep your plate clean with fresh, hot tortillas.

You consider dessert, but then you remember Susanna's parting words: "If you've got a sweet tooth, stop by the Rome Pasteleria on Hidalgo!" You leave the restaurant and head towards the pastry shop a few blocks west of the zocalo. One peek inside the door, and you wish you'd stopped by sooner!

Protected underneath a glass showcase are trays of delicate, luscious pastries. For less than 50 cents each you can buy petite, flaky croissants, their two pointy ends dipped in chocolate. Or you can choose palm-sized chocolate and almond cakes.The doughnuts, thick and light, are iced with chocolate then sprinkled with thin chocolate flakes and powdered sugar. The pastry shop offers take-out only, and at these prices it's tempting to carry away one of everything.

You take a bag of goodies back to the zocalo, the colorful central square where local culture keeps the tourists smiling. At the Le Jardin cafe, you choose a table under the granite arches, facing the zocalo's wrought-iron cupola. A waitress dressed in a crisp, white blouse and dazzling red skirt brings you a cup of hot chocolate to go with your pastries.

Wrapping your hands around the warm mug, you sit and watch the squirrels scamper amidst the bright orange blossoms of the tall jacaranda trees. To your left, you can see the main cathedral, partially obscured by clouds of colorful balloons that vendors are selling outside its doors. Closer by, school girls in matching plaid dresses walk past arm in arm. And at the next table, a gentle old man coaxes a lilting tune from his saxophone. Suddenly a woman appears, balancing on her head a straw basket piled high with fragrant gardenias and red roses.

With so many sights and scents fresh in your mind, it's time to finish your visit to the sweet, chocolate trail in Oaxaca. You raise the mug to your lips, tilt your head back and savor the moment. When you've drained the cup dry, you lick the last bit of chocolate clean from your lips.

Yum!