Cocoa did not make its entrance into North America in the 15th century, as we always thought. The delicious concoction arrived about 400 years before, from the southwest. This is revealed in a study published in the journal National Academy of Sciences. The research explains the discovery of traces of cocoa on shards of pottery dating back to 1000 AD, pointing the discovery to the earliest use of cocoa in the US.

The proof was discovered during an archaeological excavation in the ancient pueblo of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. The drink appeared to have been linked to a ritual. The traces of theobromine (natural alkaloid found in cocoa plant) inside the containers lead scholars to believe that the use of beverages based on cocoa had spread from Mexico to the current northernmost regions about a thousand years ago.

Because the cocoa is a tropical plant, scientists believe that for the beans to reach Chaco Canyon, New Mexico they must have traveled no less than 2,000 kilometers from the regions of Central America.

On the other hand, the earliest known use of cacao, which is the base of the chocolate that we know today, has been recorded to be much earlier than usually thought. More than 500 years earlier, to be exact. Pottery produced from an archaeological excavation in Puerto Escondido, Honduras dating between 1400 and 1100 B.C.E., were traced through chemical analysis to have residues of cocoa.

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Via ScienceDaily