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Alcoholism

The earliest chocolate drink of the New World

Published in Mental Health Weekly Digest, December 17th, 2007

The earliest known use of cacao--the source of our modern day chocolate--has been pushed back more than 500 years, to somewhere between 1400 and 1100 B.C.E., thanks to new chemical analyses of residues extracted from pottery excavated at an archaeological site at Puerto Escondido in Honduras. The new evidence also indicates that, long before the flavor of the cacao seed (or bean) became popular, it was the sweet pulp of the chocolate fruit, used in making a fermented (5% alcohol) beverage, which first drew attention to the plant in the Americas.

That cacao's popularity on the world stage began with its role in an alcoholic beverage does not surprise archaeochemist Dr....

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