Earliest chocolate

Since cacao featured prominently politically and economically in the Olmec and Maya cultures of Mesoamerica, it has long been thought that the origins of chocolate lie in Central America beginning around 3,900 years ago. However, a study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution on 29 October 2018 revealed evidence of early cacao processing from around 5,300–5,450 years ago at the upper Amazon site of Santa Ana-La Florida in northern Ecuador. Santa Ana-La Florida is the earliest known archaeological site belonging to the Mayo-Chinchipe Culture, which existed in the highlands of Ecuador from about 5500 to 1700 BCE.

Three sources were used to assess residue on artifacts such as clay pots to determine the age of the samples: cacao starch grains, absorbed theobromine residues and ancient DNA.

The faint traces found could have been from either the seeds of the cacao plant (from which chocolate is made) or from the flesh of the cacao plant’s fruit, which was often made into a bitter, beer-like drink at this time.