What if cacao was never meant to be just one drink?
When people speak about traditional Mexican cacao, they often search for a single recipe: the original drink, the authentic preparation, the correct ritual.
That desire for one answer may be part of the problem.
Researchers working in Miahuatlán, a community in Cunduacán, Tabasco, documented 24 different drinks made with cacao and maize. Thirteen were associated with cacao celebrations. Eleven formed part of everyday family life.
The number is remarkable, but the distinction between celebration and daily life tells us something deeper.
Cacao is not only present in exceptional, sacred or ceremonial moments. It also belongs to kitchens, family nourishment, hospitality and the ordinary rhythm of a community. Some preparations gather people for a particular occasion; others remain alive because somebody continues making them at home.
This changes how we understand cultural heritage.
A tradition is not an ancient recipe preserved without movement. It is a relationship between people, ingredients, territory and memory. It survives through repetition, but it also adapts. A drink may change between families, seasons or generations and remain part of the same living cultural world.
The study also helps us question the language of authenticity. Asking which drink is “the authentic one” assumes that diversity is a problem to solve. What if diversity is the tradition?
At Frido, this matters because education about cacao cannot begin and end with chocolate. Or with the idea of one universal cacao ritual. To understand the seed, we must listen to the different communities that have planted, prepared, shared and transformed it.
The research documents one community in Tabasco. It does not speak for the whole of Mexico, nor for every Indigenous cacao tradition. That limitation is important. Living traditions are local, and respecting them means resisting the temptation to turn one community’s knowledge into a universal claim.
So this week, we leave you with a question:
Which cacao or maize drink exists in your family or community and who taught you how to prepare it?
Reply to this letter. We would like to begin gathering the names, memories and stories carried by these drinks.
Somos Semilla, Diego Frido Cacao