New research has revealed details about the origin of cacao, tracing its use in different pre-Columbian cultures. The authors of the study suggest that the cacao plant was used in Ecuador 1,500 years ago, long before it was used in Mexico.
Researchers analyzed residues in more than 300 pre-Columbian ceramics dating back nearly 6,000 years from South and Central America. Their goal was to find traces of cocoa DNA and three related chemical compounds, including caffeine. The results showed that the rapid expansion of cacao along trade routes occurred more than five millennia ago in Ecuador. The evidence indicates that cacao spread along the northwestern Pacific coast of South America and then to Central America, reaching Mexico 1,500 years later.
Previously, it was believed that cacao was domesticated in the lowlands of Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America) and that from there it spread southward. However, it can now be stated with certainty that the origin of cacao and its domestication was in the Upper Amazon and not in the tropics of Mesoamerica.
The spread of cacao from Ecuador to Mesoamerica may have occurred through vast interconnected political and economic networks. It was a rapid process that involved close, long-distance interaction between Amerindian peoples. Maritime contacts were as important as inland ones.
Before Europeans arrived in America five centuries ago, cultures such as the Aztecs and Mayans already prepared cocoa as a drink, mixed with various spices or other ingredients. Cocoa was not only a source of energy, but also a medicinal product. Native American peoples used it in many ways: raw, cooked, roasted, ground, and converted into liquid and solid foods. Even the bark, branches, and pods were burned, and the ashes were used as an antiseptic.
Original Source: Study: Cocoa originated in South America, not Mexico