Light Posting Tonight

I am working on making a 393 year old recipe for chocolate.  (See below)

I am actually using only 6 cups of water, because I will be adding an equal portion (actually 1.5 liters) of rum (Mount Gay Eclipse Rum, of course) to make a cordial.

It is my first cordial, and I will be entering it into the Storvik Novice Tournament this weekend.

I actually first made the recipe in 2007.  It is from a recipe contained in a 1631 Spanish treatise which was translated into English in 1652 titled, in English anyway, Chocolate, an Indian Drinke.

It should end up about 40 proof and the interplay of the chocolate and the pepper and the rum should be interesting.

I had considered making two versions, one boiled, and one where the ingredients just steeped, but I would need a few weeks for the latter.

I did not grind as finely as I did the last time, I used a mortar and pestle instead of a coffee grinder, but as opposed to 15 minutes on the burner (though it is getting that), it will also have 4 days sitting in a mixture of 40 proof alcohol, which should finish the extraction.

Recipe for the non alcoholic version follows:

Chocolate Drinke

• Cacao Nibs 1.5 cups
  
• Cinnamon, 2 tsp (about two small sticks)
• Chile Pepper, 2 TBSP
• Anise Seed, 1 TBSP
• 12 Almonds
• 12 Hazel Nuts
• Roses of Alexandria, 1 tbsp (Apothicary Roses, I just use 1/4 cup rose water, available from any middle eastern food store, instead)
• ½ cup white sugar
• Vanilla de Campeche, (Vanilla) One bean
• Achiote, ¾ tsp. (More commonly called Anatto)

Grind everything up but the pepper and vanilla, which you mince, and put in a pot with about 12-16 cups of water (including the rose water) and boil until it is the color of Coffee with about 1 cream in it. One caveat, the author claims that among its health benefits is:

It vehemently Incites to Venus, and causeth Conception in women, hastens and facilitates their Delivery.

As such the I maintain no responsibility for romantic entanglements, pregnancies, general soreness of body parts, goofy smiles, or intemperate marriage.