On Thursday, we visited the contemporary art museum. Nothing of particular note there, other than that on the way out, Michelle spotted a flyer for the "first annual" Posade de Chocolate, to take place at 8pm that evening. Even though we weren't sure exactly what would happen, any event involving chocolate sounded good to us, especially since it was free!
We arrived at the venue at the appointed hour, to find a line of other attendees stretching down the block and around the corner. It looked to me like the crowd was about 30% gringos and 70% locals. It seemed to me that every gringo in town must be out for the occasion, but that was obviously not true since none of the other 15 gringos we went hiking with the next day were at or had even heard about the event.
Once the gate opened, the line moved pretty quickly. As we got inside, we were each handed a cup made from half a gourd, a woven cane ring to use as a stand for the cup, and a carved wooden stir stick. An announcement came over the speaker, asking everyone to be patient and to refrain from partaking of any of the beverages until after the presentations.
There were two speakers. The first was an agronomist who waxed poetic about how cocoa is the perfect crop for restoring jungle, since it both likes shade and provides a good environment to help other tropical plants get started. The other speaker was an anthropologist, who spoke about the range of traditional chocolate beverages in the Oaxaca region, what they were made from and how they were made. Both talks were quite interesting, even if my spanish wasn't up to following everything they said.
After the speakers came the speeches. The whole event was sponsored by a local company named Chocolate Mayordomo. The Mayordomo system dates back to pre-hispanic times. Every couple of years, each village chooses a wealthy and respected person to be mayordomo. The mayordomo has the honour of organizing and paying for all the local festivals during his term of office. It can be a very expensive honour, but those who discharge their office well get a lot of prestige. The owner of Chocolate Mayordomo paid for the Posada de Chocolate and certainly didn't spare any expense. We had a few words from him and some other dignitaries, then the tasting began.
The organizers had selected ten traditional beverages from ten regions of the state of Oaxaca. A few women from each village had been brought in to prepare and serve the drinks. All of the women wore the traditional costume of their village, so it was a visual as well as epicurean event. Each attendee was invited to sample up to five of the beverages. The servings were so generous that we could only manage four. The line for each beverage was about 20 people long at any given time, but the servers were efficient and the lines moved quickly.
First up was tejate. There is a striking difference between the strong cinnamon and chocolate flavours in the foam and the milder corn flavours in the liquid part of the drink. The two together are magical: tejate was our favourite beverage of the evening.
Next up was chaw popox, another drink with a strong chocolate flavour, but one where they serve mostly the foam, not the liquid. It was also very nice, but we didn't like it quite as well as the tejate. Perhaps that's a common opinion: tejate is widely available in markets around the state, while many of the other drinks are only available during fiestas in the villages whence they come.
Michelle and I each drank a full serving of tejate and chaw popox, but as we were getting full, we decided to split our servings of the next two drinks. I picked up a cup of chone while Michelle lined up for bupu.
Chone seems to be a corn drink, with just a bit of chocolate flavour in the background. It was thick, almost a corn soup and pretty much a meal in itself. Tasted a bit like a tortilla in liquid form, with some spices. Michelle's bupu was essentially what we think of as hot chocolate, with some unfamiliar spices. It was a bit sweet four our taste.
All in all, a fabulous evening. I hope they manage to repeat the event for many years to come.
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