Pouring from one pot to another may have made chocolate froth. Credit: source:

Mankind's love affair with chocolate began at least 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, new research reveals1.

New analytical techniques have found cocoa residues in 2600 year-old ceramic vessels from the town of Colha in what is now northern Belize. The previous earliest evidence for chocolate consumption dates from around AD 400.

Until the Spanish Conquest, the region was the centre of Mayan civilization. The Mayans were prodigious consumers of cocoa. They are thought to have consumed it in some form with almost every meal, mixing it with other ingredients such as maize, chilli and honey.

W. Jeffrey Hurst of Hershey Foods in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and colleagues examined vessels that look like earthenware teapots with long spouts. The insides of the vessels bear traces of the characteristic chemical signature of cacao beans, which contain about 500 different plant compounds.

The pots may have been used to pour cocoa mixture from one vessel to another to generate a froth - the Mayans' favourite part of their cocoa drink, according to the Spanish conquistadors.