Let’s face it, winter in Southern California isn’t as chilly as the rest of the country, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want that cozy, warm feeling we get from sipping a hot beverage this season.

Coffee may get all the hype for its caffeinated boost, but hot chocolate deserves its own high praise.

The hot chocolate we know today didn’t appear overnight; it evolved over centuries. Mesoamericans such as the Mayans and Aztecs believed that chocolate was a divine gift from the gods , and they may have been onto something.

The chocolate that early Ingenious tribes drank wasn’t served sweet or hot. It was drunk as a cold, bitter, energizing beverage spiced with chili peppers known as xocolatl, which the Aztecs used for rituals, to prepare for war, and as medicine for ailments such as cou

See Full Page