Drinking
Chocolate and Tea
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People engaged
in social rituals around the drinking of chocolate in viceregal
Mexico and tea in the British colonies. Each culture had its own
special cups and other utensils to be used when drinking these beverages
on social occasion.
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Cocoa
Cup
Franz Mayer Collection
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Tea
Pot
Bayou Bend Collection
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A Chocolate Cup
This elaborately carved coconut cup set in a silver mount was
used to drink chocolate.
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A Teapot
The teapot was used to brew and serve tea.
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Drinking
Chocolate
The Maya and Aztec elite drank a bitter mixture of cacao beans
and water which they introduced to the Spaniards. The Spanards
mixed cacao beans with water, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon to
create a sweeter drink that soon became popular throughout Europe.
For almost 100 years, Spain kept the secret of how to make bitter
chocolate sweeter to suit European tastes.
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Drinking
Tea
By the mid-1600s Americans were importing tea from China. When
this teapot was made, only the rich could afford to drink tea.
By the late 1700s the price of tea fell and tea-drinking was more
widespread.
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Popularity
of Chocolate
These cups are often mentioned in inventories from the 1600s and
1700s and reflect the aristocratic taste for drinking chocolate
daily.
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Popularity
of Tea
The small size of this teapot - it is only inches - indicates
that tea was expensive and highly prized. Later as tea became
less expensive and more popular, teapots became larger.
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Learn more about the history of drinking chocolate:
[General
Audience] [For
Kids]
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Learn more about the history of drinking tea:
[General
Audience] [For
Kids]
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