Chef Lupita
Agua de Chaya Tabasqueña
Tabasco's daily green refresher from the Chontalpa, made with blanched chaya leaves, limón criollo, and piloncillo, poured over ice for the kind of heat that makes the kitchen slow down.
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Chorote Tabasqueño
Created by
Tabasco's Chontal chorote is a thick cacao and nixtamal drink, fermented in banana leaf and beaten into cold water until it tastes earthy, sour, and old in the right way.
Beverages
Mexican
Weeknight
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
45 min
Active Time
10 min cook•24 hr 55 min total
Yield6 servings
Tabasco, especially the Chontal and Yokot'an communities around Nacajuca, Jalpa de Mendez, and the low wet country near the Grijalva, is where chorote belongs. This is cacao country. Not candy cacao. Market cacao, toasted on a comal, peeled by hand, ground into nixtamal masa, and left to ferment until the drink carries that sour, earthy edge that tells you the corn is alive.
Chorote is close to pozol, but don't flatten them into one thing. Pozol can be white or cacao-dark, thin or thick, drunk during work in the heat. Chorote is darker, heavier, more serious with the cacao. The banana leaf matters because Tabasco cooks with what grows around them: plantain, cacao, corn, achiote, hoja santa, chaya, and the leaf that wraps and protects the masa while it changes overnight.
I learned this from women who did not measure with cups. They measured with the hand, the smell of the cacao, the sound of the masa as it loosened in the jicara. No me vengas con atajos. Cocoa powder will give you a brown drink, not chorote. Fresh masa, toasted cacao, banana leaf, time. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Chorote belongs to the cacao and maize drinking traditions of the Chontal Maya of Tabasco, part of a much older Mesoamerican grammar in which nixtamalized corn and cacao were prepared as sustaining drinks rather than desserts. Spanish chroniclers in the 16th century described cacao drinks in southeastern Mexico, but local Indigenous communities kept corn-cacao beverages as daily food, especially for field labor in hot lowland climates. Tabasco's identity as a cacao state predates the modern chocolate industry, and chorote preserves that older use of cacao as nourishment, not confection.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fresh nixtamal masa for tortillas
Quantity
1 pound
unsalted
raw cacao beans
Quantity
4 ounces
cleaned
banana leaf
Quantity
1 small
rinsed and passed over heat until pliable
cold drinking water
Quantity
6 cups, plus more as needed
fine sea salt
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
piloncillo or sugar (optional)
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh nixtamal masa for tortillasunsalted | 1 pound |
| raw cacao beanscleaned | 4 ounces |
| banana leafrinsed and passed over heat until pliable | 1 small |
| cold drinking water | 6 cups, plus more as needed |
| fine sea salt | 1/4 teaspoon |
| piloncillo or sugar (optional) | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Cast iron comal or heavy clay comal
- •Metate, spice grinder, or sturdy molcajete for cacao
- •Banana leaf for wrapping the masa
- •Large clay bowl or pitcher
- •Jicara cups or clay cups for serving
- •Fine-mesh sieve, optional
Instructions
- 1
Toast the cacao
Heat a dry comal over medium-low. Add the cacao beans and toast them, moving them constantly, for 8 to 10 minutes. The shells will loosen, the beans will darken, and the kitchen will smell deep and bitter, like a cacao stall in Villahermosa. Do not scorch them. Burned cacao makes a harsh chorote and there is no sugar that fixes it.
If the beans smoke or blacken, your comal is too hot. Lower the heat and keep the beans moving. Cacao wants patience. - 2
Peel and grind
Let the cacao cool until you can handle it. Rub off the shells with your hands and discard the husks. Grind the cacao on a metate if you have one, or pulse it in a spice grinder until it becomes a coarse paste. You want the cacao broken down enough to stain the masa dark, not powdered like supermarket cocoa. This drink comes from beans, not from a tin.
- 3
Work the masa
Place the fresh nixtamal masa in a wide bowl. Add the ground cacao and salt. Knead with clean hands for 5 minutes, pressing and folding until the masa turns evenly brown and smells of corn and cacao together. If the masa cracks badly, wet your hands with a spoonful of water and keep working. The texture should be firm enough to shape, soft enough to press.
- 4
Wrap to ferment
Shape the cacao masa into a thick disk or oval ball. Wrap it tightly in the softened banana leaf and place it in a clean bowl. Cover with a cloth and leave at cool room temperature for 18 to 24 hours. In Tabasco's heat, it moves quickly. The masa should smell pleasantly sour, earthy, and fermented, never rotten. If you see fuzzy mold, pink streaks, or smell putrefaction, throw it out. Saber cocinar es saber vivir, and that includes knowing when not to serve something.
- 5
Dissolve the chorote
Unwrap the fermented cacao masa. Break off pieces into a large clay bowl or pitcher. Add 2 cups of cold drinking water and work it with your hand, a wooden molinillo, or a whisk until the masa loosens into a thick slurry. Add the remaining water little by little, beating well after each addition. Chorote should be thicker than agua fresca and darker than plain pozol. If it is too heavy to drink, add more cold water.
- 6
Strain and serve
Strain through a fine sieve if you want a smoother drink, pressing the masa with the back of a spoon. In many Tabasco homes, some texture stays. Taste. Add piloncillo or sugar only if your household takes it that way. Serve cold in jicaras or clay cups and stir before drinking, because the masa settles. Así se hace y punto.
Chef Tips
- •Buy fresh nixtamal masa from a tortilleria that grinds real corn with cal. Masa harina can work in an emergency, but it ferments flatter and tastes thinner. That is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •Use raw cacao beans from Tabasco if you can find them. If your vendor only has roasted cacao, toast it briefly to wake the aroma, then grind it. Do not use sweetened chocolate tablets with cinnamon. That makes another drink.
- •Fermentation depends on heat. In a hot Tabasco kitchen, 18 hours may be enough. In a cooler kitchen, give it 24 to 30 hours. The smell should be cleanly sour, like fermented corn and cacao, never spoiled.
- •Serve chorote in a jicara if you have one. The vessel is not decoration. In Tabasco, the gourd cup belongs to the drink.
Advance Preparation
- •The cacao masa must be wrapped and fermented 18 to 24 hours before serving. Plan the drink one day ahead.
- •The fermented cacao masa can be refrigerated after fermentation for up to 3 days, wrapped tightly in banana leaf or parchment. Beat it into water only when ready to serve.
- •Once mixed with water, chorote is best the same day. Stir before serving because the masa settles at the bottom.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 330g)
Calories
250 calories
Total Fat
11 g
Saturated Fat
6 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
5 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
105 mg
Total Carbohydrates
34 g
Dietary Fiber
8 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
6 g
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