Atole de chocolate: what it is and how to make champurrado

What is it?

Atole de chocolate, known throughout much of Mexico as champurrado, is a thick hot drink made with nixtamalised maize masa or starch, table chocolate, piloncillo and cinnamon. Its dark brown colour and velvety texture make it one of the most representative drinks of Mexican cooking. It combines two of the sacred foods of Mesoamerica, maize and cacao, in a single preparation deeply rooted in the country's culinary culture. It is consumed throughout Mexico, with special prominence at the December posadas, the Day of the Dead celebrations and winter breakfasts. It is the star drink of Mexican atolerías and of the street stalls that set up on cold nights in central Mexico.

Origin and history

The combination of maize and cacao in a drink has a documented pre-Hispanic origin. Sahagún, in the Florentine Codex, describes several Nahua drinks that combined cacao with maize masa, among them 'chocolatl with atolli'. The Maya and Mexica consumed cacao frothed with water, honey and spices; adding cooked maize was a common practice to extend the drink and make it more nourishing. After the conquest, European ingredients transformed the recipe: cane sugar in the form of piloncillo, cinnamon imported from Asia and cow's milk, giving rise to the mestizo champurrado of the seventeenth century. Larousse Cocina classes it as 'the most popular hot drink in Mexico'. The name champurrado comes from 'champurrar', an old Spanish verb meaning to mix different drinks. Its consumption is documented in the New Spanish convents and in indigenous kitchens throughout the colonial period. Today it coexists as atole de chocolate and champurrado, terms that are sometimes interchangeable and sometimes differentiated according to the region.

Characteristic ingredients

Nixtamalised maize masa is the traditional base; some modern recipes replace it with cornflour for greater convenience. Mexican table chocolate, in tablets with sugar and ground cinnamon (brands such as Abuelita, Mayordomo or Ibarra), is a fundamental ingredient: it provides the characteristic flavour that distinguishes atole de chocolate from any European cacao drink. Piloncillo, unrefined cane sugar, adds molasses notes impossible to replicate with white sugar. The cinnamon stick is infused throughout cooking. The base liquid may be water, milk or a mixture of both: with water it is more austere and rustic, with milk creamier. Some Oaxacan variants use metate chocolate made with toasted cacao, almond and cinnamon. The usual proportion is one hundred grams of masa, one chocolate tablet and a cone of piloncillo per litre of liquid. It is cooked stirring constantly with a wooden molinillo to create its characteristic froth.

Cultural significance

Atole de chocolate and champurrado are emblems of the December posadas, the pastorelas and Mexican wakes. They are handed out on the nine nights before Christmas alongside tamales, forming one of the most recognised gastronomic pairings in the country: 'tamales con champurrado'. In Oaxaca, where chocolate has deep cultural roots, atole de chocolate features in the Day of the Dead rituals and in the Guelaguetza festivities. Traditional Mexican cuisine, declared Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2010, identifies maize and cacao as its identity pillars; atole de chocolate brings them together in a single preparation. The Mexican table-chocolate industry, according to data from Profeco and SADER, moves more than a billion pesos a year, sustaining cacao cooperatives in Chiapas and Tabasco as well as traditional confectioners in Oaxaca and Puebla.

Frequently asked questions