Raising Foam

Indigenous Mesoamerican chocolate was consumed as a liquid with a thick foamy head, the most valued portion of the drink. This watercolor from a 16th century book known as the Codex Tudula, shows an Aztec noblewoman raising foam by pouring the chocolate from one vessel to another. Although the image is "Europeanized", experts regard it as an authentic representation of Aztec life in the conquest period. The Codex Tudula is in the collection of the Museo de America, in Madrid. Reproduced with permission