(Video link HERE.) Susan Dworski alerted us to this beautiful little video about the culture of chocolate in Mexico. It will give you a view of the origins of the delicious sweet we love to eat, unaware how the making of it can be an act of resistance and spirituality, as is true with many endangered foods. In 4 minutes, we got a big view of culture, ecology, economic forces and memory that goes way beyond chocolate.

It made us want to try some La Casa Tropical‘s 100 percent Mexican cacao from Chiapas and Tabasco, which appears to be available only in Mexico. It and a few other companies, are trying hard to revive and fortify the ancient — and threatened — Mexican chocolate culture, through acts of resistance in farm and kitchen.

It was the chocolate that brought the planet together as brothers. It is printed in our genes. Maybe our minds have forgotten…

If you find yourself in Mexico City, you can visit its store there. Chihuahua 77, Roma, México, D.F.

For now, we’re gonna sample Taza Chocolate Mexican Chocolate; its founders Alex Whitmore and Larry Slotnick source their beans from small-production farmers in Mexico. They ship them directly to their shop in Somerville, Massachusetts, where they roast, stone grind them on Oaxaca stone mills and turn them into finished chocolate. This chocolate’s texture is granular and gritty, much like Sicily’s Antica Dolceria Bonajuto Chocolate.

via The Perennial Planet in partnership with Intrepid Travel