COCOMAYA: chocolate doesn’t taste better than this!
photos and text - © Jesús Montero
It is not by sheer accident that we associate CHOCOLATE with decadence and luxury.
Back in the XVI century, Hernán Cortés and his fellow conquistadors were the first Europeans to witness this when they strolled down the busy markets of Tenochtitlan, the old capital of the Mexica (Aztec) empire.
The Mexica people were so fond of it that it became their national luxury drink: XOCOLATL – chocolate.
Cocoa beans circulated as money in the buzzing markets of the old Mexican city and throughout the rest of the country. The population treated the beans with the same adoration as we treat today market values like oil, gold or diamonds in the stock market. Quills filled with gold dust – the conquistadors report - were also used as an exchange medium by the Mexica, but these were not as highly regarded nor had the common acceptance or the utility of cacao beans.
The Spaniards were also the first ones to witness and to record how servants brought the Mexica ruler, Moctezuma “in cup-shaped vessels of pure gold, a certain drink made from cacao”.
Like I said, it is not by sheer accident that luxury dust seems to rub off each time we get our hands on a piece of good chocolate.
COCOMAYA, a new chocolate establishment which has just opened in London, seems to know all of the above and I was most impressed by it during my first – of many more to come – visit to this little gem of chocolate perfection in central London, earlier this week.
It is a luxurious dust of decadence that rubs off the golden cups and saucers they use to serve their delicious hot chocolate in. Drinking from those cups you feel pampered like a present day Moctezuma.
The drop scones with cream and jam were light like puffy clouds and its size – which many may find petite – was, I found, most pertinent. Their small, almost bite size pastries, were delicious and perfect as an accompaniment.
It was also the Spaniards who first noted, back in the XVI century, that water doesn’t taste better than when drunk after a good cup of hot chocolate.
The jug of water we were treated to by Jane, at COCOMAYA’s discretion, was truly a sublime way to complete my visit. Flower petals, mint leaves, fresh raspberries and citron slices turned a simple jug of H2O into a drink of Perignon proportions.
COCOMAYA, chocolate doesn’t taste better than this!
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COCOMAYA (£16 for 2 people) 12 Connaught Street - London W2 2BS
photos and text - © Jesús Montero
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