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Hello, I hope you're keeping well. I'm all good here and always wanted to hear from you,

the ancients family. I've had a few messages sent in this week from listeners of suggestions for future episodes, and we've added all of them down. And of course, if you've got any stories

to tell about the ancients and listening to the podcast over the years, well, we'd love to hear

from you, really keen to develop this idea of an ancients community too. Now, with that all being

said, let's get on to today's episode. We figured that it had been long

enough since we last recorded an episode on the weird and wonderful origins of particular

foods and drink. We've done episodes on the origins of wine, the origins of olive oil, and the

origins of beer in the past, and we decided

that it was about time to do the next one. This time, it's the turn of chocolate, and we're off

to Mesoamerica to explore names like the Olmec, the Maya, and even the Aztec. It was really

interesting to hear just how highly valued chocolate or cacao was for these ancient societies.

Now our guest today is Dr Cameron McNeil.

She's an associate professor at the City University of New York.

Cameron dialed in from the US for this chat and I really do hope you enjoy. Let's go.

Chocolate. For so many of us today, it's the sweet treat we can't live without. And its origin

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