Chocolate, which comes from the cacao tree, or Theobroma Cacao, has a lesser-known relative, Theobroma Bicolor, also known as pataxte or jaguar tree. Although rarely seen outside its native South and Central America, pataxte is an essential ingredient in a ceremonial Oaxacan drink called chocolate-atole. Throughout the year, Oaxacans harvest pataxte seeds and bury them underground to ferment for one or two years for preservation. After they are dug up, washed, and sun dried on woven palm bedrolls, the beans turn white, delicate, and chalk-like. For this reason, pataxte is…
