Melt Chocolates

Melt Chocolates London's Most Luxurious Chocolate Boutique. Holland Park, Notting Hill, Selfridges, Kings Road

Handmade Chocolates from Notting Hill
Ship Globally - Stunning Designer Packaging (plastic-free)
Zero emissions electric van for same-day delivery in London
London's Most Luxurious Chocolates: Notting Hill, Selfridges, Kings Rd & Holland Park Boutiques.

22/06/2026

We've recreated Aztec hot chocolate, and honestly, it's nothing like the powdered chocolate drinks most of us grew up with.

The Aztecs were the masters of chocolate.

They combined cacao with ingredients like chilli, vanilla, and achiote, creating drinks that were rich, complex, aromatic, and deeply satisfying.

After trying the full range of historical Aztec recipes, one thing became clear: modern instant hot chocolate is a pale imitation of the original.

The difference is night and day.

If you handed a mug of powdered hot chocolate to the Aztec emperor **Montezuma**, we're not convinced he'd be impressed.

In fact, he might have thought you'd ruined chocolate altogether.

The original drinks were bold, frothy, spicy, and so enjoyable that historical accounts claim Montezuma drank dozens of cups a day.

And after tasting them, we can understand why.

Watch the full video on YouTube - link in bio.

Follow for more stories from the history of chocolate.

22/06/2026

Can chocolate make you hallucinate?

Not in the way people often imagine.

But chocolate is one of the world’s most fascinating psychoactive foods.

Cacao contains compounds that interact with the body and brain, including theobromine, caffeine, phenylethylamine, and molecules that influence our endocannabinoid system. Some researchers have even described these compounds as chemical “echoes” of stimulants, antidepressants, and cannabinoids.

The important point is dosage.

These compounds exist at very low levels, which means their effects are subtle. You aren’t going to eat a piece of chocolate and experience a psychedelic trip.

But chocolate can alter mood, increase alertness, improve blood flow, and create feelings of pleasure and wellbeing.

Perhaps that’s one reason why so many cultures regarded cacao as special.

The Aztecs considered cacao sacred, serving it in elaborate ceremonies and associating it with wealth, power, and the divine. Historical accounts even describe Emperor Montezuma drinking large quantities of cacao each day.

Chocolate may not be a psychedelic in the modern sense.

But it is one of the few foods we consume that contains naturally occurring psychoactive compounds, which helps explain why humans have been fascinated by it for thousands of years.

Watch the full video on YouTube — link in bio.

Follow for more stories from the history, science, and culture of chocolate.

CacaoCulture MeltChocolates

22/06/2026

Is your favourite chocolate bar actually a lie? Welcome to the first episode of our brand-new "Chocolate News" format here on The Chocolate Channel!

Today, we are going "live" to the front lines of a global genetic heist. For 200 years, the food industry has been "burning the library of flavor," replacing ancient, complex cocoa with a sugar-coated monoculture. We’re breaking down the shocking "Potato Parallel"—how the same genetic mistake that caused the Irish Potato Famine is currently threatening the future of your dessert.

Join our investigative deep-dive into:

The Genetic Fraud: Why 95% of the world’s chocolate is technically a "genetic comic book."
The Aztec Standard: Why the Emperors of old would be horrified by your local grocery store shelf.
The Mother of God: Our search for the "extinct" Chuno and the scientists "un-burning the books" in the Amazon.
We are uncovering the 1,000-year-old flavors that were almost lost to history. This is chocolate, but not as you know it. It’s a detective story 500 years in the making.

🚨 NEW STYLE ALERT! We are experimenting with this "Chocolate News" investigative style to bring you deeper, faster, and sharper insights into the world of gourmet cocoa. Do you enjoy this new format? Does it help you see your chocolate bar differently?

Comment below and let us know—your feedback helps us shape the future of this channel!

Subscribe to our Substack for more in-depth articles about chocolate history. https://substack.com/

Browse our chocolate collection, hand-made made by top chocolatiers in London, Notting Hill. https://meltchocolates.com/

Follow us on Instagram / melt_chocolates

22/06/2026

Did the Inca drink chocolate? 🍫🏔️

Most history books focus on the Maya and the Aztecs when talking about cacao. But what about the Inca?

In this episode of The Chocolate Podcast, we explore a question that often gets overlooked: what role did chocolate play in Inca society?

Search online and you'll often find simple answers that suggest cacao wasn't a significant part of the Inca world. But history is rarely that straightforward.

After travelling through Peru, visiting cacao-growing regions, speaking to local experts, and searching for some of the world's rarest chocolate, we found a much more nuanced story.

While discussions about the Inca often focus on coca, roads, agriculture, and mountain engineering, cacao has its own fascinating place in the story.

And for us, that journey led to something extraordinary: the discovery of some of the most beautiful and sought-after chocolate we've ever tasted.

Sometimes the most interesting historical stories are the ones everyone else misses.

Click the link in our bio to listen to the full episode or watch it on YouTube. Follow for more chocolate stories.

19/06/2026

The Aztecs were the GOATs of hot chocolate.

Long before coffee houses and cappuccinos, the Aztecs had already mastered the art of the chocolate drink.

They created frothy hot chocolate by pouring cacao between vessels to build a thick foam on top, often considered the most desirable part of the drink.

They flavoured it with ingredients like vanilla and chilli, creating combinations that still work beautifully today.

And according to Spanish accounts, the Aztec emperor Montezuma II was served cacao in fine cups as part of courtly life.

What fascinates us is that their chocolate was incredibly sophisticated.

Foamed.
Spiced.
Aromatic.
Complex.

In many ways, the hot chocolate we drink today is a distant descendant of those original cacao drinks.

The Aztecs weren't just drinking chocolate.

They were perfecting it.

Watch the full video on YouTube - link in bio.

Follow for more stories from the history of chocolate.

18/06/2026

Pirates didn't just drink chocolate. They ate it for breakfast.

One of the most unusual historical recipes we've come across comes from William Hughes, a sailor, writer, and keen observer of life in the Caribbean.

His solution?

Chocolate porridge.

The recipe starts with stale bread crusts, a practical way of using up food that would otherwise go to waste. Add a little sugar, nutmeg, spices, and chunks of unsweetened chocolate, then gently heat everything together until it thickens into a rich, hearty porridge.

Why chocolate?

Because cacao is incredibly energy dense, stores well, and was ideal for long sea voyages. For sailors spending months at sea, it was the perfect ration.

The result is somewhere between hot chocolate and porridge. Spiced, warming, slightly bitter, and surprisingly familiar. It reminded us a little of Ready Brek, albeit with a distinctly pirate twist.

Would we eat it every day?

Probably not.

But as a glimpse into how sailors consumed chocolate hundreds of years ago, it's fascinating.

Watch the full video on YouTube - link in bio.

Follow for more stories from the history of chocolate.

17/06/2026

Who had the better menu?

The Spanish arriving with hard tack biscuits, gruel, and preserved rations…

Or the Aztecs with chocolate, vanilla, chilli, tomatoes, spirulina, and one of the most sophisticated food cultures on Earth?

When Europeans first encountered the Aztec world, they discovered ingredients that would eventually transform global cuisine. Chocolate and vanilla alone would go on to become multi-billion-dollar industries.

The Aztecs weren’t simply eating to survive.

They were creating complex flavour combinations, frothing chocolate into luxurious drinks, pairing cacao with vanilla and chilli, and cultivating an astonishing diversity of foods.

It’s easy to think of history as a one-way transfer of knowledge from Europe to the Americas.

In reality, many of the ingredients we treasure today were gifts from the Americas to the rest of the world.

Chocolate.
Vanilla.
Chilli.

Without them, modern food would look very different.

Watch the full video on YouTube — link in bio.

Follow for more stories from the history of chocolate and the cultures that first made it extraordinary.

ChocolateLovers MeltChocolates

17/06/2026

The Aztecs were the GOATs of hot chocolate.

Long before coffee houses and cappuccinos, the Aztecs had already mastered the art of the chocolate drink.

They created frothy hot chocolate by pouring cacao between vessels to build a thick foam on top, often considered the most desirable part of the drink.

They flavoured it with ingredients like vanilla and chilli, creating combinations that still work beautifully today.

And according to Spanish accounts, the Aztec emperor Montezuma II was served cacao in fine cups as part of courtly life.

What fascinates us is that their chocolate was incredibly sophisticated.

Foamed.
Spiced.
Aromatic.
Complex.

In many ways, the hot chocolate we drink today is a distant descendant of those original cacao drinks.

The Aztecs weren’t just drinking chocolate.

They were perfecting it.

Watch the full video on YouTube — link in bio.

Follow for more stories from the history of chocolate.

Montezuma MeltChocolates

16/06/2026

What makes ceremonial cacao different from supermarket chocolate?

It starts with the cacao itself.

In cacao ceremonies, people typically use 100% pure cacao, not highly processed chocolate filled with sugar, emulsifiers, and additives.

Ceremonial cacao refers not just to the ingredients, but to the way the cacao is grown, prepared, and shared. Traditional methods often involve hand processing, stone grinding, and practices that have been passed down through generations.

At the heart of many cacao traditions is the belief that how food is prepared matters. The care, intention, and community around the process are just as important as the cacao itself.

For many people, cacao ceremonies create a space to slow down, connect with others, and step away from the distractions of everyday life.

It’s not just about drinking chocolate.

It’s about creating an environment that encourages presence, reflection, and connection.

Watch the full video on YouTube — link in bio.

Follow for more stories about cacao, chocolate, and their cultural history.

MeltChocolates

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