Chef Lupita
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Chilate Costeño Afromestizo
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From the Afro-Mexican towns of Guerrero's Costa Chica, this is the ceremonial drink of Cuajinicuilapa and Ometepec: toasted cacao and rice ground on the metate, beaten into a thick foam, and served ice-cold beside a plate of buñuelos.
Beverages
Mexican
Celebration
Special Occasion
Holiday
45 min
Active Time
15 min cook•7 hr total
Yield8 to 10 servings (about 10 cups)
This is from the Costa Chica, the stretch of coast where Guerrero meets Oaxaca, and it belongs to the Afro-Mexican towns strung along it: Cuajinicuilapa, Ometepec, Ayutla, San Marcos. Chilate is theirs. Not Mexico's idea of a chocolate drink. Theirs.
First, what it is not. Chilate is not champurrado. Champurrado is warm and thick, built on masa, drunk from a clay jarro when the cold comes. Chilate is the opposite. It is served ice-cold, it has no masa, and it is toasted cacao, soaked rice, and canela ground together and beaten into a foam thick enough to hold a spoon. Anyone who tells you the two are the same has never sat under a palapa in Cuajinicuilapa with a jícara of chilate sweating in their hand.
The foam is the whole point. On the Costa Chica the women pour the chilate from a height, jícara into jícara, over and over, until a pale cap builds and holds. The cacao and the rice do that together. Take out the rice and you lose the foam. No me vengas con atajos. This drink is ground on the metate, and I will defend that stone until I die. I will also tell you the truth about a blender further down, because I am practical.
I wrote this recipe down in Cuajinicuilapa, sitting with a woman who has made chilate for the church festivals her whole life. She grinds her cacao on the metate her grandmother ground on. She handed it to me ice-cold in a jícara with a plate of buñuelos, the way it has been served at celebrations on this coast for four hundred years. Saber cocinar es saber vivir. On the Costa Chica, knowing how to raise that foam is knowing something the rest of the country never bothered to learn.
Chilate is a foundational drink of Mexico's Afro-descendant communities, whose ancestors were brought to the Pacific coast of Guerrero and Oaxaca as enslaved laborers beginning in the 16th century and who built the Costa Chica towns that endure today. It joins Mesoamerican cacao, which predates the conquest by millennia and once served as both currency and sacred offering, with rice and cane sugar that arrived through colonial trade, and the practice of pouring the drink from a height to raise its foam echoes West African beverage traditions. Mexico did not recognize its Afro-Mexican population in the national constitution until 2020, four centuries late, even though drinks like chilate had anchored the ceremonial and daily life of these communities the entire time.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
raw cacao beans
Quantity
1 cup (about 5 ounces)
toasted on a comal and peeled
white rice
Quantity
1/2 cup
soaked at least 4 hours or overnight and drained
Ceylon cinnamon (canela de Ceilán)
Quantity
2 sticks (about 6 inches total)
piloncillo
Quantity
8 ounces (1 large cone or 2 small), plus more to taste
water
Quantity
10 cups, divided
buñuelos (optional)
Quantity
for serving
ice (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| raw cacao beanstoasted on a comal and peeled | 1 cup (about 5 ounces) |
| white ricesoaked at least 4 hours or overnight and drained | 1/2 cup |
| Ceylon cinnamon (canela de Ceilán) | 2 sticks (about 6 inches total) |
| piloncillo | 8 ounces (1 large cone or 2 small), plus more to taste |
| water | 10 cups, divided |
| buñuelos (optional) | for serving |
| ice (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting the cacao
- •Metate (volcanic grinding stone), or a high-powered blender as the modern substitute
- •Small pot for the piloncillo syrup
- •Fine-mesh strainer or cheesecloth
- •Molinillo or a stiff whisk for raising the foam
- •Jícaras (gourd cups) or tall glasses for serving
Instructions
- 1
Soak the rice
Put the rice in a bowl and cover with cool water by two inches. Soak at least 4 hours, or overnight if you can. Soft rice grinds down smooth and, more important, it is what gives chilate its body and its foam. Drain it well before grinding.
- 2
Toast the cacao
Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-low. Add the cacao beans and toast them 8 to 10 minutes, shaking the pan often. The husks will darken, loosen, and start to crackle, and the kitchen will smell deep and nutty. Do not let them blacken. Burnt cacao turns the whole drink bitter and there is no fixing it. Cool the beans, then rub them between your palms or in a clean cloth to slip off the papery husks. Discard the husks.
The husk should lift away while the bean underneath stays an even brown. If a bean looks scorched or smells acrid, throw it out and toast another. - 3
Melt the piloncillo
Break the piloncillo into chunks. In a small pot, combine it with 1 cup of the water and one of the cinnamon sticks. Simmer over medium heat until the piloncillo fully dissolves into a loose dark syrup, about 10 minutes. Melting it first means no gritty undissolved sugar later. Set it aside to cool.
- 4
Grind on the metate
This is the heart of the drink. On the metate, grind the peeled cacao, the drained rice, and the second cinnamon stick together into a smooth dark paste. Work in small loads and pass everything down the stone again and again until there is no grit between your fingers. The smoother the paste, the thicker the foam. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.
No metate? A high-powered blender is a compromise, not an upgrade. Blend the cacao, rice, cinnamon, and 2 cups of the water until completely smooth, three to four minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides. You lose a little of what the stone gives, but you will get there. - 5
Mix and strain
Scrape the paste into a large pitcher or bowl. Pour in the rest of the water (about 9 cups if you ground by hand, 7 if you used 2 cups in the blender) and the cooled piloncillo syrup, and stir hard until everything dissolves. Strain through a fine sieve or a cloth to catch any grit the grinding left behind. Taste it. Add more piloncillo syrup if you want, but keep your hand light. Chilate is refreshing, not a dessert.
- 6
Chill it down
Refrigerate the chilate until it is ice-cold, at least 2 hours. This part is not negotiable. Chilate is a cold drink. That is its identity, and it is the line between chilate and champurrado. Serve it warm and you have made something else.
- 7
Raise the foam and serve
Just before serving, build the foam. The Costa Chica way is to pour the chilate from a height, from one jícara or pitcher into another, over and over, until a thick pale cap forms and holds. A molinillo spun hard between your palms, or a stiff whisk, will also do it. Pour into jícaras or tall glasses, over a little ice if you like, and spoon the foam on top. Serve ice-cold with a plate of buñuelos. Así se hace y punto.
The foam falls within a few minutes, so raise it at the last moment and serve right away. Never foam it ahead. It will not come back.
Chef Tips
- •Buy raw cacao beans, not cocoa powder and not chocolate. The Costa Chica grows its own; if you live far from there, look for whole criollo or forastero beans at a Mexican grocer or a cacao importer. Cocoa powder skips the toasting and the husk, and you will taste what is missing. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •The word chilate comes from the Nahuatl chilatl, chile and water. This Costa Chica version has no chile in it at all, while other chilates in highland Guerrero do. Same word, two different drinks, and the coast claims this one.
- •Do not leave out the rice and do not strain it off before grinding. The rice is what holds the foam. Cacao on its own will not build that cap. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado, they grind the rice right in with the beans.
- •Use piloncillo, the cones of unrefined cane sugar, not brown sugar and not white. The molasses in piloncillo is part of the flavor of the drink. Brown sugar is a compromise, and chilate will tell on you.
Advance Preparation
- •The rice has to soak at least 4 hours or overnight before you grind it. Plan around that wait.
- •Cacao can be toasted and peeled up to a week ahead and kept in a sealed jar. The base, everything but the foam, can be ground and mixed one day ahead and refrigerated.
- •Raise the foam fresh, right before serving, never in advance. Foamed chilate falls within minutes and will not rebuild. The cold base keeps for two days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 300g)
Calories
280 calories
Total Fat
12 g
Saturated Fat
7 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
4 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
15 mg
Total Carbohydrates
43 g
Dietary Fiber
7 g
Sugars
26 g
Protein
6 g
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