Grupo Modelo to Build New Plant in México

by Murry Page
19 Jan 15
mazmessenger.com

Grupo Modelo announced the construction of a new plant in México, which will increase its production capacity by eight percent. The new plant will be the company’s eighth plant in México and it is estimated to cost 2.2 billion pesos ($151.1 million).

Rolando Zapata, the Governor of Yucatán, said the new plant would be constructed in the town of Hunucmá and that it will start construction this year. Hunucmá is located about 35 km (20 m.) from Merida.

Ricardo Tadeu, a Member of Executive Board of Management and Zone President of México at Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, told reporters the plant will have a production capacity of 5 million hectoliters (132.1 billion gallons) in annual terms and the possibility to increase to 15 million hectoliters in the coming years.

“For us it is very important because it will be our eighth plant in México and we have every intention of continuing to grow in the region,” he said.

Currently the company produces brands such as Corona, Modelo, Montejo, among others, and has an annual production of 60 million hectoliters, and expect the new plant in Mérida to increase that to 75 million hectoliters.

(from Milenio)

Archaeologists found traces of 2,500-year-old chocolate in the Yucatan Peninsula

theyucatantimes.com

Back in 2012,  archaeologists found ancient chocolate residue on a plate, rather than a cup.

Experts have long thought cacao beans and pods were mainly used in pre-Hispanic cultures as a beverage, made either by crushing the beans and mixing them with liquids or fermenting the pulp that surrounds the beans in the pod. Such a drink was believed to have been reserved for the elite.

But the discovery announced 2 years ago by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History expands the envelope of how chocolate may have been used in ancient Mexico. It would also suggest that there may be ancient roots for traditional dishes eaten in today’s Mexico, such as mole, the chocolate-based sauce often served with meats.

Cacao Beans and Pods

“This is the first time it has been found on a plate used for serving food,” archaeologist Tomas Gallareta said. “It is unlikely that it was ground there (on the plate), because for that they probably used metates (grinding stones).”

The traces of chemical substances considered “markers” for chocolate were found on fragments of plates uncovered at the Paso del Macho archaeological site in Yucatan in 2001.

The fragments were later subjected to tests with the help of experts at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, as part of a joint project. The tests revealed a “ratio of theobromine and caffeine compounds that provide a strong indicator of cacao usage”, according to a statement by the university. “These are certainly interesting results,” John Henderson, a Cornell University professor of Anthropology and one of the foremost experts on ancient chocolate, said.

Cacao Harvest in the Yucatan

Cacao Plant

Prof Henderson, who was not involved in the Paso del Macho project, said “the presence of cacao residues on plates is even more interesting … the important thing is that it was on flat serving vessels and so presented or served in some other way than as a beverage”. “I think their inference that cacao was being used in a sauce is likely correct, though I can imagine other possibilities,” he added, citing possibilities like “addition to a beverage (cacao-based or other) as a condiment or garnish”.

The plate fragments date to about 500 BC and are not the oldest chocolate traces found in Mexico. Beverage vessels found in excavations of Gulf coast sites of the Olmec culture, to the west of the Yucatan, and other sites in Chiapas, to the south, have yielded traces around 1,000 years older.

But it does extend the roots of Mexican cuisine, and the importance of chocolate, further back into the past. “This indicates that the pre-Hispanic Maya may have eaten foods with cacao sauce, similar to mole,” the anthropology institute said.

Source: http://www.express.co.uk/