Mayan Thunder makes its debut

There is always a special excitement around a new product: all that thought, planning, research, testing, design. This time it is something a bit different for bruce’s best, a beverage instead of a bonbon. The idea has been on the back burner for over a year, but now with hot summer weather on the way (and sometimes here already), it seems a perfect time for a debut.

My goal in creating Mayan Thunder was to formulate a delicious chocolate energy drink that would be as close as possible to the chocolate beverages invented in ancient Mesoamerica. To that end, I knew from the start that chocolate and chile would be the main flavors. Then I began to add in other ingredients to achieve the texture and flavor profiles I wanted while at the same time preserving the Mexican theme. The original chocolate beverages—and some modern ones as well—contained a viscous tropical vine extract added to produce the coveted foam that was at the heart of the chocolate experience. That vine extract is unavailable here, as far as I know, but I do have a nifty substitute that is derived from maize, the quintessential American grain. Xanthan gum is my modern ingredient, and it helps me achieve not foam exactly, but a rich mouth-feel without added fat. Coconut was not known to the ancients, but it is of course a very popular modern ingredient, and it adds richness without milk products.

Dried hibiscus flower infusion—modern aqua de flor de jamaica—has just the fruitiness I wanted, and is famously refreshing and tonic. So while hibiscus was not available to the ancestors, their descendants took to it right away when it was introduced, making it very much their own soft drink. It is fun to imagine the first shipment of dried hibiscus arriving on the Manila Galleon in the port city of Manzanilla in 1556, only a few decades after the Conquest. But perhaps hibiscus arrived in the Islands first, since Mexicans call it Jamaica flower. And hibiscus tea is popular in the Middle East and North Africa as well, and therefore was inevitably introduced at some point into Spain. So hibiscus tea may have come to the New World first from Europe rather than from its native Asia. Hard to say. But flor de jamaica is so much a part of Mexico today, that I am proud to include it in Mayan Thunder.

My sweetener is among the most exciting ingredients for several reasons. First, agave nectar is produced from the sap collected from the heart of mature magueys, using millennia-old methods. To this day the locals harvest the sap, now called aquamiel, for production of the famous beer pulque. But only since the 1990s has some of this juice been minimally processed and evaporated to form a delicious syrup. I am delighted to have agave nectar available for Mayan Thunder because it is a quintessentially American product, and because its pure flavor makes it more desirable than honey. And it’s extraordinarily low glycemic index—a remarkable 32 to honey’s 58—means that agave nectar is considered an appropriate ingredient in a healthy diet, a secret to long-term health, reducing the risk of heart disease and diabetes and aiding sustainable weight loss. Because of the favorable fructose ratio, agave nectar is generally rated at 1.4 times the sweetness of sugar. So I can introduce fewer calories and promise slow release without sugar spikes. Not bad!

We start test marketing Mayan Thunder next week, and I will keep you posted on its progress. I placed a page marker at www.mayanthunder.com. The web site will grow as the product does. Please watch this space and the web site for updates!

Tagschocolate, chocolate energy drink