Audio Postcard: Ode to Sweetness

Aztecs making Chocolate in 1671 (from the Mariners' Museum)

Here's a song I've been listening to a lot lately, which comes from the INAH-Fonoteca Mexican Music series. This particular album, La Dulcería Mexicana (Mexican sweets) compiles songs from all over Mexico that deal with one fabulous topic: candy. 

This album not only lets you sample lots of varieties of sweet regional music—it illustrates what is already musical about sweets. Their names (cocadas, champurrados, charamuscas, bombones) for example, are sung over and over again on some tracks, imitating the way that the street vendors called pregoneros hawk their wares through something resembling song.

This song, "El Chocolalerolero," is sweetest of all because it talks about reminiscing with loved ones over hot, sweetened beverages. I'm posting it here so you can enjoy it before Starbucks gets their hands on it.