Olivers wrote:

Bob (this one) extrapolated from data available...



I'll give you honey, but vanilla is a stretch for being a sweetener.


Tell Jennings that Ole Moctezuma probably had about 10,000 nekkid maidens
(tribal tribute, bound for the altar and the dinner table) out at
Xochimilco straining the sweet nectar out of the banks of honeysuckle along
the road.

Shoot, if it's fiction, make it colorful.

I do want to try chocolate in atole which was sort a national
dish/soup/porridge of the region, a corn kernel starchy pulp belnd which
would have been at least semisweet for a short period in each corncob's
life cycle.

From 'Historic Cookery'

Champurrado:

To 2 cups of (prepared) atole or polvillo add two squares spiced
chocolate or Mexican chocolate dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water.
Sweeten to taste.

Polvillo is toasted flour gruel:

Toast wheat flour in the oven until brown.

6 tbs browned flour
4 tsp cold water
2 C boiling water
White or brown sugar to taste

Dissolve flour in cold water, pour into boiling water and cook
thoroughly



The modern horchata and the popular "liquados", fruit shakes, of mexico
provide some concept ofg the availabilities for Aztec dining (beyond
tribute tribesfolk, solving the local protein deficiency.

TMO

Dunno about the horchata. Mexican horchata is made with white rice,
which would have come with the Spanish.