Migration March: Red Colour From The Amazon To The World

Coffee often leads us to unexpected stories, details revealing impactful stories of people, landscapes, and deep-rooted histories stretching across continents. In this story, a small red seed has evolved in the Amazon and then travelled the world.

Meet Annatto (Bixa orellana)—a red seed known for its earthy, nutty flavor and striking color. Our journey with it began in the Amazon, where indigenous communities have been using it for cooking, body painting, medicine, and even as an insect repellent for countless generations. But to our surprise, we found it again in Panamanian cuisine, then later in Espírito Santo, Brazil. How did this Amazonian seed travel across thousands of kilometers of rainforest, mountains, and oceans?

The answer lies in centuries of migration and trade—long before European ships arrived on American shores and long after they altered the course of history.

Before Columbus set foot in the Caribbean, the Americas were already a world in motion. Indigenous trade routes connected the Amazon to the Andes, the Andes to Mesoamerica, and Mesoamerica to the Caribbean. Annatto traveled along these pathways, moving with traders, healers, and cooks.

The Maya and Aztecs used it to dye sacred drinks like xocoatl—the ancestor of modern chocolate—and to season meats. Further south, it reached the Caribbean and Central America, where it became a staple in local cuisine.

Its journey tells a different story from the European narrative of isolated, “primitive” civilizations. Annatto—like cacao, maize, and chili—was part of an advanced, sophisticated trade network that existed centuries before colonization.

When the Spanish and Portuguese arrived, they didn’t just claim land and resources—they disrupted the entire movement of people and goods. Annatto’s global journey became entangled with one of history’s darkest forces: the transatlantic slave trade.

As enslaved Africans were forced into the Americas, they carried with them their culinary traditions, adapting to new and often hostile environments. In return, New World ingredients—cassava, maize, and Annatto—made their way into West and Central African cuisines.

Today, in Ghana, Togo, and Angola, Annatto appears in soups, stews, and rice dishes, often blended into palm oil—a culinary fusion born from resilience and survival. What was once a seed traded across indigenous networks became part of a painful, yet powerful, legacy of cultural adaptation.

The Spanish, recognizing Annatto´s value as both a dye and a flavoring agent, carried it across the Pacific via the Manila Galleon trade. In the Philippines, it became essential to dishes like Kare-Kare and Pancit Malabon, weaving its way into Southeast Asian cuisine.

From there, it spread further—blending with local spices and ingredients, integrating into dishes across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Annatto´s story proves that migration isn’t a one-way street—it’s a continuous, evolving process of exchange.