Chia Seed

Chia seeds are the edible seeds of Salvia hispanica, a flowering plant in the mint family native to central and southern Mexico, or of several related Salvia species; the seeds are oval and gray with black and white spots, about 1 to 2 millimeters in diameter, and are hygroscopic, absorbing up to twelve times their weight in liquid when soaked and developing a mucilaginous coating that gives chia-based foods and drinks a distinctive gel texture. Evidence suggests the crop was widely cultivated by the Aztecs in pre-Columbian times and was a staple food for Mesoamerican cultures; today chia seeds are cultivated on a small scale in their ancestral homeland of central Mexico and Guatemala, and commercially throughout Central and South America.