What is Ceremonial Cacao?

Ceremonial-grade cacao is not a certification. It is a way of producing cacao that seeks to select only the best-quality cacao and produce it in a way that respects the land, the plant, and every person involved in the process from the tree to your cup. The intention with which this cacao is produced is the essence of what it means to be a grade above all others.

Find and select the highest-quality cacao beans available. We use only heirloom cacao strains that have been protected from the genetic modification that has made most contemporary cacao low-quality, with decreased nutritional potency, inferior aromatic properties, and an overall worse taste. We find and select only Arriba Nacional cacao from Ecuador, which is widely held to be some of the finest cacao available in the modern world. We do not believe that the origin and genetics of the plant make little difference, as some claim. It is abundantly clear throughout the natural world that certain plant genetics and land quality yield much higher-quality food. Cacao is no different. We’ve searched many places to find the best cacao available, and we are confident we have found it. 

Learn more about the storied Arriba Nacional cacao.

This focus on quality runs contrary to what other cacao producers may value.

So-called 100% cacao and chocolate products often add emulsifiers or other vegetable fats to stretch production and produce a more beautiful product. However, we add nothing to our cacao, and maintain a process that ensures no valuable nutrients are stripped away. Similarly, 100% cacao powders strip the natural fats from the cacao to make separate valuable cacao butter from the cacao solids. This is simply not whole cacao and the does not maintain the nutrient profile of our ceremonial-grade cacao products. Still worse, a high-heat roast and alkalinization process are often employed in mass cacao products, which do soften some of the natural bitterness of cacao, but destroy the nutritional properties that true, whole cacao provides.

Make sure that the cacao is raised on biodiverse farms that regenerate the land as they grow the food, not destroy the land. All of our farms practice organic agroforestry and polyculture, meaning that they use only traditional growing techniques without modern fertilizers, grow their cacao within the existing forest so as to not strip the soil of vital nutrients, and grow amongst other plants including tropical fruits and flowers, which impart their own aromatics on the cacao through nutrient exchange in the soil. This is an extremely costly and time-intensive way of doing things that is completely absent from most commercially-available cacao products. However, the nutrition, flavor, and soil regeneration this farming standard brings results in unparalleled cacao quality. Furthermore, raising cacao in this fashion protects the biome of other non-human forest-dwellers, as well as maintaining the land for future subsistence living.

Treat all workers in the value-chain with respect. We are direct-trade partners with all of our producers. We pay above-fairtrade prices for their crop and give back through direct-cash profit sharing and community initiatives to aid in the development of their farms and general infrastructure. Where ceremonial-grade seeks to ensure quality and nurture the land, it also seeks to nurture all the hands that participate in the process. This means that every farmer and every worker, all the way to the mailperson who picks it up from our store. is included as a valued link in an unbroken chain of respect, fairness, and gratitiude. The chain ends with you, completing the cycle of intention from plant to person.

As the chain ends with you, the final fulfillment of the ceremonial-grade intention is that the cacao is taken in as a vital force, a food to nourish your body, mind, and spirit. All the hands of the process intend for the cacao to be taken as an impactful food to increase your holistic wellness—whether nutritionally, spiritually, or socially. We only ask that you sip your cup with your own intention, whether gratitude for the food, itself, or with some other personal goal in mind. A moment for ceremonial cacao is a moment to connect to your world, to yourself, and to those around you. Enjoy!