Add some spice!
This is a nice flavor if you like a bit of spice in your cacao! Stimulates the fire within!
Estimated back in stock: July 2022
On some days you just need a little extra celebration and motivation, and this pure ceremonial cacao elevates you quickly as our blend of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and cayenne get your circulation pulsing.
Ancient peoples of central & South America loved drinking their chocolate hot and spicy rather than sugary. This is a modern interpretation of ancient Mayan drinking chocolate honoring our Zapotec elder Maria, who taught us the time-honored ways of chocolate making in Oaxaca. Through this enhanced cacao, we connect to the roots of ceremonial cacao with gratitude.
Cacao Beans from Guatemala, Cinnamon from Sri Lanka, Cardamom from Guatemala, Ginger from China, Cayenne from India
Celebratory, Elevating, Warming
Circulatory Support and Community
Chili, Cinnamon, Cardamom (these are tasting notes, not ingredients)
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INFREQUENT USAGE
REGULAR USE
HARD TO MEASURE
ALREADY BLENDED
POOR ABSORPTION
DEEP TISSUE ABSORPTION
GRITTY
AS SMOOTH AS CACAO
STRANGE FLAVOR
DELICIOUS
QUESTIONABLE SOURCING
ORA DIRECT TRADE
Our hearts have been opened and our lives have been transformed through intimate contact with cacao, one of nature’s greatest healing medicines. We hope in our relationship with you, you will receive many gems of wisdom compiled from countless hours in the field, that we hope will deepen your practice, connection and life.
Take a handful of cacao discs (use 5-15 discs, depending on your desired dosage).
Combine with 1/2 cup of 180°F liquid (water, herbal tea or nut milk).
Whisk or blend for 15 seconds. Optionally add sweetener (try maple syrup or raw honey).
Many ceremonial cacao lovers report a notable impact on their mood. There is substantial science that explains why ceremonial cacao is so beneficial. Pure cacao contains beneficial neurotransmitters and neuro-modulators already present in our brain. It also contains reuptake inhibitors that block the pathways that our bodies normally use to break down and recycle these beneficial mood altering molecules, so the good mood lasts for longer. In the long term, regularly working with ceremonial cacao can have therapeutic health benefits, including creating new neural pathways that change our daily experience to include more joy, love, and connection.
Top Molecules in Cacao
Some of the top mood altering molecules in cacao include:
Anandamide is commonly referred to as the bliss molecule, and is associated with the runner’s high effect. It is actually the first endocannabinoid to be discovered, and it is well known for moderating pain. Cacao also has N-linoleoylethanolamine, which is the reuptake inhibitor for anandamide.
Phenylethylamine (PEA) - Helps with excitement, alertness, attention. Gives the perception of time slowing down.
Norepinephrine is commonly referred to as the joy molecule. It is both a neurotransmitter and a hormone,
Serotonin - Helps with wellbeing, and creates resistance to stress. Cacao also has MOA inhibitors that inhibit reuptake of serotonin.
Dopamine - Gives feelings of motivation and pleasure. Cacao also has MOA inhibitors that inhibit reuptake of dopamine.
Due to these molecules and many others, when you drink ceremonial cacao you may feel expansive, blissful, connected to self and/or others, inspired, connected to your intuition & vision, connected to spirit, grounded, emotions arise, and the movement of stuck energy. You can also experience increased blood flow, mood elevation, and a more expanded state of consciousness. Cacao is a vasodilator, meaning your blood vessels and muscular systems relax. When working with ceremonial doses of cacao, blood flow can increase by up to 30%, meaning that more blood (life force energy) is moving through your body and nourishing all of your systems.
We believe cacao has potential as a holistic therapy for depression, and we have encountered the effects of cacao during depressive episodes to be uplifting and stabilizing. It is our sincere hope that someday cacao could become a part of a clinically proven method for treating depression naturally, or as a method for assisting people in reducing their dependence on powerful pharmaceuticals.
Because cacao is contraindicated with SSRIs, many people struggling with depression cannot take cacao because of the SSRI’s they are medicating with. There is potential that people may be able to partially reduce their SSRI medication intake and supplement with ceremonial cacao, however medical studies on this need to be done to establish a verifiable protocol. If you are a medical practitioner and would like to collaborate with us on such a study, please let us know! Because pharmaceutical SSRIs have many side effects and ceremonial cacao is beneficial in so many other ways, we are hopeful that such a protocol would greatly benefit the lives of many people struggling with depression and other mood disorders.
Consuming cacao can replenish minerals vital to our body. Magnesium is chronically deficient in the majority of western diets, and cacao is the highest naturally occurring source. Magnesium is used in all key brain functions, especially memory and concentration. It is also beneficial for the function of the heart, acting to relax blood vessels and decrease strain. Besides magnesium, cacao is also the highest naturally occurring source of chromium, and also high in copper, calcium, manganese, zinc, sulfur, iron, and phosphorus.
Our cacao has been lab tested for safety and meets comprehensive EU standards for absence of heavy metals. In particular all our cacao tests below detectable thresholds for lead, and all our cacao tests below government mandated limits for cadmium. We actually test for 68 different heavy metals, but our focus here is on lead and cadmium as those are of most public discussion.
So why is our cacao so much safer than other chocolate products out there?
Let’s look at cadmium specifically. Cadmium uptake is dependent on many variables, including cacao genotype, cacao tree age, and other trace metals present in the soil. Notably, the more depleted the soil is of other beneficial minerals such such as Zn, Ca, Mg, and Mn, and the younger the trees are, the higher the Cadmium uptake is. Because our cacao sourcing is focused more on quality than quantity, it is not farmed as intensively as the majority of global monoculture cacao production. Rather, our trees tend to be older and within polyculture agroforestry systems with rich soils - all factors that reduce cadmium uptake. The permaculture practices that our farmers use also regularly replenish the soils. So really, cadmium uptake has a substantial amount to do with farm management practices.
It’s also interesting to note that cadmium is first accumulated in leaves, then cacao pod shells, then cacao beans. Proper handling and shelling of cacao beans can remove the husk, which has a higher concentration than the edible part, the bean. We take great care in our cracking and winnowing process to remove as much shell as possible, which also reduces cadmium concentration in the final product. With our recent factory upgrade, we actually acquired a cracker and winnower that is a state of the art German design, used in the chocolate industry for over fifty years! This results in the cleanest cacao nibs possible.
That's okay, you can try them all! Our best selling enhanced ceremonial cacao kit allows you to try all four of our sugar free enhanced cacaos!