Yes! We take heavy metals in cacao very seriously and have been testing long before the recent media attention on the topic.

All of our cacao has close to 0 detectable levels of lead (5-7ppb). Lead is a post harvest contaminant that is introduced onto cacao beans through air and soils pollution. Since we source from remote and pristine regions with exacting standards, we have never had any presence of lead in our cacao tests.

All of our cacao also tests well below the legal limits for cadmium. Cadmium is present in many soils and impacts much of the food that we eat. Even if you were to consume cacao daily and it had the legal limit of cadmium in it, experts estimate that is would contribute at most 10% of your daily cadmium intake that comes from other grains and vegetables.

We've been talking with people daily to assure them that they will not die from heavy metals poisoning because of their love of chocolate. We strongly believe big chocolate needs to be held accountable for poor quality of their products. We're also disappointed that a lot of the recent media didn't contextualize the many cadmium sources people have in their diets (not just cacao), and that there are very large factors of safety that are used to determine the legal limits.

Here's a good third party perspective on the topic: https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/11/despite-spooky-consumer-reports-testing-metals-in-chocolates-arent-scary/

We’ve tested our cacao and it has 36 mg of caffeine per 1 oz serving, or about 1/3 of what a regular cup of coffee has. It sounds like a lot, but 1mg of caffeine in cacao is not equivalent to 1mg of caffeine in coffee, because cacao has many other compounds that balance and down-regulate the caffeine.

The primarily stimulant molecule in cacao is actually theobromine. Ora Cacao has 212mg theobromine per 1oz serving. Theobromine is a mild cardiac stimulant, and differs molecularly from caffeine which is a nervous system stimulant. Theobromine gives a long lasting, gentle, embodied energy without any sort of jitters or crash, even for sensitive people. Overall, theobromine is only about one quarter as stimulating as caffeine, and it has a much longer half life in the liver, meaning that it's effect on the body is softer and longer for sustained energy.

Theobromine is also a vasodilator (it relaxes blood vessels), so it has a neutral effect on blood pressure. The improved circulation from cacao is excellent for cardiac health, and improves absorption of the nutrients in cacao and superfoods that it is paired with.

Ceremonial cacao is a great coffee replacement because it offers a grounded energy boost without the jitters and crash. You can fully or partially substitute your cup of coffee with a cup of cacao. If you are new to cacao we recommend drinking it before 2pm so that the stimulant effect has time to clear before you need to sleep.

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.

If you're concerned about saturated fat from a cardiac health perspective, cacao is actually considered very beneficial for cardiac health despite the "high" level of saturated fat.

That's because there are actually many kinds of saturated fat. Stearic acid is more than half of the saturated fat in cacao, and it doesn't raise LDL cholesterol at all, rather it is converted in the liver to oleic acid, a heart-healthy, monounsaturated fat. Most of the unsaturated fat in cacao is also oleic acid specifically.

Polyphenols in cacao also protect against cholesterol causing plague buildup in arteries. There's been studies done showing that participants getting the majority of their fat from dark chocolate don't get elevated cholesterol levels, yet the same study with milk fats resulted in elevated cholesterol. Hope that's shed's more light on an oversimplified nutrition facts panel!

• Directly sourced from regenerative, organic cacao farms outside of Cusco, Peru
• High good fat content means the health benefits of the cacao powder (minerals, theobromine, flavonols, etc.) are more bioavalable
• Highest quality cacao beans - not from the commodity cacao market
• Rich flavor and higher good fat content makes it amazing for baking, smoothies, etc.