What is Ceremonial Cacao?

Whether you’ve had a chance to attend a cacao ceremony or reading this article is the first you are hearing about it, chances are you have questions and, possibly, skepticism.

“What is ceremonial cacao?”

“Is the chocolate in my pantry ceremonial cacao?”

“Is this a capitalistic scheme to sell regular drinking chocolate for $50 a cup?”

All valid questions we will touch on below, so keep reading!

Chocolate + Ceremony = Cacao Ceremony, Right?

You walk into the supermarket, enter the baking section, and pull a bag of cacao powder off the shelf into your cart. You get home & begin to make yourself a cup of hot chocolate. Once it’s ready, you sit on your couch, look out the window and crack open a book to read. This MUST be what is meant when people talk about ceremonial cacao, right? As sweet as this ritual sounds, the process of making ceremonial cacao starts long before purchasing & preparing a cup. 

Ceremonial cacao is traditionally crafted by fermenting and lightly toasting or sun-drying the beans, peeling the skins, and grinding the beans on stone into a paste. This technique ensures that the bean’s natural fat remains intact, offering a sustained balance to the energy received from consuming the cacao. 

Chocolate and cacao powder go through a similar process, however, after being machine-ground into a paste, the natural fats from cacao are extracted to make cacao powder or extracted and then added back in (via milk, butter, etc.), along with sugar and other spices to make the sweet chocolate bars we can purchase in stores. 

Two cacao pods on a cocoa tree.

Seeds and beans in white pulp from the inside of a cacao pod.

The more cacao is processed, the less nutritional value it holds. Ceremonial cacao is loaded with magnesium, antioxidants, flavonoids, and potassium! It also contains more theobromine and less caffeine than traditional cocoa. This offers a much more grounded receptivity and sustainable energy to those who savor the heart-opening medicine it offers. When processed at low temperatures and then fermented, cacao holds all of its potent medicinal qualities intact. 

However, the more heat (in the form of grinding, blending, mixing, or actual hot/boiling temperatures), the more likely it is to slowly lose those medicinal benefits. This is why it is necessary to handle ceremonial cacao with respect every step of the way. From the seeds planted, the pods harvested, the beans fermented, and the paste ground, blended & sent to you, each step of the process is woven with intention that has been cultivated for generations. 

Ceremonial Cacao Means Integrity

Much like a human being, when treated with love, kindness, and respect, will emanate a particular frequency into the world, plants also reflect this in how they are grown, harvested, and processed (and even consumed). 

The families and farmers that grow ceremonial cacao were taught by their parents and elders, as their parents and elders were taught by theirs, and so on. Ceremonial cacao is not just about the land, it is about the people and traditions as well. Sustainable practices such as fair trade certification (meaning non-slavery sourced labor) and non-hybridization (meaning no monocropping is taking place) are two of the ways to ensure the quality of cacao is ceremonial and that these traditions remain honored and protected. 

Pruning and caring for baby cacao trees (a form of evergreens).

Cacao is considered ceremonial when sustainable practices are integrated into every step to ensure that the finished product has been handled with love and integrity. Most cacao and chocolate bought in stores do not meet these standards and is often sourced from slave labor and monocrops. Be sure to check your cacao sources and ask your ceremonial cacao provider about their practices to ensure you are truly purchasing ethically sourced ceremonial cacao, as some companies cut corners to make a profit.

Has cacao always been ceremonial?

Cacao is considered to be the “Food of the Gods” by the Mayans because they believe that cacao was a gift from the astral realms of immortal beings. They also believe cacao came to humanity to help us open up our hearts. There is an indigenous proverb that says:

“When mankind gets out of harmony with the natural world, cacao  comes from the rainforest to open people’s hearts and re-establish the balance”

We believe cacao has made its way into popular culture in recent years because of this very reason. Although cacao has been used ceremonially by the Mayans, Aztecs, and Olmecs for millennia, much of the ancestral wisdom of cacao has been erased from our history books and memories through colonization, the spread of religions such as catholicism, and modernization. 

Many of the remaining traditions, lineages, and wisdom have been hidden, protected, and kept from the modern world, for many reasons. It wasn’t until the last 20 years that we began to discover the existence of ceremonial cacao, its uses, history, and benefits in the modern world. Our teacher, Keith Wilson, coined the “Chocolate Shaman”, has been credited with bringing cacao to the modern world, in the way we know it today. He is the person responsible for re-creating the “Cacao Ceremony” in a way that the modern world can relate to, and adopt. 

Preparing for a meditation at a cacao ceremony hosted by Kokoleka Collective

The Energy of Ceremony

The energetic quality of ceremonial cacao is quite unique. When making the conscious choice to sit with ceremonial cacao, you are directly communicating to yourself that you are ready to connect with a powerful, masterful plant spirit.

Ceremony is a time to be with one’s whole self, without judgment, without criticism, and with unconditional love. A ceremony brings up whatever one needs to address and experience to remember how to live in their fullness. As with all powerful plant spirits such as cacao, much can come up in your life from sitting with just one cup of cacao.

Each time you sit with a cup, new pieces of yourself may be brought to the surface. What situations in your life are asking you to open your heart? What are you ready to integrate into your life? Are parts of you being pushed down or locked away? Can you make space for them? Ceremonial cacao unlocks the door to the heart and brings everything forward.

Through drinking ceremonial cacao that is fair-trade and sustainably sourced, the heart can rest at ease knowing that the key elements of love, intention, and integrity are kept intact and with a little extra loving intention from your heart, your savoring of and communing with cacao can expand upon those qualities within your very own being.