Our Story

Kokoleka started with a cup of hot chocolate, a cross-continent travel adventure and a love story

A quest for purpose

In 2018, Carlos, one of our founders, embarked on a cross-continent adventure, leaving San Francisco without a destination in a 1998 Chevy Astro van with one of his best friends. They headed South and spent the next 3 months in various silent retreats, vision questing, and meeting new friends while chasing waves along the Mexican coast.
Eventually, at Hridaya, a silent meditation retreat center in Mazunte, an angel named Lorena introduced him to cacao. She opened her family home to him, where he learned so much about cacao and its roots. One day, Lorena brought Carlos to a wise elder who had a message for him: “Soon, you will meet a great guide. He is old and tall, with long white hair and a beard.”
A few months later, upon his arrival in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, he met his teacher, Keith Wilson, who identically matched the image the elder had described. Shortly after, on one fateful day, he met Krystal in the streets of San Marcos.

Krystal & Carlos worked together tirelessly to bring the ancestral wisdom of cacao to the modern world

From the moment Krystal & Carlos met in 2018, they deeply committed to studying cacao with their teacher, Keith Wilson.
After working quite intensely with Keith to heal and develop a relationship with mama cacao, they were guided to share what they had learned with the world.
So, Carlos invited Krystal to Kaua’i, where he had lived for 2 years before leaving on his quest. Soon, the foundations of Kokoleka Collective started to move through them.
In one beautiful and brief blur, they got guidance on how to best share this powerful seed with the modern world, developed their ceremonial cacao blends, and started offering them at farmer’s markets, events and ceremonies. **The mission to share the ancestral wisdom of cacao with the modern world to empower a collective awakening into love was born.**

The End is a New Beginning

For 5 years, Krystal and Carlos worked and studied intensely to raise Kokoleka to where it is now. They had a blast working in Mexico, Guatemala, Thailand and Kaua’i.

Eventually, Krystal and Carlos decided to take different paths.

Krystal founded the Earth and Spirit Mystery School, while Carlos continued with the Kokoleka Collective mission.

At Kokoleka Collective we feel truly blessed to share cacao with the world in ceremonies, nature immersions, markets, weddings, retreats and trainings. We look forward to deepening on this path and journey with all of you.