Cacao Curious

How to Incorporate Ceremonial Cacao into your life.

If you’re at all interested in wellness, you’ve most likely heard of a Cacao Ceremony, which are becoming increasingly popular. A Cacao Ceremony is a spiritual ritual that involves a group of people sitting in a circle and drinking Ceremonial Grade Cacao in a sacred setting. The ceremony can include other activities like singing, dancing, sound healing. A facilitator usually leads the ceremony, guiding participants through meditations and reflective exercises.

Ceremonial cacao is in fact different to regular grade cacao or the stuff you get at the grocery store. It has to do with the way it is processed and prepared. Ceremonial Cacao is kept as minimal and pure as possible and has been used as a ceremonial plant medicine for thousands of years through Mayan and Aztec civilisations for its spiritual and physical benefits.

Benefits of Ceremonial Cacao

• High antioxidant food

• Daily does of magnesium per serving (helps give you a better sleep)

• Helps reduce PMS symptoms (I have PMDD so this was my main reason for trying Ceremonial Cacao)

• Helps elevate your mood and give you energy without overstimulating you

• Unlike caffeine, there’s no crash

• Heightened focus and attention which can help with work

• Increased dopamine and serotonin

• Increases mind, body, spirit connection

• Packed with flavonoids which have been showed to help lower blood pressure, improve blood flow to your brain and heart

• Helps inspire creativity and art

• Heightens meditation

I mentioned Vickie Biggs in my previous article 10 Treatments in London for Healing and she has been a huge enthusiast of Keith’s Cacao. I bought this brick after seeing it on her Instagram - the packaging intrigued me! Get yours here.

Turns out, Keith’s Cacao has a serious cult following. Keith’s says: “Providing the world with a connection to cacao plant medicine is our passion. With no additions, no chemicals, and no loss of quality, our 100% pure, Ceremonial Grade Cacao is here to open your heart, focus your mind, and energise your spirit to Bring on Your Magic!

Sourced in Guatemala and working with locals to prepare cacao in the traditional way. Local experience of getting the ‘perfect toast’ over wood-fired stoves goes back many generations, ensuring expert-level techniques that bring out the complex cacao flavours, without burnt taste. Hand peeled and examined twice by our at-home female entrepreneurs and local workshop team, each bean goes through a rigorous inspection in order to remove any low-quality beans or other contaminants. “

This was my first time making my own mug of chocolatey goodness and I wanted to share my findings. You’ll notice that the brick of cacao has a unique pattern - each brick looks completely different.

• It’s quite bitter, so it’s nice to add other flavours such as maple syrup (I always have my own supply from my hometown in Canada), vanilla and cinnamon

• The right serving size is about 20g (I didn’t have a scale, so I couldn’t measure it this time).

  

For my first time, I followed this recipe + warmed up some milk on the stove and added the chocolate mixture into the saucepan. Mixed it together and poured it into a mug. I definitely added too much milk.

Next time I’m going to do it like this:

• Chop up 20g of Keith’s Ceremonial Grade Cacao

• Add Cacao into a saucepan with warm (not boiling water)

• Add vanilla, cinnamon + maple syrup + stir

• The more patient you are, the thicker it gets

• I like milk, so I’ll add a splash of milk in at the end and whisk to get some beautiful froth

Each step of this process should be done mindfully and with gratitude .✨

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Blue Sweater

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Then what?
Once you have your beautiful mug of bliss, you could do yoga, stretch, dance, journal etc. Make sure you set an intention and drink mindfully. Apparently this can replace coffee! I’m excited to keep drinking this and seeing if it makes a difference to how I feel - especially during the dreaded PMS week.

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