We've sourced beautiful Peruvian cacao and infused it with organic lion's mane extract to create an extra large 14-ounce bar of delicious 100% ceremonial grade drinking chocolate.
Opening Our Minds + Creativity Tonic
Lion's Mane brings awareness and clarity while cacao enlivens creativity and inspiration. Work with this pair to support mindfulness practice, productivity, receptivity, and visioning.
Taking It All In
As a morning (or anytime!) beverage: the uplifting, energizing, grounding, enlivening, creativity-inspiring medicine of cacao lends itself well to morning rituals. Try half a square (about 1/2 ounce) stirred or blended into hot water, perhaps sweetened with honey or maple syrup. It's easy to shave off your desired amount using a kitchen knife, then either melt it into hot water or use a blender for extra frothiness. Each bar contains 16 squares.
In ceremony: Visit our Ceremony Guidance page for preparation, dosage, inspiration for crafting your ceremony, and contraindications
What is ceremonial grade cacao?
At a fundamental level, ceremonial grade cacao is about respect—of the cacao tree's medicine, of the farmers who grow the cacao, of the people who transport the cacao beans, of the chocolatiers who form the beans into bars, and of our intentions when we bring the cacao into our bodies.
Much of the chocolate available for purchase today has been highly processed—the fats and solids separated and later recombined in varying proportions, with one bar of chocolate sometimes containing cacao from different regions of the world and multiple additives. The global chocolate trade does not acknowledge the sacred healing power of plants.
But we know that plants are our elders and teachers—living, conscious beings with spirits, medicine, and messages for our world. The heart of healing with plants is the willingness to develop relationship with the plants themselves. And meaningful relationships are built upon respect.
Our ceremonial grade cacao is pure, 100% cacao bean that has been carefully fermented, roasted, ground, and formed into a bar. There are no added sweeteners or emulsifiers.
Honoring the Origins of Working with Cacao
Indigenous cultures have long understood that plants are sentient, living, and conscious beings that have been alive on this earth longer than humans and are thus our ancestors. Anytime we relate to an elder who embodies wisdom, compassion, and generosity, it satisfies one’s spirit to come calling in an attitude of reverence, respect, and humility. This is how we come to cacao, and all plants. This is what we mean by creating ceremony with cacao.
In the places on earth where cacao is born and lives, the peoples who dwell alongside cacao have understandably known, loved, and worked with cacao’s spirit and medicine for a very long time—deep into history. The ceremonies, medicine ways, and creation myths of the indigenous Olmec, Aztec, Mayan, and Zapotec peoples often center cacao. But much has been lost—the forceful colonization of the Americas by Europeans tore irreparable holes into vast lineages of connection with the plant folk of the Americas. There are contemporary indigenous people still carrying these medicine traditions forward and cacao is an important part of Maya culture today, woven into midwifery, wedding ceremonies, and special gatherings.
It is important to understand that when westerners create ceremony with cacao it is independent of these ancient lineages. What is shared in common are the teachings that come directly from the spirit of cacao.
Our Sourcing
Ucayali River Cacao has partnered with cocoa farmers along the Ucayali River outside the Peruvian city of Pucallpa, Peru. Many of the farmers only means of transporting cacao is by small boat along the river. Farmers are paid a premium price for fresh cacao that is opened the morning of pick-up and loaded into fermentation boxes by nightfall. Ucayali River Cacao is sun dried in a central fermentation area using elevated drying racks. We then work with chocolatiers who form the pure cacao paste into bars infused with our lion's mane mushroom extract.
Our lion's mane extract comes from fruiting bodies only and is organically cultivated. A minimum of 25% (1,3)(1,6) beta glucans are guaranteed. These beta glucans are special polysaccharides with a triple-helix form that give medicinal mushrooms many of their healing properties. This is not a mycelium-based mushroom extract powder and thus does not contain grains or fillers of any kind.
Our cacao is tested at the source and confirmed to be heavy metal safe.
How is this different than cacao powder?
Cacao powder, even when organic, has had all of the healthy fats (called cacao butter) removed. This is not whole plant medicine. The cacao butter is what grounds the upward and outward flowing energy of the cacao. Too much cacao powder can leave us feeling spacey and ungrounded. Whole cacao carries us through the experience of its medicine in a more wholesome, nourishing way.