Ceremonial CHOCOLATE

In my DNA, a medicine-woman with gratitude for cacao beans. Cacao is the chocolate before it is processed. I spent this week looking around Medellin for a specific cacao grade to feed my creative flow and spirit.

" Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive."
~Joanne Handres

It’s thought cacao was first used as a health elixir and ceremonial medicine as far back as 1900 BC by the ancestors of Central America, the Olmec people, before becoming a ritualistic medicine used by the Aztec and Mayan cultures. Signifying both life and fertility, it was ingested by Royalty in ceremonial God worship and in sacrificial ritual.

CACAO IS ASSOCIATED WITH UNIVERSAL LOVE – WHY IS THIS? IS THIS WHY WE GIFT CHOCOLATE TO OUR LOVERS?
Due to certain ingredients that help release ‘feel good’ emotions, in the right doses cacao is considered a heart opener.