Ceremonial Cacao; my love, my passion: What you should know about this amazing medicine, and my personal recipe

Hello, hello beautiful Steemian!

I hope you’re having a beautiful day today. Sending you some love and light to help make it even better!

Another thing that always makes my days a little bit brighter, is CHOCOLATE! But not just any chocolate… Ceremonial Cacao.

Ceremonial cacao is not like your average cup of hot chocolate. No, no, no….Ceremonial Cacao is MEDICINE. A medicine that helps to open up your heart space, energize you, and boost your mood….it just happens to also be delicious!

About two years ago, I had no idea what cacao was. I didn't even know there was a difference between the hot cocoa (“co-co”) I used to drink as a child, and this raw, organic, dark chocolate drink we call cacao (“ca-cow”). But then I went to my first Cacao Ceremony, and learned first-hand the beautiful benefits of this magical medicine. And then, about a year later, I travelled to Guatemala where I began working with Keith, the Cacao Shaman, and I dove even deeper into my relationship with this incredible heart-opening medicine. Since then, I’ve began dedicated a lot of my life to working with cacao, and sharing its magic with the world. I’ve begun putting on my own cacao ceremonies all over Thailand, including a number of music festivals, and working with cacao has become one of my biggest passions in life.

I’ll speak more about my experiences in Guatemala and how I began working with cacao and leading ceremonies in a future blog post, but for now, I just want to highlight some of the main benefits of this super food, and share my personal recipe with you so that you can start experiencing the magic for yourself!

_{Me and two friends, putting on a cacao ceremony}

So, what is cacao, and what does it do?

• Organic, raw cacao is a SUPERFOOD. The Aztecs regarded cacao as a sacred plant, and cacao beans were used as a means of currency and trade. It is known to them as "the food of the gods", and some have referred to it as a "love drug" for its ability to boost mood and create similar feelings to that of "falling in love".
• Cacao is the highest plant-based source of iron you can find
• Cacao is jam-packed with healthy minerals and antioxidants to help boost the immune system; it has 20 times more than a serving a blueberries
• It is a great source of magnesium, vitamin C, and calcium for a healthy brain, heart and overall well-being.
• Cacao is a natural anti-depressant and mood elevator! It contains a neurotransmitter called Anandamine, which, when released in the body creates feelings of euphoria and bliss, and blocks feelings of pain and depression. It also helps the body to produce more serotonin and endorphins, helping you to feel great! Anandamine is taken from the Sanskirt word ananada which means "joy, bliss, or delight"Source
• Cacao is referred to as a “heart-medicine”: What does that mean?
  Cacao contains a chemical compound called “theobromine” which actually opens up our capillaries, our blood-vessels. So when we drink cacao, it sends more blood rushing to our hearts, and can literally make your heartspace feel more warm, and open, and activated. The effects are often subtle, but when you pair drinking cacao with meditation, or other mindful activities that help help you go inward and become more aware of your body and sensations, the effects can become very powerful.
• Plus, because cacao increases your mood, helps your to produce more endorphins, increases your overall blood flow, and is full of magnesium, it is wonderfully powerful in energizing you and waking you up. A great replacement for you morning cup of coffee!

Sources:1 2

This is why cacao is such a powerful tool to use in ceremonies. It opens up people’s hearts, give them more energy, and allows people to open up to their emotions more readily. It is great to pair cacao with connective exercises, singing, dancing, meditation, creative expression, and a number of other activities.

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Why don’t we get the same effects from eating a chocolate candy bar?

Most candy bars do not offer the same healing benefits of raw, organic cacao. They don’t give us more energy, or open up our blood vessels like a cup of cacao does. But why? The main reason for this is because of the differences in processing. Raw, organic cacao, is, well, raw. Unadulterated. Unprocessed. Which is why it is full of so many nutrients and antioxidants and bad-ass, beneficial, wonderful things! But normal chocolate, like Hershey's candy bars, and Nestle hot cocoa go through additional chemical-processing and include a lot more additives, sugars, sweeteners, and milk products, which lessen the powerful benefits of normal cacao.

Another big difference is that most chocolate candy bars are made from MILK chocolate…. Milk, and other dairy products and emulsifiers limit the body's ability to absorb the nutrients and antioxidants contained in cacao. In this processed form, chocolate can actually give people the opposite effects. Milk and dairy increase stagnation and lethargy, and can make you feel heavier and more tired.

Unfortunately, even most dark chocolate candy bars still contain milk powder and other additives and dairy. While dark chocolate does contain more cacao, and thus can give you more of the positive benefits than compared to milk chocolate, you still have the dairy preventing your body from fully taking in all the glory! So if you want to fully experience the benefits of cacao, read your labels carefully, or jump on the cacao-train, and get yourself some raw, unprocessed, organic cacao to start working with today!

My Recipe

What You'll Need

• Organic, Raw Cacao (not cocoa)
• Boiled Water
• Sweetener - I prefer to use honey, or coconut sugar, but organic brown sugar works well too; also, molasses works great!
• Chili (I like to chop up dried chilies, but chili powder or cayenne powder words as well)
• Cinnamon
• A pinch of Himalayan Salt
• Coconut Oil
• Optional: ginger

Raw cacao is popping up more and more these days, and I am seeing it available in more and more grocery stores and health stores. But if you can’t find it in your local store, you can always order it online. Just look for the words “raw”, “organic”, or “ceremonial-grade” to make sure you’re getting the real thing.

You can get it in a powder form, paste form, or the actual cacao beans (often referred to as “cacao-nibs). I find the powder to be the easiest form to work with, because it easily blends with the hot water. However, I usually work with cacao paste, which is actually a hard block-like from of cacao. You have to chop up the paste into tiny bits, much like a power, and then it takes longer to dissolve into the water. However, with the paste I find that I often get a bolder, richer flavor. I like to use the cacao-nibs for putting on my smoothie bowls or oatmeal, or with making my own trail mix. It’s all amazing though, and you get the benefits from all the forms.

Once you have your cacao, there is more to making a delicious cup of cacao than simply melting it in water. For me, that includes cinnamon, chili powder, honey, some coconut oil, and a pinch of sea salt.

_{Optional Cacao Ingredients}

Raw, organic cacao is unsweetened, so I like to add cinnamon and honey to bring out the flavors and make the taste more well-rounded. You can also use regular sugar, brown sugar, molasses, coconut sugar, or any sweetener you desire.

I like to add chili power to give it a nice litle kick. Chili power also opens up our blood vessesls, so adding chili to cacao can make it even more powerful and effective.

The coconut oil gives it a nice well-rounded flavor and body, and I just love coconut oil.

And the sea salt is just a personal favorite; I love the tastes of sweet and salty together. I just add a little pinch to the top of my cup of freshly made cacao.

To mix it up, sometimes I add ginger. Just make ginger tea out of the boiled water you'll be using and carry on with the rest of the recipe as normal.

Here are the steps I take to make my cacao:

First, I chop up my cacao paste, and then put it into my bullet blender (great for chopping things like nuts). The blender turns the cacao paste into a powder, making it much easier to work with.
Then, I use about 1-2 tablespoons of cacao per cup of water (Note: not an actual “measuring cup”, I mean the amount of water you’d put in one coffee cup, or one serving).

I then boil my desired amount of water. Once boiled, I add a TINY BIT OF HOT WATER to the blender. I also add the cacao, a lot of cinnamon, qutie a bit of honey, a little bit of coconut oil, and a little bit of chili powde (a little goes a long way)r to the blender as well. Then, making sure to have a tight grip on the lid of the blender, I mix it all up, and create a condensed cacao mixture. Once it’s all mixed up and smelling divine, I slowly pour the mixture into a pot with the remaining hot water. As I said earlier, it can take some time to get the cacao to fully mix with the water, but using the blender really helps to speed up this process. Once it’s all mixed in the pot, I heat it on low, and avoid letting it ever reach a boil. This is the point when you can taste it, and play around with the ingredients. Maybe you need more honey, or cinnimon, or chili, or oil. Play around until you get the desired taste. I like to keep mine a little on the bitter side, as I love the taste of pure cacao, and don’t like thing to be too sweet. Play around, and find the perfect sweet spot for yourself.

Then pour yourself a cup, add a dash of salt if you so desire, and sit down to enjoy the magic of this chocolate medicine!

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Do you have your own recipe for cacao?

I love experimenting with different ingredients to make new and interesting versions of cacao, and I love to hear what other people use. So if you have your own recipe, I’d love to hear about it! Please share what delicious things you add to your chocolatey medicine!

A few notes on dosage:

I recommend one cup of cacao per day, and not much more. Too much cacao is like having too much coffee, and drinking too much can damage your adrenal glands and mess up your sleeping patterns.

It is also important to note that cacao should not be consumed in excess if you’re taking MAO inhibitors or anti-depressants. If you’re taking these medications, just be careful. Drink more slowly, and drink a little less to start with. Drinking too much cacao on these medicines can give you a headache. So start small and see how you feel after taking some time to ingest.

If you have any questions about the recipe, or about cacao in general, please don’t hesitate to drop me a comment below. I love talking about this magical food and would be happy to answer your questions. Also, if you’ve worked with cacao in the past I’d love to hear about your experience and what effects you’ve gotten from it. Don't hesitate to share in the comments below.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and read my blog post today. I greatly appreciate your support!

I love you. Until next time.
🌈 Rachel

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