Ceremonial cacao: the heart opener

In its purest form, raw cacao is full of antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins.

It helps increase blood flow, and boots your mind, mood, and energy.

In part because of these health benefits, for thousands of years, cultures across the world have called this unique bean “the heart opener”, using it in cacao ceremonies to increase blood flow.

But cacao ceremonies are by no means a thing of the past, with several local popular ceremonial cacao brands based on the Surf Coast and in Greater Geelong.

Co-founder of Surf Coast-based Cacao Mumma, Harmony Buckley, said cacao ceremonies originated with the Mayans in South America but are still held across the globe today to open the heart to love and feminine energy.

“It was known as ‘the food of the gods’,” Buckley said.

“They would sit in ceremonies with it and hold it in very high regard.”

“Everyone interprets it differently, mainly it’s just inviting in the spirit of the plant… holding reverence for the plant and inviting in love.

Once you have made your cacao, Harmony said the ceremonial ritual is simply drinking it with awareness.

“So, once you make your cacao you can just put your cup to your heart and open yourself to love into your life and into your heart, that openness that’s the spirit of cacao.

“If you can just sit with your cup in gratitude, it will do wonders for your heart.

“The cacao is just a representation, you could be doing a little ceremony with the crystals or a sage stick, or tea… when you are doing a ceremony with cacao the thing is that beautiful feminine energy, so that’s what you are inviting in.”

Buckley said the original ceremonial cacao recipe was just water and a high dose of cacao melted together in a drink, but many modern-day recipes were more palatable.

“To just have at home, I say to have just a tablespoon with your favourite milk and a dash of honey.”

“You can just take it and run… I put mine in the blender with a date to sweeten it too, sometimes, for my daughters as well. We’ll have a little at home ceremony every morning and we’ll have it with a date and some warmed milk and a chunk of cacao, and we just sit with our cup and give gratitude to such a beautiful plant to open the heart.”

She said raw cacao partly had its reputation as the heart opener because it enhanced blood flow and cardiovascular health, lowered cholesterol and blood pressure, and supported emotional release by increasing the production of feel-good chemicals such as anandamides and serotonin.

“Cacao is the first process, when you get the cacao tree, it grows the cacao pods that have the beans in them, you get the beans and you are just laying them in the sun to dry and they slightly ferment then you stone grind them into a paste, for ceremonial cacao.”

At Cacao Mumma, cacao is sourced directly from a family in Bali who have been growing cacao on their land for many generations.

“We source the ceremonial cacao from a small family run farm in Bali, who harvest traditional Criollo trees,” Buckley said.

“It’s a beautiful family I get to support directly, they grind it themselves then take it to the post office and send it straight to me… all the people that love this cacao got to keep a family fed and happy and thriving.”

She said this ensured the highest quality cacao and the most health benefits, which were often lost in commercial processes.

“If you want to take that to chocolate, most people heat it to a high point so the fat splits from the solids: cacao powder and cacao butter… it’s lost a lot of minerals along the way, with the chemicals and the high heat.

“Just like anything, when you get something as close to the source as possible, it has more nutrients.”