Our Cacao
Cacao is also the only superfood in the world with such profound health benefits, supporting the body as it works to rebalance. Rich in antioxidants, minerals, and mood-enhancing compounds, it nourishes the heart, calms the nervous system, and can support emotional and hormonal balance — making it a powerful ally for mind, body, and spirit.
Each cacao I offer is ceremonial grade, carefully sourced, and energetically honoured. I maintain deep relationships with the farms, the land, and the spirits of the cacao, ensuring that the medicine you receive is pure, conscious, and held with love.
Hawaiian Cacao — The Heart of Aloha
✧ Origin & Story
Hawaiian cacao is one of the few varieties grown in the United States, often cultivated in the rich volcanic soils of the Big Island and Kauaʻi. Infused with ocean breeze, tropical rains, and the mana (life force) of the land, Hawaiian cacao carries the frequency of Aloha — unconditional love, unity, and reverence for nature.
It embodies the spirit of pono — living in balance and right relationship with self, others, and the Earth.
21 DEGREE FARM - HAWAI’I
Rooted in lineage. Crafted with heart.
I am deeply honoured to source my cacao from 21 Degrees Estate, a veteran-owned, boutique cacao farm nestled in Kahaluʻū on the windward coast of Oʻahu. Founded in 2014 by Michael (U.S. Navy) and Maria (U.S. Air Force) after their retirement from service, this land was chosen as a place where their children could grow, and where community, care, and reverence for the earth could be shared.
This ten-acre estate is alive with harmony. Cacao trees grow alongside native fruit trees, tropical flowers, bees, and goats — a thriving ecosystem rooted in mālama ʻāina, the Hawaiian principle of caring for the land as a living relative. Every part of the farm reflects intention, sustainability, and deep respect for nature’s rhythms.
The name 21 Degrees honours Hawaiʻi’s latitude — the northernmost place in the world where cacao can flourish. This rare microclimate has earned Hawaiʻi the reputation as the “Napa Valley of chocolate.” Here, cacao is cultivated slowly and with devotion, allowing flavour and spirit to mature together.
Their cacao is considered among the top 1% of fine cacao globally, offering a uniquely smooth texture and complex flavour profile that shifts with the seasons — from bright citrus notes to rich caramel warmth. Hawaiian cacao naturally contains around 30% more cacao butter, meaning no additives or preservatives are needed; the bean remains silky, rich, and whole in its natural state.
Cacao trees here are hand-pollinated by native cacao midges, producing an average of 50 pods per tree per year, with harvesting possible year-round. The land itself holds over 500 years of agricultural history, carrying ancestral wisdom forward through modern, ethical cultivation. Across the Hawaiian islands, there are now around 30 cacao farms, most guided by the intention of producing premium, ethically grown cacao while supporting local food sovereignty — especially vital on islands that currently import nearly 90% of their food.
Michael and Maria have chosen not expansion, but devotion. Their vision is to remain “the most charming cacao farm in America,” prioritising quality, education, and connection over scale. Their work also includes teaching future generations about sustainable farming and reducing dependence on imported food — ensuring the land continues to nourish those who live upon it.
✧ Why I Honour this Cacao
Because this cacao is more than a bean — it is a living invitation.
An invitation into presence.
Into remembrance.
Into relationship with the land.
Each cup carries the spirit of aloha, ancestral stewardship, and soulful connection. It is cacao that supports not only the heart and body, but the deeper remembering of how we belong — to the earth, to community, and to ourselves.
In Hawaiʻi, aloha is more than a greeting — it is family, love, and shared breath. This is the spirit carried in every sip.
✧ Spiritual Essence
Hawaiian cacao opens the heart through harmony.
It teaches that love is not just a feeling — it’s a state of being and belonging. When working with this cacao, you may feel waves of gratitude, forgiveness, and gentle joy flowing through your chest. It helps release resistance and reconnects you to the truth that you are love itself.
This cacao invites softness and self-acceptance — perfect for ceremonies centered on self-love, relationships, or heart healing.
✧ Celebration it Ignites
Hawaiian cacao celebrates Aloha — connection, gratitude, and joy.
It’s a beautiful ally for:
Opening or closing a retreat or circle
Self-love and relationship healing
Celebrating transitions with softness and grace
Reconnecting with the heart’s truth after change or travel
You might notice it encourages gentle laughter, smiles, and a warm sense of belonging — like a hug from Mother Earth herself.
Costa Rican Cacao
✧ Origin & Story
The Cabécares (Kabekva in their own language), an Indigenous ethnic group in Costa Rica, are essentially located in Chirripó, the Paruare Valley, Talamanca Reserve, and the regions of Cartago and Limón, and Ujarrá de Buenos Aires de Puntarenas.
Cacao has deep roots in Talamanca, belonging to one of the oldest, largest, and most influential groups in Costa Rica, numbering around 19,000 people with the Bribri. Cacao was used as nourishment, an offering to spirits, a drink, and a means of payment.
The Talamanca region was an intermediate area between the Chinabebt groups to Nigube, Chumi, and the Afurugumu archaeological sites. During pre-Columbian and early colonial eras, Talamanca controlled territories from the Dirty River of Terns from Veriecke to Matambú or Coibici groups along the Caribbean coast, with cacao cultivation in Cabibo, Sapictuaques, Terns, Taracas, and Corbisis.
Since the late 17th century, Talamanca was the only Indigenous province to successfully maintain autonomy in the face of Spanish colonization, led by Cabécar warriors against expeditions led by the Governor of the colonial signory of Talamanca in alliance with Juan de Mendoza and the city of Santiago de Talamanca in 1709.
Heart-led. Ancestral. Alive with celebration.
My Costa Rican cacao comes from land deeply steeped in ancient cacao lineage, where cacao has been revered for centuries as a sacred plant medicine of the heart. Long before modern cultivation, the Indigenous peoples of Central America — including the Bribri and Cabécar communities of Costa Rica — honoured cacao as a bridge between the human and the divine, used in ritual, celebration, and communal prayer.
Grown in rich volcanic soil, nourished by rainforest rains and tropical sun, Costa Rican cacao carries the vibrancy of the land itself. It is cultivated in biodiverse ecosystems where cacao trees grow alongside banana, plantain, and native forest plants — a living reminder that cacao thrives in relationship, not isolation.
This cacao is traditionally fermented and dried with care, allowing its natural complexity to unfold. The flavour is grounding yet bright — earthy, gently bitter, with subtle notes of fruit and warmth — a profile that speaks to both depth and joy. It is cacao that opens the heart while keeping the feet firmly connected to the earth.
✧ Why I Honour this Cacao
I honour Costa Rican cacao because it carries the frequency of togetherness.
This is cacao that has always been shared — passed between hands, offered in ceremony, and drunk in moments of connection, prayer, and celebration. It holds the essence of community, reminding us that healing is not meant to be done alone.
There is a playful, expansive quality to this cacao — one that invites laughter, movement, music, and embodied joy. Where some cacao calls us inward, this cacao calls us into life, into expression, into shared experience.
✧ Spiritual Essence
Costa Rican cacao works gently but powerfully through the heart and sacral centres, awakening creativity, sensuality, and emotional flow. It softens the armour around the heart while igniting a spark of aliveness — encouraging expression, truth, and celebration of being alive.
It teaches balance: grounding and uplift, reverence and joy, devotion and dance.
✧ Celebration it Ignites
Costa Rican cacao reminds us that ceremony does not always have to be solemn.
It invites celebration as prayer — connection as medicine, joy as devotion. It opens space for laughter, tears, creativity, and movement, allowing the heart to expand through shared presence.
This cacao is a companion for gatherings, transitions, rites of passage, and moments where life itself is being honoured.