Cacao Source

Inside cacao, there is always more than what we first taste. There are lineages, hands, stories, and quiet teachings waiting to be remembered. This May, we open a space to sit with cacao as guide, as bridge, as living ancestor. We begin in circle opened to everyone— simple, inclusive and, intentional. Then we listen deeper… into cacao as plantcestor, into cacao as a bridge between worlds, and into the reflections that arise when we give ourselves time to integrate. These studies are a space to learn with cacao in relationship, in presence, in reciprocity. If you’ve been feeling the call to deepen, to listen differently, to walk with more intention alongside this plant… this is an invitation into our communiTREE. All sessions held live at 10AM Guatemala time Online, from wherever you are in the world Find links to register in our Bio Or Comment RELATIONSHIP and we will send you all the info 🤎

May arrives with a different rhythm. Less about pushing and more about refining. This is a moment for clear movement, precise choices, and embodied discernment. After 7 years of Cacao Source working in the production of artisanal pure cacao blocks, this month calls our team into deeper clarity around our shared vision and the direction we are choosing to move in. We’re taking this time for deeper inquiry — refining the dreams we hold for this project and how we bring them into form. At the same time, we are sending off our second Europe shipment of the year with care and gratitude. The second harvest is moving, not as a measure of quantity, but as a reflection of timing, care, and integrity. E’ opens the path forward. Kan fuels it with life force. Tijax sharpens our ability to cut through what isn’t aligned. We’re being invited to: • Choose what is sustainable, not just possible • Move with clarity and restraint • Refine the systems, agreements, and structures we’ve built • Make adjustments rooted in real experience May is about ethical precision — knowing when to act, when to wait, and how to move without harming the whole. What are you refining right now?

Field Note #3 🤎 Behind every block of ceremonial cacao is a network of people working with the same seed and the same intention. In February, we gathered with the farmers of PANAN origin, our team, and participants from the Cacao Source training program to spend time in the forest and connect directly with the people who grow and care for cacao. These field visits help us build relationships, deepen transparency, and remember that every cup of cacao carries many hands. To learn more about our work in the field and the stories behind your cacao, join our newsletter through the link in our bio. 🌿🍫

Cacao is not only an individual medicine. It is a medicine for what happens between people. The pharmacology - theobromine, anandamide, phenylethylamine and serotonin precursors work synergistically to reduce cortisol, elevate mood and produce what HeartMath Institute researchers describe as heart-brain coherence, a physiological state associated with emotional openness, reduced defensiveness and increased relational attunement. When an entire group enters this state simultaneously, the effect compounds. Indigenous knowledge holders understood this through generations of careful, embodied observation. Cacao was not consumed alone. It was present at births, councils, marriages, harvests and funerals, every threshold moment where human beings needed to be fully present with each other and with what mattered most. This is sophisticated pharmacological and relational knowledge, passed down through practice and relationship across generations. Cacao has been community medicine for thousands of years. The least we can do now is make sure the communities that grow it are the ones who benefit. Ask where it comes from. Learn the name of the farm. Know who processed it. Choose transparency over convenience. ___ This post is an inspiration from years of travelling and sitting with the communities who grow this plant. I do not hold this knowledge - they do. I am only sharing what they have generously allowed me to witness. 📷: @cacaosource @corie__bee

What if cacao is more than a crop? In this month’s Inside Cacao, we explore cacao as a plant ancestor. An elder presence that has accompanied human communities across time, shaping ritual, memory, and our relationship with the living world. Together with Mariana Bandera, we will reflect on how plants participate in the formation of the psyche and what it means to relate to cacao as a being rather than a commodity. 📅 Thursday, May 14, 2026 🕙 10 AM Guatemala Time 💻 Online via Zoom To join us, comment ANCESTOR below or send us a DM. 🤎

Cacao as a plantcestor: A keeper of breath, ritual, time and fire. Join us in Inside Cacao as we begin exploring the spiritual ecology of cacao within the Mesoamerican Cosmovisión and how it deeply links to the Ancestrality of Cacao. This is an invitation to learn from archaeological and anthropological findings in order to deepen and root our understanding, our knowing and our intimate relationship with Cacao as a Plant Teacher. Let this be the seed of deepening-From my heart to yours. 🪶Join us May 14th at 10am Guatemalan time Link in bio to join. 🤍Mari

A lot of people expect cacao to taste exactly the same every single time. But real ceremonial cacao doesn’t work like industrial chocolate. That slight variation isn’t a flaw. It’s a sign the cacao hasn’t been overly processed or engineered for sameness. Real cacao is seasonal. Alive. Closer to nature. A bit like coffee, wine or olive oil … every harvest tells a slightly different story. And once you start noticing that, you realise how disconnected most modern food has become from where it actually comes from.

Dear Cacao community, our shop has moved ! Such beautiful memories came up when we did. We are excited and a little nostalgic : quite a symbolic page has been turned this past year. After four years of inhabiting our cozy, picturesque, and slightly magical Emporium, once infamously described as a “curious and fantastic chocolate menagerie” in its earliest days when it was first brought to life by dear @lalibertecoco and a vibrant team of San Marcos artists, artisans, actors, and cacao fanatics, we have now stepped forward into a new chapter. We made this move simply because the alternative was undeniably inspiring: shifting into the Epic @edenatitlan . It feels both joyful and tender to say goodbye to our neighbors and our dear corner of the Emporium. Eden is a truly expansive community space that will bring new activation to our village: gardens full of flowers and herbs, large gathering spaces, epic concerts, conventions, workshops, and celebrations. New shops and studios, new opportunities for creation. And we are genuinely delighted to be part of it, offering cacao, social-justice-rooted dedication, and a deep respect for the earth’s nourishing gifts. It is interesting how one meaningful change often comes with many others. As a growing little enterprise with a big vision, we crossed a threshold these past months: new team members, new production space, new products, new horizons, new dreams, and big steps. It is remarkable what passion paired with commitment, stirred gently with courage, can create for a whole community. Our tiny office/bodega/shop/community space/lab/chocolate factory in the Emporium has held us through countless phases and challenges. It has witnessed moments of deep collaboration, and also moments of difficulty or uncertainty. Yet, above all, it has been a home for collective joy, shared purpose, and the steady dedication to doing something good for our people, our hearts, our land, and our economies.

Field note #2 from El Cedro 🤎 Captured during our May 4th field trip with Laurence and Arturo, where a fermentation workshop turned into a full day of harvesting, carrying cacao, preparing boxes, and sharing stories together in community. Sometimes the work in cacao asks us to slow down, adapt, and move together. 🌱 Find in our bio a link to join our newsletter where we share more in depth stories. What is your favorite part when visiting a cacao farm? ✨

There’s something about making and sharing a cup of cacao together that always feels special 🤎 The process, the smell of the cacao, the conversations that come with it. Cacao creates space to slow down, connect, and simply be together. This is a small glimpse into those moments shared in community during our last November Cacao Source Training 🌱 📸 thank you @stories.to.heal for capturing these moments

Who touched your cacao before it reached your hands? This cacao passed through many hands throughout the process. Real people holding each step. We celebrate the people behind the scene of the cacao movement as that is where the ceremony begins, from the seed. The hands that have touched your cacao must be a part of the cacao movement and be celebrated and valued. which step do you feel most connected to 🤎

You are invited for our monthly cacao circle 🤎 On May 7th, we gather in an online circle guided by Cacao Source team to sit with cacao, breath, and what’s quietly present within. A space to soften, to listen, to reconnect. 🗓 May 7th ⏰ 10:00 AM (Guatemala time) Come as you are. To receive the link, send us a DM or comment “circle” below 👇 We are deeply grateful for this growing community showing up each month ✨