On Ritual and Resourcing

Conscious or unconscious, we all have our daily rituals. Whether your body is queuing up in the drive-thru for that morning commute caffeine fix, or lighting a candle before meditation, we are making choices to resource and nourish our living matter. These repeated choices reveal our values, and become the patterns that shape our lives.

Many of us are searching for deeper, more meaningful patterns as we notice that our usual habits no longer nourish us as they once did. Ritual doesn’t need to be overly serious, but becoming more intentional about our routines can profoundly shift our embodied experience. Simply noticing how we regularly resource ourselves is a powerful start.

 

Intention Starts at the Source

We are an inseparable part of a radically alive ecosystem, in relation with each thing we taste, touch and experience. The patterns we weave with our conscious rituals are strong only insofar as integrity is upheld in the singular elements we thoughtfully incorporate. Cacao, traditionally traded as an extractive commodity, is in its highest form both a plant medicine and an ecstatic delight, and deserves to be regarded with reverence.

This is true not only in the cacao circle held thousands of miles from its subject's homeland, but along each step of a complex supply network. When cacao is of high quality stock and is cultivated for its highest potential, picked at the peak of ripeness, fermented and dried with meticulous attention to detail, packed and transported with care, stored and processed thoughtfully, when each of these steps is aligned in equitable trade and reciprocal relationship with land, it nourishes body and spirit.

Our partner in Honduras, Efren Maradiaga of Atucún Heritage Cacao, passionately cultivates true Criollo cacao trees and teaches smallholder farmers to cultivate and process them with the highest attention to quality, and has catalyzed a community of producers who care deeply about the land and the quality of their harvests. We work closely with Atucún to buy traceable, farm direct, organically grown Honduran cacaos, Devotion at the source is reflected in the rich complexity of Numinous drinking cacao.

Rather than relying on ambiguous terms like "ceremonial grade," we choose to focus on traceable sourcing exquisite quality cacao. Indigenous cultures working with cacao are diverse, and while there's no singular traditional "cacao ceremony," there is deep reverence for cacao as a nourishing plant ally which adapted and spread alongside humanity. Our intent is integrity—from cultivation practices to your personal ritual experience.

We experience both spiritual and physical nourishment from this beautiful plant. Unlike coffee’s quick caffeine spike, cacao offers a complex blend of theobromine, gentle caffeine, supportive flavonoids and antioxidants and necessary minerals, all delivered in the perfect package for our bodies: good good fat. All for a sustained, heart-opening nourishment.

And, it's not that serious. Cacao is chocolate, and chocolate is yummy. It's delicious, and delightful, and it feels good. That's enough for us.

How we sip it

Numinous ritual drinking cacao is 100% pure, and we enjoy sipping it mixed in hot water alone, but there are no rules. A spoonful of local raw honey or maple syrup beautifully complements cacao’s natural richness.

Dosage is personal, but here are our gram weight guidelines for enjoying cacao in four to six ounces of hot water:

 - 15g: A gentle dose. For those sensitive to stimulants or new to cacao, we recommend playing with just a little at first.
 - 20-30g: Ideal for a radically enlivening daily morning ritual– we most often enjoy around 20-25g.
 - 40-45g: for a deeper, intentional experience, a higher dose moves us from ritual into ceremony, and is often paired with meditation, breathwork, and or movement practice.

Sometimes we like to add stuff like a touch of cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, maca, ashwagandha, or functional mushroom powders. A pinch of sea salt can pull up sweetness and decrease bitterness perception. Sometimes in a more intentional space, we like to incorporate practices like intention setting, deep breaths, silence and stillness, journaling, ecstatic dancing, wisdom reading, or weird animal movements.

You can't get it wrong. Your cacao ritual is yours to play with and create, finding what feels best along the way. The playful, lightly held ritual is often the most supportive.