Preparation & Serving

Trying Cacao for the first time? We cover the full process of preparing your Cacao

How much Cacao should you use to prepare your drink?

10 grams - This amount is ideal for those new to drinking cacao or unaccustomed to caffeine. It’s a small, beginner-friendly dose and can also be used for microdosing. Some people take daily microdoses, such as in the morning, for a gentle boost in energy and focus.
10–25 grams - This range is suitable for those more experienced with cacao or caffeine. At this level, you may start to notice the stimulating and heart-opening effects.
25–35 grams - This amount is often used to enhance creativity or deepen meditation. It’s also a good dose for retreats or mild aerobic activities such as dancing or yoga. This is a common serving size for cacao ceremonies.
35–42 grams - This is the most typical ceremonial dose, with 42 grams being our preferred amount for longer, more immersive ceremonies. At this level, the effects are usually strong and noticeable, often opening the heart and sometimes bringing emotional release. It’s not recommended to exceed this amount, as it can cause discomfort or nausea. This is already considered a high dose.

Preparing Cacao from a Block

This is the best way to prepare the block of cacao paste:

Chop off little bits of the cacao into finely chopped small pieces.
When chopping it up, it can be easier to use a big, high-quality knife.
You can also use a blender, but do not blend it for too long, or it will melt and stick to the blender.
The size of the chopped-up cacao should be small pieces that are approximately one quarter of an inch or five milometers. It can also be smaller than this but should not be bigger than this.
While chopping the cacao, you can put intentions into the cacao. You can sing, pray, or have thoughts of gratitude.

Weighing your Cacao

To weigh the cacao, you could use a small scale. You can also use teaspoons or measuring cups, whatever works best for your own personal ritual and use. For a ceremony of 16 to 20 people, you may need to use anything from 670 grams – 840 grams of cacao. Please do your calculations considering the experience of the group and the time when the ceremony will be held as you will not want to give them a high amount of cacao if the ceremony is in the evening, because they might have problems to fall sleep at night.

Adding Water to the Cacao

Once the cacao is chopped up, you can now add hot water to it. The water should not be boiling because it would lose the nutrients. It needs to be approximately 60 degrees Celsius.

You can experiment with the cacao to see how much water you would like to add to it. If you would like it to be thicker, you wouldn’t add as much water.

The basic recipie is around 200-230 millilitres of water which is one mug. If you would like your cacao thicker try 180 millilitres or less, experiment and see what you like.

If you want more liquid try anything up to 295 millilitres, anything more it would usually be to watery.

Flavouring your Cacao

You can infuse the hot water with herbs and/or spices for added flavours and sensations. Some Examples are:

Cayenne
Black pepper
Turmeric
Ginger
Spices

When you mix the water with the cacao, you can use a hand blender or a regular blender. This can make it a bit frothy. After blending it, you can pour it into a cup.

Another mixing option is using a whisk and adding the hot water slowly, little bits of water at a time. You would mix it, and then once it is mixed, add a bit more water.

You can sing or pray while mixing it, as a part of the intention setting and ceremony. For example, you can give thanks to the Indigenous people of South America who first began using cacao. You can give thanks to all of the work that went into processing the cacao for you to be able to drink it and share it with others.

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