Beyond
“Ceremonial”

We usually meet cacao through a story: where it comes from, what makes it special, why we should trust it.

Cacao can pass through a living ecosystem of growers, intermediaries, and buyers, where beans from different farms, varieties, and processes may be gathered into a single lot. By the time it reaches us, that complexity can be tidied into a few words: “ceremonial,” “native,” “Criollo,” “single origin.”

For fourteen years, I’ve worked with cacao on farms, in processing rooms, and inside businesses and markets—including four years managing a cacao company at Lake Atitlán. Some of what I learned there can’t be found in papers or chocolate courses. And I needed to step away to see it clearly.

In this talk, I’ll share what I found when I followed cacao back past the label, and how it changed the questions I ask and what I’m willing to accept as true.

I’m also about to launch Yaguarundí, my own cacao from Colombian seeds. That places me inside these questions too. It will have to answer them like any other cacao.

You’ll leave with a simple way to separate what you know, what you assume, and what you still need to ask about the cacao you buy, serve, or recommend.