My Cacao Recipe
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My Cacao Recipe
You don't have to wait until your next Cacao Ceremony to drink Cacao. I believe that medicine and healing should be more accessible to others! I share this with love and hope that this helps someone in their healing journey!
Cacao is a medicine and was used as a currency for thousands of years and has always been considered a very important and powerful food consumed and grown by the Mesoamerican and South American cultures, such as the Mayans and Aztecs.
In modern day, Cacao ceremonies are used for special occasions such as birthdays, special life events and anniversaries and are also used as a time to express gratitude and share what is coming from our hearts. Many activities during the ceremony are lead by spiritual guides who are trained in the ways of Mesoamerican traditions and culture. Herbs, medicine music, and the use of natural elements such as Water, Fire, Earth, and Air are incorporated into the ceremonies in order to connect us to our roots and help us express what is deep within us so that our emotions may come to the light and be shared with the group.
Physical Benefits:
- Raw Cacao contains Flavonoids and is high in antioxidants, Improves blood flow to your heart and is a high source of magnesium, calcium, zinc, copper, and selenium!!
- Cinnamon great antiinflammatory!
- Clove Protects the liver, antimicrobial, and improves digestion
- Star Anise improves digestion, Boosts Immunity, and Antioxidant
Energetic Benefits:
- Opens your heart chakra
- More connected to your emotions
- Feeling of connectedness with self and others
- Brings you to a Calm and Peaceful state and helps you emanate Love Vibrations
Intentioning your Cacao with the use of the 4 Elements
During ceremony and in life, fire is a sacred element that makes up part of our being. It is best to use all 4 physical elements when hosting a ceremony if the resources are available to you. Having the four elements creates balance and gives us a medium for grounding ourselves and connecting with the light and Nature.
I prefer to reuse the peels as love energy offerings asking for my prayers to be answered as I offer the shells to Grandfather Fire at ceremonies. Offerings are prayers and energy we offer to lift up to God and the universe. They can also be energy we want to transform and transmute, let that be our past, pain, negative emotions etc. Physical offerings like seeds, flowers, cacao peels etc are physical representations of our Spiritual and emotional offerings that we give to the fire! In this case, offering Cacao and Cacao shells represents the energy of Love.
Recipe:
1 Liter of Water
2 Cloves
1 Star Anise
3 TBS of Cacao Nibs
4 cm stick of Cinnamon
Optional: Add Organic Honey, Brown Sugar, a cut off chunk of Pilloncillo or your favorite sweetener
Utensils:
1 Wooden Paddle Spoon for Stirring the Cacao Tea
1 Wooden Spatula
1 5-6 Liter Clay Pot
1 Clay Comal for toasting the Cacao
1 Mocajete for Grinding the Cacao into Nibs
Clay mugs or Jicaras for serving and drinking the Cacao Tea
1 Medium sized bowl for collecting the peeled Cacao
1 Jar with a lid to collect the shells for an offering
1 Medium to Large Jar for collecting the ground Cacao Nibs for storage
If you do not have a molcajete, then you can use a blender in order to grind the Cacao into nibs. Use the Pulsing blender feature to avoid heating up the Cacao and causing it to release oils with make the Cacao stick to the sides of the blender.
Any extra Cacao Nibs made can be stored in the fridge in definitely. It is best used in a timely manner to avoid the Nibs absorbing flavors from the fridge. It is also reccommended to store the cacao in a glass container to aviod contact with plastics.
How to know your Cacao is ready for grinding and making cacao nibs!
During toasting you have to move continuously the cacao on the comal for 5 minutes until the peels turn black. Once they turn black, they are ready to peel and should come off very easily, if no, they have to be toasted longer.
Once they have been toasted to black, the shell is ready to peel. Collect the Shells in one jar with a lid for saving and then collect the Cacao in bowl. Once you have toasted and peeled all of your Cacao, its time for grinding them in a molcajete.
Add 1/2 of a cup of peeled Cacao into a molcajete and start pressing down with strong pressure to start breaking the pieces smaller for easier grinding. Once they are the size of a peppercorn, start making small circles with pressure to grind the Cacao into finer pieces against the walls of the Molcajete. Now place the ground nibs into your Jar for storage and then grind another 1/2 a cup. Repeat the grinding process until you have grounded all of your nibs.
Combine your ingredients to your Cacao Tea
When the Nibs have been grounded, they are ready to be measured and added into the Clay Pot with water, star anise, clove, and cinnamon. Once all the ingredients are together in the pot, start a medium flame on your stove, whether that be gas or electric. When vapor starts to leave the pot, its time for stirring. Continuously stir the tea for 5-7 minutes.
Now your Cacao is ready for serving! To be more ceremonial, you can use clay mugs or Jicaras. A Jicara is a cur or bowl made from the dried outer shell of a calabash fruit used in many ceremonies in Mexico including Day of the Dead Alters.
Image source: https://gruposudesa.com.mx/blog/la-jicara-en-yucatan
Image Source:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4267084216710160&id
=1112568895495057&set=a.1115272368558043&locale=ms_MY
Let me know in the comments or message me how you liked the recipe and your experience with its heart opening effects!
With Love,
-Jaslyn
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