How to Make the Perfect Sacred Hot Chocolate

Riitualistic preparation of a delicious Sacred Hot Chocolate is the cornerstone of any good meditation, yoga practice or creative session. So take your time and put as much love into the whole process as you can.

Making the perfect Sacred Hot Chocolate isn't as difficult as it sounds...

Firstly and most importantly, use only the highest vibration ceremonial grade cacao for your sacred hot chocolate. Sacred Earth Medicine's Ceremonial Cacao is a must! If your cacao isn't ceremonial grade, your hot chocolate simply won't give you the heart expansion and vibrational lift that a good sacred hot chocolate will.

While preparing the perfect sacred hot chocolate isn't difficult, there are a few little known tips that will help to make it turn out silky smooth, energetically expanding and absolutely delicious.

Ingredients

• Sacred Earth Medicine Ceremonial Cacao
• Water
• Cinnamon Powder (Verum)
• Ginger Powder
• Chilli / Cayenne
• Honey / Rapadura / Coconut Sugar / Your Favourite Sweetener
• Reverence and ritual

Method

First thing's first, this is a sacred drink, so we make sure we use only the highest quality organic ingredients and good, clean water. The matrix in organic food is able to hold a much higher vibration than conventional food and we won't be drinking in toxins that dull our vibration either. Using Ceremonial Cacao is all about opening up our energy system, so holding the sacred cacao and our own body in great reverence always works best.

As Sacred Earth Medicine's (SEM) Ceremonial Cacao is the whole bean ground - nothing added, nothing removed. It still contains all the nutritional goodness of the cacao butter. This may be great for us, but oil and water don't mix well. When we first began our cacao ceremonies, we sometimes found that by the time we got to the bottom of our delicious hot chocolate, the last few mouthfuls are a little watery and there was a thick sediment at the bottom of the cup.

There are a couple of secrets here to hold the sacred cacao in solution...

Grinding the cacao up as fine powder as possible is really important. Grating it up with a food grater is also awesome. We always have a good supply of cacao in the cupboard that has been ground up in the food processor. It is quick and easy to chuck in a smoothie or mix into porridge or cereal in this form too!

Getting the right ratio of cacao to water is super important. If you like your Sacred Hot Chocolate thick and strong, use 100ml of water to 28g (1 ounce) of cacao. For a thinner mix, use 125ml of water. I personally don't like it any thinner than that, but this is purely my personal preference. Boil the required amount of water first and let it sit a few minutes to cool to around 70 degrees centigrade or 160 Fahrenheit.

Next add in the chilli or cayenne. Chilli / cayenne is what the Cacao Shaman calls the spiritual accelerator. It activates the cacao and helps the body assimilate it faster. The effects from good sacred hot chocolate should be felt within 15 minutes. Some of us more sensitive types can feel it almost straight away. That's the chilli. When we run ceremonies, we only put in a homeopathic dose of chilli (one dried chilli or 1/8 tsp of cayenne to 10 people) as not everyone is into spice. Again, this is personal preference.

Next add in the ginger and cinnamon powder. We recommend verum cinnamon from India as it simply has more flavour. For a single cup, use 1/8 tsp of each. More of either will make it spicy, so if you like spicy, go for it. If you are using cassia cinnamon (supermarket style), 1/8 tsp is enough. Adding too much can make the cacao taste powdery.

Last of all comes the sweetener. Honey works by far the best with Sacred Earth Medicine's Ceremonial Cacao as it enhances the amazing flavour overtones. When we stocked Keith's Cacao, we used to recommend rapadura. The flavour overtones of Keith's Cacao are shorter, so the treacley taste of rapadura picks them up markedly. SEM's Ceremonial Cacao award winning flavour definitely explodes with honey. We have tried every other sweetener, but always come back to honey as the other sweeteners change the taste of the criollo-nativo bean too much. Again, this is personal preference and we suggest that you try different sweeteners to taste the difference. If you're vegan, we suggest maple syrup.

Making your Sacred Cacao silky smooth

The real secret though is how to make your sacred hot chocolate silky smooth. Getting the cacao butter to stay in solution is really quite simple - throw away the stirring spoon and whisk the mixture. You can do it by hand, but an electric stick mixture does an amazing job. Don't be shy here, this is what will give your sacred hot chocolate a gorgeous silky texture. You know you are done when you see a lovely sheen on top.

This is great if you are making 5+ cups for a ceremony, but what about if you are just making just a cup or two for a morning meditation or yoga practice? Here is a little known secret. Add just a few mls of boiled water to your sacred cacao mix and stir a little. You will make a thick paste that goes almost dry pretty quickly. Keep on adding a few more mls of hot water and stirring (do this another 3-4 times) until your mixture is thick and delicious. Add water and stir to achieve your desired texture.

If you find that grinding and whisking is upsetting to the energy of your hot chocolate, a good blessing will align it once more. We find mantra works well. Of course blessing the cacao in the group consciousness of cacao ceremony raises the vibration to a whole new level. Calling in the Cacao Spirit, IxCacao as your ceremonial guide will always help raise the vibration and open your heart. Now the fun begins!

We find its easier to make up more rather than less as bigger quantities are easier to make your sacred hot chocolate really smoooooth and delicious! Adjusting the taste is a little easier too. If your having it on your own, you can freeze any left overs for another day.

It will last for at least a couple months in the freezer, where it will only last a few days in the fridge. But if your anything like us, it wont last more than a day or two anyway. So drink & enjoy!

Bring the sacred into your everyday. Get very own block of Ceremonial Cacao today!