Some time ago, I felt the need to search for Sumay.
Although I had been working with cacao for years and honoring its power as a master plant, something inside me was calling for a deeper way of sharing it. One morning I woke up with a sudden clarity: I needed to travel to Peru. There was a cacao calling me from afar, and I had to follow that voice.
With a few phone calls and a lot of intuition, I began organizing a trip almost blindly. I booked a flight, rearranged my life in Spain, and flew to Lima with a simple suitcase and an open heart.
Peru welcomed me with its vibrant energy. In my first meetings with producers, I tasted different cacao samples. Some didn’t resonate, but then there was one that made me smile… and then laugh out loud. That cacao felt alive. I knew instantly that I needed to understand its origin.
I started planning a route through different regions to meet the people behind that joyful, soulful cacao. My journey led me to northern Peru, to an Amazonian region where cacao grows abundantly. I visited cooperatives, farming families, small processing plants. Even though the rainy season had reduced the harvest, I was received with generosity and warmth.
Many families there worked with cacao as a nutritious food without yet knowing its ceremonial dimension, but their connection with the land, their community practices, and their loving care were unmistakable. I felt I was getting closer to the answer I had come to find.
The journey continued to Cusco, where I met Alfredo, a third-generation cacao producer. His cacao was the one that made me laugh in that first tasting. He showed me his production plant, shared his family’s story, and organised a visit to his land.
Reaching his farm felt like entering a world within a world: mountain roads, heavy rains, lush nature. Alfredo showed us the trees planted by his father, the stone where his mother used to make offerings, the cacao trees that held decades of family history. In that place, I felt closer to Sumay than ever.
From that encounter came our Vida Cotidiana cacao paste, a pure Criollo variety that today is part of our daily rituals. But Sumay was not only about cacao: it was community, respect for the earth, the strength of cooperatives, and living medicine.
Soon after, I met a women’s cooperative where joy and dedication filled every step of the process. That moment sealed my decision: I wanted to be part of this project and bring this cacao to Europe, not only for its quality but for everything it represents.
Every sample, every visit, every story revealed that Sumay was not a product.
Sumay was a connection. A vibration. A promise of authenticity.
After learning how they ferment, dry and process the cacao, and after sharing with them how I work with it in ceremonies, a sincere collaboration was born.
Today, Sumay Cacao brings to Europe a pure, non-hybrid, ceremonial-grade cacao, cultivated with love by families and communities who believe in dignity, conscious work, and harmony with the earth. A medicine that continues teaching me every day.
I returned home, but that journey still lives within me. Sumay was both an external and internal journey—a path through mountains, rivers, aromas, silences. An offering. A call to create something true, beautiful, and luminous.
Sumay means “simple, pure, radiant beauty.”
That is what cacao represents to me.
And that is what I hope to share, cup by cup.
