Ceremonial.
A word that has suddenly become trendy.
Today, almost any dark cocoa seems to wear it like a label on its forehead:
industrial powder dressed up as sacred, origins simplified into one word —“Ecuador”, “Peru”, “Colombia”— products that change flavor as quickly as a marketing trend, projects that have never touched the soil they claim to honor.
And yet, ceremonial cacao is something else entirely.
It is a deeper truth.
A living bond.
A relationship between people, land, and spirit.
Ceremonial cacao is born from trust:
Trust in those who grow the plant.
Trust in the humid forest that protects it.
Trust in the moment when the pod is opened and white pulp coats your hands.
It does not exist if we don’t know where it comes from, who tends to it, and how its journey is honored —from seed to the altar of the kitchen.
At Sumay, we have been there.
We have looked into the eyes of the women and men who tend this medicine.
We are united by a silent agreement: respect, presence, reciprocity.
Here in Spain, we continue that same way of treating cacao: as what it truly is.
A medicine.
Ceremonial cacao: the ancestral spirit
Before chocolate existed, cacao was currency.
It was a symbol of community power.
It was a drink for threshold moments: weddings, farewells, decisions that shaped destinies.
It was taken when life became serious and nature had something to say.
The native cacao —non-hybrid, untouched— preserves that ancient pulse.
It is strong, emotional, straightforward.
Not always the sweetest… but always the most truthful.
Some cacao tastes like a trend.
Some cacao tastes like memory.
And memory, when awakened… transforms.
Life is a ceremony
The beauty of ceremonial cacao is that it does not need a bonfire or a perfect circle to do its work.
It acts when you pause.
When you inhale the steam rising from your cup.
When you remember your heart is beating… and that being alive is already worth celebrating.
Ceremony is the hand holding the cup.
Ceremony is the silence after the first sip.
Ceremony is gratitude for what already is.
Every morning can be sacred.
Every night too.
Because life itself is a ceremony —even when we forget.
So… what makes cacao ceremonial?
Its truth.
Its origin.
The intention behind its planting, harvest, and preparation.
The spirit it carries.
And the way you receive it.
When both forces meet —the cacao and you— the ritual begins:
Connection.
Presence.
Gratitude.
And in that moment…
it is no longer a drink.
It is a bridge.
Thank you for being alive.
If you wish to walk with a cacao that honors its roots, here is ours:
👉 Discover ceremonial cacaos
👉 Experience the ritual in Ronda
