8 Within Ceremonial Cacao

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8 Within Ceremonial Cacao "Find yourself" through gentle plant medicine, then realise you were never lost. Cacao, elixirs, plant wisdom. By Dr Ifey Ihonor
Start your journey today.

18/10/2026

Took me about 6 hours in total to make 5kgs of solid cacao.🙃 If you want to turn it into chocolate, you'd add sugar and cacao butter once the nibs have been ground into a smooth paste.

And if you don't have a stone grinder (I'm aware that most 'normal' people don't), a high powered blender also works well. 😉

So, would you ever make your own cacao?

04/10/2026

If you love cacao but aren't paying attention to the variety you're drinking, you're missing out.

That's because different cacao types have different flavour profiles, biochemical compositions and can provide completely different drinking experiences.

If you hate bitter cacao, go for a genetic criollo variety like chuao. These are mild, chocolately and have virtually zero bitterness. But, I personally don't find these uplifting and activating enough for ceremonial use.

But if you want a highly activating cacao and don't care about bitterness, try a Nacional variety, like Manabi - an Ecuadorian cacao that's very high in polyphenols (the compound that makes cacao taste bitter).

If you're all about indulgence and want a creamy, naturally sweeter cacao, go for Chuncho - an heirloom cacao exclusive to Peru's Sacred Valley. It's also considered one of the most energetically active cacao types.

Which sounds like your ideal cacao?

23/08/2026

Cacao purists... you are welcome.😘 I brought Golden Wave into the 8 Within line up a couple of weeks ago It's the plain Peruvian cacao that comes in button form. It's dark and deep with berry undertones. And it's super activating and energising - basically for those days when you want to  build the cup of cacao you want. I'm thinking I might bring it back for the rest of August. Thoughts?

Cup by

10/08/2026

Just because no one else is doing it this way, doesn't mean you can't.

A beautiful day of medicine making, sitting with hape and cacao, and working with smoke, fire, water and plants to reconnect to the Earth and ourselves. This reel doesn't do it justice at all, but we were busy having the experience rather than documenting it. 😉

Thanks to Salt Studios London for providing such a beautiful space for the day. And a big thank you to the absolutely fabulous group of women who made the day what it was.

Here's to being our own gurus! 😘

16/07/2026

I've said it before and I'll say it again - there's no 'right' way to drink cacao.

It's a practice/ritual that spans multiple cultures and civilisations. And each did it differently.

So, go with what feels aligned to you. And if that rubs someone else up the wrong way, that usually says more about them than you.

And for those curious about the actual cacao drama I'm talking about, I've shared all in my latest Substack - linked in the usual place. ❤️
Xx Dr Ifey

Basically everyone I know in the spiritual wellness space (who hasn't gotten lost in their own hype) has a simultaneous ...
05/07/2026

Basically everyone I know in the spiritual wellness space (who hasn't gotten lost in their own hype) has a simultaneous God/loser complex.

We say we’re taking the plant medicine to connect with the God within, I can’t help but wonder if it’s really to shake off our inner loser.

My full musings are shared in a Substack I wrote a little while back. It's linked in the usual place and I'd love to hear your considered thoughts on this (emphasis on 'considered' if you know what I mean). ❤️ Ifey

21/06/2026

Life is the ceremony. 💫

10/06/2026

So to answer the question, yes you can ice real whole bean cacao and it won't go solid. 😉

We’ve been conditioned by industrial food systems to believe that certain products that require huge amounts of labour, ...
27/05/2026

We’ve been conditioned by industrial food systems to believe that certain products that require huge amounts of labour, time, land, skill and international logistics should somehow still cost next to nothing.

And if there’s one food system this belief runs deepest in, it’s cacao/cocoa.

That’s probably because we’ve spent decades consuming super cheap industrial chocolate products and being taught that anything related to chocolate should cost pennies.

If you're ready to be deprogrammed, I've written a Substack that breaks down why drinking cheap cacao isn't spiritual, it's just exploitative... and how you can make sure the 'ceremonial'cacao you got half price on Amazon isn't just low quality cocoa with sexy marketing.

I've always said there's no single 'right' way to work with cacao, and I stand by that.Dig into the history books and yo...
19/05/2026

I've always said there's no single 'right' way to work with cacao, and I stand by that.

Dig into the history books and you'll find all the different civilisations that used cacao ritualistically did so in different ways.

If you're curious, but not quite curious enough to wade through all the info out there, I've put together a research-based deep dive on all things cacao: from origins and biochemistry to myths and contraindications.

It's linked in the normal place. 😘

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