Many ceremony cocoas are imported directly from the countries of origin to Germany without being processed further. In the beginning we did that too. We imported about 200kg of raw cocoa from a small factory directly in Trinidad to Berlin. Sure, that was exciting. A bit like a cross between Scar Face and Willy Wonka.
But we faced too many problems. Inconsistent quality has resulted in the blocks tasting different each time. A very coarse cocoa grind has resulted in our customers complaining about grounds at the bottom of a cup (similar to coffee grounds). It scratched many people's throats and they had to cough from it.n.
The blocks were cumbersome and difficult to store.
In addition, the blocks were difficult to handle, especially for yoga teachers who wanted to do a cocoa ceremony in a small circle. They had to scrape the cocoa off the block with a knife each time, and it wasn't easy for them to dose it either. Sometimes it even happened to us that we oversalted the cocoa at a ceremony. Nobody who organizes a cocoa ceremony wants that! Salt is important when mixing cocoa with water because the salt both reduces bitterness and rounds out the taste. But there is no such thing as too much salt!
A block of cocoa could hardly be stored if it was not completely used up. As a result, the aroma of the cocoa evaporates - just like with coffee beans that are stored openly. All in all, we realized that we needed something better for our ceremonies. Cocoa produced with consistent quality, freshly roasted, vacuum packed, in resealable packaging.
Now we have our ceremony cocoa freshly roasted and produced in Berlin.
That's why we started working directly with chocolate manufacturers in Berlin, who make the ceremonial cocoa according to our wishes. For example, the bars already contain the perfect dose of salt, so all you have to do is mix the cocoa with the right amount of water. Through a number of tests, we came up with the right recipe and the right bar size, so that you can simply use 100ml of hot water per square. Never oversalt again!
In addition, our ceremony cocoa is freshly roasted in Berlin and vacuum-packed, resulting in an incredible taste explosion. We can now work with different cocoa beans from different countries, so that we can offer a variety of strong cocoa varieties for ceremonies - for example from Trinidad, Guatemala, Ecuador and Belize. So in theory, we can work with any cocoa bean that's grown fairly and wildly or in a forest garden.
Our bars are easy to dose, resealable, prettier and sell better.
Our bars are the same product as the cocoa ceremony blocks you can buy elsewhere - just finer ground, freshly roasted in Berlin, flavored with salt, conveniently poured into bars and vacuum packed,in beautifully designed resealable packaging. They are already used by many yoga teachers and healers in Berlin, Germany and Europe for cocoa ceremonies. Because they look so beautiful and are not too big and expensive at 200g, our ceremony cocoa bars are perfect for resale to the participants of a ceremony.
Our supply chain is now rock solid and we can deliver several kilos within a few days.
We no longer have to worry about bottlenecks in delivery. No more nasty surprises, mold and inferior quality. We are very happy to have taken the step towards becoming a chocolate manufacturer, which enables us to further explore the universe of cocoa in all its facets and to share this diversity with our partners. After all, the participants in a cocoa ceremony also expect a certain culinary experience.
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