How do you make ceremonial cacao?
Warm a mug of water or milk until it steams but does not boil, add 15 grams of ceremonial cacao (about five Peru discs or four Colombia squares), and stir until they melt completely. Froth or whisk for a few seconds, then drink it slowly. That is the whole method; the five steps below add the ritual around it.
What you need: a small pan or kettle, a mug, a spoon or whisk, a frother if you have one, and the discs. That is all; there is no special equipment, and nothing to grind.
Prepare your space
Make a quiet moment before you start. Light a candle, open a window, or simply take three slow breaths.
Measure the cacao
Start with 15 grams: about five Peru discs or four Colombia squares. It is a starting point, so adjust from there to your own taste.
Heat your liquid
Warm about a mug of water or milk gently, and take it off the heat before it boils. Our own guidance is simple: warm it gently and avoid boiling, to protect the cacao.
Mix and sip mindfully
Add the discs, stir or whisk until smooth and glossy, then froth if you like. Sip slowly and let the warmth settle in.
Reflect
Sit for a minute with whatever comes up, whether that is clarity, calm or just a quiet start to the day.
Because Chaka is sold as discs of 100 percent cacao paste, there is nothing to chop or grate. The discs melt in hot liquid in a minute or two, and the same count gives you the same cup every morning.
Learning how to prepare ceremonial cacao takes one cup, and the whole thing takes about five minutes from kettle to mug. If you only remember three things, make them these: warm, never boiling; every disc fully melted; and a good froth before you drink. The rest, from the spices to the milk, is up to you.
How much cacao should you use?
Our suggested serving is 15 grams, about five Peru discs or four Colombia squares. Like a pot of coffee, it is a starting point: use a little less for a lighter cup or a little more for a fuller one. There is no single right amount, only the amount that suits you today. These are the three servings on our own guide:
Gentle daily cup
~3 discs · 8–10 g
A light cup alongside breakfast, or in the afternoon in place of a second coffee
Classic full cup
15 g · ~5 Peru discs or 4 Colombia squares
The everyday cup for a morning practice, journaling or focused work
Most PopularDeep ceremony
~7 discs · 20–25 g
A fuller serving for an intentional sitting, with time set aside afterwards
If you like to be exact, weigh it once. Discs vary a little in size, so a kitchen scale tells you what your usual count really is: about 8 to 10 g for the gentle cup, 15 g for the classic and 20 to 25 g for the deep ceremony serving. After a week you will know your number by eye.
How much cacao per day is a personal choice, and the simplest rhythm is one cup. Some drink it every morning; others three to five times a week, or only on the days they sit for a longer practice. At the classic 15 g cup, a one-pound bag lasts about 25 to 30 mornings, which makes it easy to keep a steady rhythm.
Ceremonial cacao recipes: three ways to make it
Every ceremonial cacao drink recipe starts from the same base: discs, hot liquid and a whisk. These three recipes for cacao cover most of what people make at home, from the plainest cup to a spiced one in the old Mesoamerican style. If you are wondering how to make a cacao drink for the first time, start with the first one.
1. The pure cup
You need: 15 g (about 5 Peru discs or 4 Colombia squares), a mug of water, and a pinch of sea salt if you like.
- Heat the water until it steams, then take it off the heat.
- Add the discs and stir until no pieces are left.
- Add the salt, froth for ten seconds and drink while it is warm.
This is the cup to start with, because water lets the origin speak: Peru tastes deep and earthy, Colombia bright, with cherry and citrus.
2. The spiced cup
You need: a 15 g serving, a mug of water or half water and half milk, a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon, a small pinch of chili or cayenne, a drop of vanilla, and honey or maple syrup to taste.
- Warm the liquid with the cinnamon and chili for a minute, without letting it boil.
- Add the discs and vanilla and stir until melted.
- Sweeten to taste, whisk hard until it foams, and drink.
Chili and vanilla are the old pairing: the Aztec drink mixed cacao with water, maize, chili and vanilla or other spices, beaten into a froth (Australian Museum). Start with less chili than you think; it builds as you drink.
3. The half-and-half cup
You need: a 15 g serving, half a mug of water and half a mug of milk or oat milk.
- Melt the discs in the hot water first, stirring until smooth.
- Warm the milk separately and pour it in.
- Froth until the top is thick and pale, then drink.
You keep most of the cacao flavor of the water cup with some of the body of a milk drink, which makes it a good everyday middle ground and the easiest ceremonial cacao recipe to make for someone new to cacao.
How to make hot cacao
Hot cacao is ceremonial cacao made as a creamier, sweeter drink: whole milk or a plant milk, a little sweetener and a good froth. It is closer to hot chocolate in feel, but there is no sugar or milk powder in the cacao itself, so you choose how sweet it gets.
For one hot cacao recipe, warm a mug of milk or oat milk until it steams, then whisk in a 15 g serving. Add one or two teaspoons of maple syrup or honey, a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of salt, then froth until it holds a thick foam. For a richer cup, use whole milk; for a lighter one, use half water. Oat milk froths best among plant milks, while almond milk gives a thinner cup.
Hot cacao or hot chocolate?
Hot chocolate is usually made from a mix of cocoa powder, sugar and milk powder, or from sweetened chocolate. Hot cacao starts from whole cacao paste, with nothing pressed out and nothing added, and you add the milk and sweetener yourself. The result is darker, less sweet and more filling, with a thicker foam.
What to do with cacao paste discs
Drink them first, and use the rest in the kitchen. Cacao paste discs are pure, unsweetened cacao, so anything you would make with unsweetened dark chocolate works with them. At Chaka Cacao the discs are made for the daily cup, but they are just as useful outside it:
- Grate a disc over oatmeal, yoghurt or fruit.
- Blend two or three discs into a smoothie with banana and nut butter.
- Melt them into energy balls with dates and nuts.
- Chop them into baking in place of unsweetened chocolate, adding sweetener to the recipe.
- Melt a few into a sauce for fruit, with a little milk and honey.
- Eat a disc on its own, slowly, as a bitter, grounding square of pure cacao.
Storing your discs
Keep the bag sealed, somewhere cool, dry and dark, away from the stove and direct sun. Cacao paste picks up smells easily, so keep it away from spices and coffee. If the discs warm up and show pale streaks when they set again, that is the cacao butter moving to the surface; they still melt into the same cup.
Water or milk?
Water gives the cleanest taste of the cacao; milk gives a rounder, creamier cup and softens the bitterness. Neither is wrong. If you are tasting an origin for the first time, try it with water once, then make it the way you like. Our Colombian cacao is bright, with cherry, citrus and floral notes, and shines in water or with oat milk.
With milk, each kind changes the cup. Whole milk makes the richest, most dessert-like drink. Oat milk is the favorite plant milk for cacao, because it is naturally a little sweet and froths well. Almond milk is lighter and lets more of the cacao through. Coconut milk, diluted with water, adds body and a tropical note that suits the spiced cup. Whatever you choose, warm it gently, because milk scorches faster than water.
Peru
The OriginalColombia
New ArrivalCeremonial cacao or cacao powder?
Chaka sells ceremonial cacao, not cacao powder, and the two make very different cups. Cacao powder is what is left after most of the cacao butter has been pressed out, so a powder cup is thinner and less rich, and it rarely froths the same way. Ceremonial cacao keeps the whole bean, fat included, which is why it comes as a solid paste of discs or squares rather than a powder.
Processing can take out more than the fat. A paste cup coats the mouth and holds a froth; a powder cup is closer to a cocoa drink. Powder labelled Dutch-processed or alkalized has also been treated with alkali, which in one survey of commercial powders lowered flavanols from an average of 34.6 mg per gram in natural cocoa to 3.9 mg in the most heavily processed (Miller et al., 2008). Chaka's cacao is not alkalized: its certificates show a pH of 5.2 to 5.4 for Colombia and 5.3 for Peru, the natural range. For the ritual cup, ceremonial cacao is the form to use.
When to make it part of your day
Whenever you can give it ten unhurried minutes. Many people drink ceremonial cacao in the morning, as the first quiet moment of the day, or in the early afternoon as a reset. Some keep a fuller cup for a weekly sitting, on their own or with friends, which is where the cacao ceremony comes in.
Making cacao for a group
To make cacao for several people, multiply the single cup: a 15 g serving and a mug of liquid per person, warmed together in one pan. Melt the discs over low heat, stirring all the time, then froth in batches or ladle it between two jugs to raise a foam. Pour into cups at the same time, so everyone starts together.
The ritual matters more than the clock. Make it the same way each time, sit down to drink it rather than carrying it around, and let the preparation be part of the practice. That repetition is what turns a drink into a ritual.
How to get a smooth, frothy cup
Keep the liquid below boiling, make sure every disc has melted, then froth. Foam has always been part of the drink: Maya spouted vessels from Colha in Belize, dated to around 600 BC, held cacao residues, and the foam was raised by pouring the drink back and forth from one vessel to another (Penn Museum). Today an electric frother does the same job in ten seconds, and you can buy the Chaka electric frother in our shop.
Any of the usual tools works. A handheld frother is the quickest and gives the finest foam. A blender gives the smoothest cup, especially with milk, but needs a lid held down with a towel when the drink is hot. A whisk in the pan works if you whisk hard for twenty seconds. Pouring between two jugs, the old way, takes practice and a sink nearby.
- Grainy or gritty? Stir longer, or add the discs to a little hot liquid first, melt them into a paste, then top up.
- Oily on top? The cacao butter has separated. Froth again, or blend for a few seconds.
- Too bitter? Add a splash of milk, a pinch of salt or a little honey or maple syrup.
- Too thin? Add a disc, or use half milk.
- Cools too fast? Warm the mug first with a splash of hot water, then pour it out.
- No frother? Shake it in a sealed jar, use a blender, or whisk briskly in the pan.
Common questions
What can I make with cacao?
Mostly drinks, and a few treats. Ceremonial cacao paste melts into hot water or milk for a daily cup, a spiced hot cacao or a fuller ceremonial serving. Grated or chopped, it also goes into energy balls, smoothies and baking, where it behaves like unsweetened dark chocolate.
How do you ingest ceremonial cacao?
You drink it. Melt the discs into water or milk kept below boiling, whisk or froth until smooth, then drink it slowly while it is warm. Some people also eat a disc on its own, but most of the ritual sits in preparing and drinking the cup.
How do you make ceremonial cacao with water?
Heat about a cup of water until hot but not boiling, add 15 grams (about five Peru discs or four Colombia squares) and stir until they melt completely. Froth or whisk for a few seconds so the cacao butter blends in. Water lets the origin's own flavor come through more than milk does.
What is the best way to make ceremonial cacao?
Slowly, and below boiling. Warm the liquid gently, add the discs, stir until fully melted, then froth. Measure the same way each time so you learn how much suits you, and drink it without rushing. The method matters more than any recipe you add to it.
Can I make ceremonial cacao in the microwave?
Yes. Heat the water or milk in the microwave until hot but not boiling, then stir in the discs until they melt and blend. A stove gives you more control over the temperature, but a microwave works for a quick morning cup if you froth it afterwards.
Can you make cacao ahead or drink it iced?
Yes. Make a concentrated batch with less liquid, let it cool and keep it covered in the fridge, then reheat it gently or pour it over ice with cold milk. Shake or whisk it again before serving, because the cacao butter settles as it cools.