5 Favorite Recipes for Ceremonial Cacao

Simple, nourishing blends to awaken your heart and elevate your daily ritual

Over the past few years, I’ve spent a lot of time experimenting in the kitchen, refining how I prepare cacao for both personal rituals and community ceremonies. Cacao is a living medicine — she responds to intention, environment, and creativity. What I love most is that no two cups are ever the same, yet each one brings me deeper into presence and connection.

Here are a few of my favorite recipes — ones I return to again and again, whether I’m preparing for a meditation, a ceremony, or simply a morning of creative work.

The Classic Ceremonial Cup

This is the simplest and purest way to enjoy cacao — rich, earthy, and deeply grounding.

• 1–1.5 oz pure ceremonial cacao, chopped

• 6–8 oz hot water

• Dash of cinnamon or cayenne (optional)

• Pinch of sea salt

Whisk until smooth and creamy. Sip slowly, with gratitude.

Clarity Cacao Dream

This is the perfect blend when you’re looking for a grounding aid, mental focus and to release any worries. Peppermint awakens your intuition, and provides clear insight while cardamom is used for mental focus or inner peace

Ingredients:

• 1–1.5 oz pure cacao

• 6–8 oz hot water

• 1 tsp peppermint leaves (steeped as a tea, then strained)

• Cardamom

• Pure Vanilla Extract

• Raw Honey

This cup awakens your sense, clears stagnation, and calls in focus.

Lavender Blend

I went on a lavender kick last year and everything in my home was lavender scented, including my cacao. Highly recommend using this for — yes a calming effect, but also to promote harmony, peaceful sleep, and attract abundance. This is definitely one of my favorite recipes to date.

Ingredients:

• 1–1.5 oz pure cacao

• 6 oz hot oat milk

• 3-5 drops lavender essential oil (food grade)

• Dash of cinnamon

• Pure vanilla extract

• Raw honey

A balancing cup that soothes the nervous system and connects you back to earth.

Heart-Opening Rose Cacao

A softer, more sensual version of cacao that pairs beautifully with journaling or evening rituals. The perfect cacao for softening into your heart in the most luxurious way.

Ingredients:

• 1–1.5 oz pure cacao

• 6–8 oz hot water or coconut milk

• 1 tsp rose petals (steeped as tea, then strained)

• 1 tsp honey or maple syrup

• Sprinkle of cinnamon, cloves, and cardomom

This blend feels like drinking a love letter.

Spiced Fire Elixir

Perfect for mornings when you want a bold, activating start.

• 1–1.5 oz pure cacao

• 6 oz hot water

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp cayenne or chili powder

• 1 tsp coconut sugar or raw honey

• Tiny pinch of black pepper

This cup awakens your body and activates your fire.

Your Cacao Ritual

No matter the recipe, the most important ingredient is intention. Before drinking, I always pause — offering gratitude to the cacao, to the land, and to the people who cultivated it. From that place of reverence, each sip becomes medicine.

These are my personal favorites, but I’d love to hear yours too. How do you prepare your cacao? What’s your favorite ritual to pair it with?