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You may not have heard of cacao bloom, but you’ve probably seen it. Have you ever opened a block of cacao and found it looked different from the rich, silky, dark brown slab that you associate with “quality” chocolate?
If your block is whitish and crumbly, you are probably looking at ceremonial cacao bloom. It’s easy to assume that a white, crumbly block is inferior in quality to a shiny, smooth one. But this is not the case. Bloom isn’t bad for you, or the cacao. It’s simply the cacao butter starting to separate from the solid block. It’s a natural process that changes the colour and texture of the cacao.
When cacao butter starts to melt it separates from the block of cacao and rises to settle on the surface. The separated cacao butter produces a whitish, dusty, sometimes bubbly effect on the cacao, also causing it to crumble more easily. This bloom process happens quicker in some ceremonial cacao blocks than others, even if they come from the same batch.
Bloom can also be sped up by heat, e.g., a block is left in the sun until it goes soft (but not enough to fully melt). When the block hardens again, there will likely be bloom from the separated butter. But if the block were heated until it completely turned to liquid, it would set once again into a dark, hard block, as the cacao butter would mix back into the solution.
If your cacao has bloomed you could try this: Heat the cacao until it fully melts, pour into a mould, and let it cool to harden. Then marvel at how it forms again as a dark block with no bloom.
Ceremonial Cacao goes through very little processing. There are a few steps involved but essentially it is simply the whole bean ground. Nothing added, nothing removed. Sacred Earth Medicine Ceremonial Cacao was created this way so that it retains the highest medicinal properties. But this means bloom can occur more easily with Ceremonial Cacao.
Regular chocolate uses chemical additives like emulsifiers to prevent the butter from separating out. It is also tempered. The chocolate is heated and cooled multiple times to very high temperatures to hold the butter within the ground cacao solution. This gives chocolate that smooth, glossy look, and stops it from melting easily but it changes the structure of the cacao. Dairy, sugar and preservatives are also added to produce regular chocolate.
These additions reduce the sacred and spiritual properties of the cacao. With Sacred Earth Medicine, the bloom effect is a sign that your cacao is a whole bean product, untempered, without additives. This is all good news if you’re looking for ceremonial grade cacao that retains the greatest structural integrity and 100% pure, organic and spiritual properties.
Bloom is a natural process and doesn't affect the properties of the cacao in any way. If your block has bloom, we recommend chopping it up then grinding or powdering the whole block to mix all the components together again before use. Now proceed as per normal. Make a couple of sacred hot chocolates. Sample them for taste and spiritual properties. Back in the day, this is what the Chocolate Shaman recommended to us. We encourage you to do the same!
Yule, the Winter Solstice, is a powerful time to journey in to the magic and mystery, to receive wisdom and guidance from beyond the veils. This guided meditation journey for Yule harnesses the stillness of the longest night, inviting you to take time for deep rest, reflection, and renewal.
What if cacao is actually a sacred plant teacher that’s been quietly waiting for us to remember? And does cacao hold power as an Entheogen – a plant capable of connecting us to the divine?
If, like many of our cacao enthusiasts, you’re curious about the optimal dose of cacao for particular activities, then read on for our tried and tested recommendations.
The Wheel of the Year consists of 8 Sabbats or festivals which occur at different pivotal times throughout the year, 4 greater Sabbats and 4 lesser.
