Every cup of cacao has a personality.
Some feel grounding and steady, others bright and expansive, and some carry a depth that seems to reach straight into the heart.

And here at Herbal Cacao, we work with three unique Natural cacao origins, each with its own flavour, energy, lineage, and landscape:

• Belize (Maya Mountain) - our original, Natural blend

• Guatemala (Lachua) - launched in July 2025

• Guatemala (Alta Verapaz) - arriving as our newest Natural origin in early 2026

These origins are also the foundations of our blends. Depending on the emotional and energetic qualities we want a blend to carry (think softness, brightness, depth, or grounding), we choose the origin that holds that expression.

Have you ever noticed how one cacao leaves you feeling uplifted, another deeply calm, and another gently open-hearted?

There’s a reason for that.

Cacao isn’t just an ingredient; it is an ecosystem.
A relationship between soil, rain, altitude, biodiversity, and the Maya communities who have tended this plant for generations.

And because of that, where cacao grows changes the way it touches you.

My name is Sharon Fernie, and I am the Founder of Herbal Cacao, providing the world with high-quality Herbal Cacao Blends. Today, I want to take you into the three origins that shape our cacao: their flavours, their energies, their stories, and the communities who carry this lineage with care.

Let’s begin with my baby, the cacao origin that marked the very beginning of Herbal Cacao.

Belize — Maya Mountain

Soft • Heart-Opening • High Vibrational • Loving

In the southern highlands of Belize, our cacao is grown by over 400 Indigenous Maya family farmers of the Mopan and Q’eqchi’ nations, communities who carry an unbroken relationship with cacao stretching back thousands of years.

Here, the ancient Criollo variety (often called the Queen of Cacao) grows in biodiverse agroforestry systems with deep reverence for La Madre Tierra. These forest gardens are living ecosystems: cacao interwoven with mahogany, vanilla, plantain, fruit trees, and countless other species that nourish the soil and protect the land.

This is cacao grown in community, in relationship, and in ceremony.

Taste Profile

Belize cacao carries a smooth, creamy fullness that is both comforting and uplifting.
Sensory notes include:

• Sweet fruits

• Creamy body

• Soft nutty undertones
  

It has a harmonious, balanced flavour without harsh edges. 


Energetic Profile

• High vibrational

• Soothing

• Loving

• Heart-opening

It invites emotional warmth, gentle presence, and connection, making it a beautiful ally for daily rituals, intention setting, and moments of self-love.

Growing Conditions

These cacao trees thrive in organic, sustainable, biodiverse agroforestry systems, tended with ancestral knowledge passed down through generations. Unlike mono-cropped cacao grown for commodity markets, this cacao grows in harmony with the forest. This relationship protects biodiversity and preserves the genetic purity of the Criollo variety.

Cultural Lineage

To the Mopan and Q’eqchi’ Maya, cacao is sacred.
It is medicine.
It is ceremony.

It is a bridge between the physical and spiritual realms, used for healing, offerings, celebration, and connection.

This lineage infuses Belize cacao with its signature softness and heart-centered spirit, a flavour shaped not just by soil, but by culture, reverence, and relationship.

Ethical Sourcing & Social Impact

Because Criollo cacao is now endangered by large-scale cacao corporations, we purchase these beans at a premium price to protect the variety, support Indigenous farmers, and preserve cultural and ecological heritage.

Together, we create a supply chain rooted in ethics, dignity, and love from bean to cup.

Belize cacao, in many ways, is the heart of what we do:
a plant medicine grown with intention, carried by tradition, and shared in community.

Guatemala — Laguna Lachua (Tropical Rainforest)

Bright • Uplifting • High Vibrational • Heart-Opening

In the lush tropical rainforest surrounding Laguna Lachuá, a pristine cenote lake in northern Guatemala, cacao grows in one of the most vibrant ecosystems on earth. Many of the Q’eqchi’ Maya families who cultivate this cacao live off the grid, tending their lands in harmony with the forest just as their ancestors have done for thousands of years.

Here, native cacao trees grow alongside honey, cardamom, corn, and countless other crops. This interwoven biodiversity doesn’t just enrich the soil, it subtly shapes the cacao’s flavour, giving Lachua cacao its rare, refined, and naturally bright character.

Taste Profile

Lachua cacao feels vibrant and alive, awakening the senses with light, refreshing clarity.
Sensory notes include:

• Tangy fresh berries

• Nutty undertones

• Light mocha notes
  
  

Its finish is clean and refreshing, making this origin an ideal companion for morning rituals, creativity, or daytime uplift.

Energetic Profile

• High vibrational

• Uplifting

• Gently heart-opening

• Clarifying

Lachua cacao brings a sense of mental freshness, like morning air inside a rainforest canopy.

Growing Conditions

Rainfall is abundant, the canopy dense, and the soil richly alive.
In this rainforest ecosystem, everything is in a state of continuous renewal: leaves falling, decomposing, feeding the earth. This cycle energizes the cacao trees and contributes to Lachua’s bright, uplifting personality.

The biodiversity around Laguna Lachua creates ideal conditions for cacao to thrive, producing beans that are both delicate and deeply expressive.

Cultural Lineage

The Q’eqchi’ Maya have long been guardians of this sacred land and of cacao itself. Their ceremonial and agricultural wisdom has survived centuries of suppression, carried forward through generations of family farmers who honour La Madre Tierra in every part of their stewardship.

These communities work in partnership with organizations such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), FUNDALACHUA, and FundaSistemas to protect the land around Laguna Lachua from threats like palm oil expansion. Together, they safeguard the lagoon, preserve biodiversity, and uphold a way of life rooted in reciprocity and respect.

This relationship between people, land, and spirit infuses Lachua cacao with its unmistakably clarifying, uplifting presence, a reflection of a rainforest that is alive with movement, intelligence, and heart.

Guatemala — Alta Verapaz (Cloud forest)

Deep • Grounding • Transformational • Intense

High in the misty cloud forests of Alta Verapaz, cacao grows among cool mountain air, filtered sunlight, and mineral-rich soils. This slower-growing environment gives the cacao time to concentrate its flavour, resulting in beans with remarkable depth and a powerful energetic presence.

These ancestral highlands, mentioned in the Popol Vuh, the Maya creation story, are more than landscapes. They are spiritual guardians.

For thousands of years, cacao has been revered here as sacred medicine, a bridge between the seen and unseen. Farmers still offer prayers and ceremonies to honour the spirits of the land, asking for protection, guidance, and balance.

This cacao is tended by both Q’eqchi’ and Poqomchi’ Maya communities, each bringing their own lineage of wisdom:

• The Qʼeqchiʼ with their agricultural mastery

• The Poqomchiʼ with their ceremonial traditions centered on grounding, protection, and spiritual clarity

Together, they cultivate a cacao that carries the stabilizing essence of the mountains themselves.

Taste Profile

Alta Verapaz cacao is the boldest and most complex of our three origins.
Sensory notes include:

• Ripe cherries

• Cardamom and warm spice

• Earthy depth, grounding undertones

Its long, steady finish makes it a powerful ally for ceremony, meditation, or deep inner work.

Energetic Profile

• High vibrational

• Grounding

• Intense

• Energizing

• Heart-opening in a deep, stabilizing way
  
  

This is cacao that meets you with strength, support, and clarity.

Growing Conditions

Cloud forest cacao grows slowly beneath cool temperatures and filtered light.
This unhurried rhythm creates beans with:

• Concentrated flavour

• Structure

• Density

• A strong energetic signature

It is cacao shaped by shadow and mist, by altitude and mineral-rich soil, by a land that teaches patience and inner grounding.

Cultural Lineage

Alta Verapaz is the homeland of both the Q’eqchi’ and Poqomchi’ Maya.
Their relationship with cacao is ancient, ceremonial, and deeply protective.

This land, rich with sacred history, is one of the last places where a rare local cacao known as Acriollado grows. It carries the softness of ancient Criollo cacao, the delicate variety cherished by the Maya, together with a touch of Trinitario, a hardier cacao known for adding depth, structure, and subtle spice to both flavour and energy.

This unique cacao reflects the soul of the cloud forest: layered, mysterious, potent, alive.

Community Collaboration — FEDECOVERA

Our cacao from Alta Verapaz comes through a beautiful partnership with FEDECOVERA, one of Guatemala’s leading Indigenous cooperatives representing over 25,000 Q’eqchi’ and Poqomchi’ farmers.

Through this cooperative, farmers receive:

• Access to healthcare

• Housing support

• Low or 0% interest loans

• Organic farming education

• Technical support

• Leadership training (especially for women and youth)

This collaborative system strengthens local communities while protecting sacred traditions and preserving the rainforest’s biodiversity.

It is cacao grown not only with skill, but with dignity, empowerment, and intergenerational care.

Why This Origin Matters to Us

Already used in our Golden Focus and Divine Strength blends, Alta Verapaz holds a special place in our hearts! Which is why we are releasing a new Natural Alta Verapaz cacao in early 2026.
This launch honours the land, lineage, and farmers who carry this extraordinary cacao forward.

Alta Verapaz is more than a flavour profile.
It is a story of mountains, ancestors, prayer, resilience, and deep-rooted beauty, carried bean by bean into your cup.

Why We Work With Multiple Origins

As cacao becomes more cherished around the world, it also becomes more scarce.
Many ancient cacao trees are vulnerable to climate shifts and unsustainable mass-market harvesting.

Working with multiple origins allows us to:

• Protect biodiversity

• Honour different Maya farming communities

• Support ecological stability

• Preserve cacao’s ancestral lineages

• Select origins intentionally based on ritual energy

It also allows you to choose cacao based on what your heart and body need in the moment.

How I Choose the Origin That Speaks to Me

When I sit with cacao, I don’t choose with my mind first.
I listen.
To my body. To my breath. To the subtle feeling of what this moment is asking for.

Each origin carries its own rhythm, its own medicine. This is how I experience them:

If I’m entering ceremony or sacred ritual…

When I’m setting intention, or opening my heart in a ceremonial way, I choose Belize.

It carries a gentle, loving energy that feels deeply supportive in ritual.

Belize cacao helps me soften, drop into presence, and create a space where the heart can open safely and naturally.

This is the cacao I reach for when I want to move slowly, with reverence.

If I’m meeting the day with openness and creativity…

When I want clarity, inspiration, or a sense of lightness, I choose Guatemala - Lachua.

It feels bright and alive, like morning air moving through the rainforest.

This cacao supports focus, creativity, and fresh perspective, making it a beautiful companion for daytime rituals or creative flow.

If I’m going inward for depth and grounding…

When I need stability, strength, or support for deeper inner work, I turn to Guatemala - Alta Verapaz.

It carries the grounding presence of the cloud forest, steady, powerful, and anchoring.

This is the cacao I choose for meditation, ceremony with depth, or moments that call for clarity and courage.

Where Each Origin Lives in Our Blends

Belize - Maya Mountain

✨ Natural (Belize)
✨ Signature
✨ Pasión
✨ Blissful Intuition

Guatemala - Lachua

✨ Natural (Guatemala)
✨ Awaken Your Spirit (special edition)

Guatemala - Alta Verapaz

✨ Golden Focus (Lion’s Mane)
✨ Divine Strength
✨ New Natural Alta Verapaz coming in 2026

Carrying the Story Into Your cup

Cacao is a relationship.

A relationship with the land, with the farmers who tend it, with ancient lineages, and with the deeper parts of ourselves that awaken when we sit in ritual.

Where your cacao comes from matters. Not only for taste, but for the story it carries into your hands.

May this journey into our origins help you choose the cacao that speaks to your heart, supports your spirit, and guides you gently along your path.