2% RECIPROCITY
Made with Care in the Netherlands
Where reciprocity comes home, our cacao is blended and packed by people who pour real heart into every batch.
Reciprocity Begins at Home
Giving back is the heart of everything we do at Herbal Cacao. It begins at origin, with the Indigenous Maya families who grow our cacao, but we never wanted it to stop there. We believe reciprocity should also come home: to our own country, and to people here who deserve a real chance to work with dignity, purpose and pride.
So every disc and block of Herbal Cacao is blended and packed in the Netherlands together with DZB, a social workplace, hand-finished by people with a distance to the labour market, who do it with remarkable passion. This page is our way of honouring them.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND YOUR CACAO
Hands That Care
Your cacao isn't finished by machines alone. It is weighed, blended and packed by hand by the team at DZB, a social workplace here in the Netherlands, where people who, for many different reasons, find it harder to gain a foothold in ordinary working life. A mental or physical disability that has left them in a gap in the long road back to work and community.
Given the chance and the right support, they show up with focus and pride. You can feel it in the care that goes into every pouch. This is meaningful work, steady, valued and real, and it matters deeply, to them and to us. you can feel the community spirit deeply alive in this special workplace and that travels through every blend made bu hand here
Why This Matters to Us
Cacao has always been more than a chocolate. For the Maya it is a plant of connection and community, something you share, something that brings people together and reminds us we belong to one another. We want our whole company to carry that same spirit, at every step.
Fair prices and projects at origin are one half of that promise. The other half is here at home: creating real, dignified work for people who need the opportunity, and honouring the quiet passion they bring to it. Cacao stands for community, so our cacao should build community, on both sides of the ocean.
Creating a Ripple Effect of Positive Change
From the Farm to Your Cup
Ethical sourcing that stops at the border isn't truly ethical. So the care that begins with the Maya families at origin travels all the way home, to the hands that blend and pack your cacao in the Netherlands.
Every person who touches your Herbal Cacao, from the family who tends the tree where the beans come from, to the person who seals the final pouch, is met with the same respect and fairness.
From soil to sip, from bean to to cup, one unbroken circle of love and care. That is the business we're building.
Leaving a positive imprint at every stage of the supply chain, ensuring it resonates with every sip of our cacao
Nothing Is Wasted
Reciprocity isn't only something we owe to people, it's something we owe to the earth. So we built Herbal Cacao to give back to nature too, and to leave as little behind as we can. Nothing that comes from the cacao is thrown away.
Even the husk, the papery shell around the bean that most makers simply discard, carries life in it. It can be brewed into a delicioius fruity cacao-husk tea, or returned to the soil as rich, natural fertiliser. What would be waste becomes a new beginning. This is the circle we believe in: everything the plant gives us finds its way back into something living.
THE COMMUNITY GARDEN
Held by Mother Earth
DZB has a special place within it, a community garden for people who are seriously unwell, who for now cannot find their footing anywhere else. Here there is no pressure to perform. They come simply to put their hands in the soil, to grow something, and to be held by mother earth while they heal. For many, it is the gentlest and most grounding work there is.
This is where our circle closes. The leftover cacao husk from our blends goes straight to that garden as natural fertiliser, so the same plant that supports Maya families at origin now helps this community grow big, healthy fruit, vegetables and herbs right here in the Netherlands. From a Maya highland, to a Dutch garden bed, one plant keeps on giving.
Cacao Is Community
“Cacao has always brought people together, that is her gift. We simply try to honour it, from the Maya highlands all the way to a workshop here in the Netherlands.”
- Sharon
Made in the Netherlands — Your Questions
Our cacao is blended and packed in the Netherlands, together with DZB, a local social workplace.
The team at DZB, a social workplace, including people with a distance to the labour market, who finish every batch by hand.
Because we believe reciprocity should come home too. Creating dignified, supported work in our own country is as much a part of giving back as our work at origin.
Yes — it's one of the ways our reciprocity shows up, alongside the support we give the Indigenous Maya communities who grow our cacao.
Only for the better. Hand-finishing means real people, with real care and pride, check and pack every batch.
Nothing goes to waste. The husk is brewed into a fruity cacao-husk tea, or given to DZB's community garden as natural fertiliser — where people who are healing grow fruit, vegetables and herbs. It's how our reciprocity reaches nature too.
THE WHOLE CIRCLE
Reciprocity, From Origin to Home
From the Indigenous Maya families who grow our cacao, to the hands that blend it with care in the Netherlands — every part of Herbal Cacao is built on giving back. Discover how it all connects.