What I learnt about the heritage of cacao on my trip to Peru
Five years ago, my youngest brother decided to create a family tree, and he found out that my dad had some family who moved to Peru in the nineteenth century. One of them even had the same name as me, Edward Otis McCulloch. Although I was drinking cacao I didn't link the two things straight away. But after I started Cacao Co, I decided to get in touch with one of my second cousins, Luis. And on Boxing Day I got on a plane to Lima to meet him and my cousins Carolina and Jacqueline.
When I arrived, Carolina took me to a cacao café in Lima where I had cacao muesli for breakfast. I’d started learning Spanish before I left Brighton with a teacher who had lived in Lima. She told me that although cacao is very special in Peru, not everyone can access the ceremonial grade, a lot of people just drink hot chocolate because that's what they can afford. One of my cousins Jacqueline said that they use cacao to make ice pops at home.
I got introduced to a conscious community in Lima, and at New Year my cousin Carolina and I went to a cacao ceremony on the outskirts, in the foothills of the mountains. She'd never been to anything like that before and it was nice that we could share that experience together. The sound of the music and the percussion was incredible. It was the kind of place where everyone opens up to each other. We came around the fire to drink cacao and meditate together. The cacao was thinner than we make it in Brighton and it didn’t feel as strong, but it was an amazing experience. First, they asked us to think about what we wanted to shed for the new year. Once we’d written that down, we threw it into the fire. Then we had to write down what we’d been working towards in the new year, and we put that on the altar. We had to say our name and jump over the fire, which is the action of transforming into the new year. The fire is quite big. I thought: ‘you want me to jump over that?’ but I did it. Then they brought out this mini bed of nails and played a mantra song while banging a drum. Carolina went first, and then I followed. The nails are close together and not very high. It’s about spreading your weight, if you put your heel on it would push into your skin.
We’ve been in the process of getting an organic certification for Cacao Co and I’d contacted an ex-organic food inspector called Gerado in Peru. I went to San Martin, one of the main cacao growing regions to meet him. He's retired but now trains groups of people how to work with cacao. He introduced me to a small batch farmer and his family who drove me from Tarapoto airport to their cacao farm. We used Google Translate to talk about cacao. Although I visited a history museum in Peru and learnt about the Incas, I didn’t discuss the history of cacao until I went there. There's a big debate between where cacao was really discovered, was it Mexico or was it in Peru? Of course, the Peruvians swear it was Peru.
Their farm is in the jungle and as we went through we picked fresh cacao, opened it with a machete to take off the lid and eat the beans in their purest form. Depending on the variety of bean, you get different tastes. The Criollo bean taste is the sweetest thing you've ever tried and – at the same time – it's the most bitter. The intensity of the taste is incredible – it leaves you feeling calm, nourished and uplifted. Later, when I met some more Peruvian farmers I noticed how close to the land people were and how they seemed calm and grounded. They’re quite different to people in Lima, who are more influenced by American culture – they love fast food and shopping centres. Peru is a place of extremes, it also has some of the healthiest ground soil in the world for growing food, and the sea has the largest number of anchovies because the hot and cold water meet and create this rich ecosystem for breeding.
Going to Peru made me feel more confident about working with cacao. I learnt how to handle the pods better at a chocolate workshop. We started with cacao in its raw form – roasting the beans and grinding them in a pestle and mortar before making it into blocks. For the ceremonial cacao we sell at Cacao Co, we’re committed to using heirloom beans that are grown organically. Not only is the cacao we use sourced, fermented and processed with the utmost care, but I want it to be blessed.
The farmers I met shared a deep respect for the land and were clearly aligned in their values around ethical sourcing and careful processing. What I’d explore next is a different dimension of cacao — one rooted in ceremonial and spiritual traditions — which goes beyond farming practices alone. I’m hoping to learn more about that aspect when I return to Peru at Easter and visit the cacao-growing regions around Cusco and the Sacred Valley.
