Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to travel to the stunning country of Colombia.
Colombia is more famous for its coffee than its chocolate, yet the country is the tenth largest cacao producer worldwide, with 95% of its exports classified as ‘fine flavour’ varieties (the really good stuff). The cacao industry is made up of over 50,000 farming families. Most farm small plots, and many intersperse their cacao plants with other crops like banana, plantain and timber trees.
On my travels, I visited a few cacao farms to explore potential suppliers for Wombshine. Tough job but someone’s gotta do it 🙂
A magical mountain setting
The most memorable was the Sierra Nevada region, in the north of the country, which its Indigenous peoples call the ‘Heart of the World’. Here, cacao is more than a crop; it’s a sacred plant deeply interwoven with spiritual and cultural practices. The Arhuaco, Kogi, Wiwa, and Kankuamo tribes - modern-day descendants of the ancient Tayrona civilization - have cultivated cacao for centuries, integrating it into their cosmology and daily rituals.
There’s really something very special about this region. It’s hard to describe, but for me it was a place where I found I could really deeply rest, connect with myself via connection with the incredible nature and scenery of the mountains, and remember how to trust life again. All the important things, basically. And often things I associate with how I feel on my period (when I’m looking after myself properly anyway). So perhaps it’s no surprise that the cacao is so powerful here.
Locals told me that the Indigenous communities in this region call cacao ‘food of the Gods’. A divine gift, imbued with potent spiritual properties. They take cacao during religious and spiritual ceremonies to enhance introspection, clarity, and visionary abilities. They believe it opens their capacity for self knowledge, and can facilitate crucial visions.
My favourite bean to bar tour
At the beautiful Finca La Selvita I saw, learned about and got to taste each stage of cacao production - from fleshy juicy fruit to roasted beans, ground paste mixed with cacao butter and sugar, and then rich heavenly melted chocolate. I was on a high from so much cacao for hours afterwards, and, lying in a hammock overlooking lush greenery studded with exotic birds, I genuinely experienced some quite amazing revelations and reflections.
The farm is run with love and care, and only produces around 100 bars of chocolate a month, which isn’t enough to sell outside of the farm, let alone export. But it was probably the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted, and though the bars I brought back went through a few melting and re-solidifying phases (as it’s really hot there!), they still tasted delicious back home. And the toasted cacao kernels pack a punch too. I’m eeking them out for special occasions.
Cacao for ritual
Nestled a little way along the coast in the jungle near Tyrona National Park is another hidden gem called Merkhaba Elixir Lounge. As well as selling coffee, cake and various hippie bits the owner, Valerie, runs cacao ceremonies. I took part in one, and it lasted all afternoon. Complete with a sharing circle and a brilliant live saxophonist accompanying our ecstatic dance.
It’s an incredible setting, and (with the help of some very funky tunes) the heart-opening cacao helped me process a lot of grief and heaviness that I’d felt for a while. I left feeling lighter, clearer and like I’d finally landed in myself after a bit of a journey through emotional wilderness.
Cacao has been held as a sacred medicine for generations. In our secular, medicalised, ‘late stage capitalist nightmare’ world (to quote my excellent co-founder, Adele, on our Red Rebel FM podcast), it’s easy to forget, dismiss or belittle the profound impact plants can have on our physiological and spiritual wellbeing. This experience was a good reminder.
Returning home
I had to leave before confirming a new supply chain for Wombshine, but I’m still in touch with friends from the region.
So, watch this space - we may yet figure out how to source our cacao from the Heart of the World, and bring some of the magic of that place to support wombs in the UK.
Ellie Hale is a co-founder of Wombshine. In their spare time, they lead a tech for good organisation, advocate tirelessly for human and animal rights, cut up the dance floor in fantastic outfits, and moonlight as a crane operator.