This is very much up to you. We have a recipe here, and we would encourage you to experiment with what you like.

Some people love almond, coconut or soy milk. We love oat as it's naturally sweet. Some people love it with no milk, just water.

You can add spices like cinnamon, ground cardamom, chilli, ginger, or vanilla extract. Or food-grade essential oils like lavender, rose or wild orange (be very careful to only use a drop as they are super strong!).

And lastly, you can add sweetener if you like. Try maple syrup, honey, date syrup or coconut sugar. But we do suggest only a tiny bit of sweetener :)

We don't call our cacao 'ceremonial grade'. Cacao has been used in ceremonies going back thousands of years to the Aztecs and Mayans but the actual term ‘ceremonial grade’ is a newer concept in the last 18 or so years, coined by a ceremonial cacao business.

Therefore there is no actual, official definition and many people will define it differently. The cacao has not been blessed by a shaman, it's not made with the specific intention of being used in ceremony. We try to make it as accesible as possible and make it with the intention to be used by all who wish to enjoy it's nutritional health benefits.

The organic cacao beans we source are from a social enterprise in The Dominican Republic from cacao trees grown and harvested sustainably, employing regenerative agricultural practices and all the people involved are properly compensated.

Our organic cacao beans are the criollo-trinitario hyrid. We stone grind the beans and make everything from bean-to-bar in Ireland.

This very much depends on your tolerance for stimulants.

We recommend it in the morning as it contains a gentle stimulant called Theobromine. Some people are very sensitive, and would be awake at night if they drank cacao late in the day.

BUT many of our customers have in late afternoon/ evening as they find it relaxing (it has a good source of magnesium).

So the roundabout answer is 'it depends'. If you're someone who can drink tea/ coffee late in the day and still sleep perfectly, then you will probably be fine. Best way to find out is try a small dose in the afternoon and see how you feel.

Many women do drink cacao in pregnancy, but we advise you to consult your health care practitioner before doing so, to ensure it will be ok for you.

Our cacao beans have been tested and they have 0.22% caffeine, which is less than a decaff coffee.

The main stimulant in cacao is Theobromine. Read more about why we're calling 'cacao the new coffee' here.

If you want to, go ahead! We'd recommend leaving a good few hours gap in between each serving.

It's honestly up to you.

If you're new to cacao we'd advise to start off with 15-20g per cup and then up the dose if you want it stronger. Our customers' preferences range from how much of a gram serving they use. Some have 15g, others will go up as high as 30g.

This one also depends on where you sit on the sweet-bitter spectrum.

If you're used to eating very sweet things, you add sweetener to tea/coffee and you don't tend to eat bitter foods then you will probably find cacao very bitter.

But if you're used to eating dark chocolate and not too much sweet stuff, you're more than likely going to find the cacao quite smooth and not too bitter at all.

If you do have a sweeter tooth, we'd recommend adding sweetener to your hot cacao or making it with all oat milk as that's naturally quite sweet.

But we do advise not to add too much sweetener. We, as a culture, need to stop sugarcoating everything (in our opinion :b)