This guy.
The guy who's half health enthusiast, half obsessive foodie. For most of my life, I've been dabbling on the edges of food and health trends, balancing the things that nourish your body to become the best version of yourself, AND the things that fill you with moments of pure joy 🥰.
So what? Well, I found a food that truly changed my life, I decided life was too short to not have a go at sharing it with the world. I couldn't do it without my beloved partner in cacao crime Giselle.
I almost feel ashamed to say that despite my very vocal passion for health, my health hasn't always been perfect. Like millions of ambitious working millennials, I tried to do it all - work hard, play harder, work out, eat well, and pretend I was getting enough sleep. And like many, the back bone to this have-it-all mentality was caffeine. Coffee and just about any stimulant* became the crutch holding me from crashing and burning on a daily basis. For those who have realised the hard way and admitted to themselves they are addicted to caffeine, it can feel like there is no way out. Life without caffeine just isn't the same. Crashing off that non-stop petrol-fuelled rollercoaster is not something that you just casually do for a few days and then pick yourself up and can carry on. I even thought I was getting by with decaf coffee, until I found that the amount I was consuming was still injecting caffeine into my blood, only slower** (who knew?!).
Cravings, crashes, sleepless nights, groggy mornings and exhausting lethargic attempts to keep doing the exercise and work hours I'd done for years, got worse and worse 😩. Alcohol and sugar only added to the problems as I struggled to feel any ounce of joy that would keep me going through my days. With a hereditary depression also coming and going for months at a time and irritated gut health problems to make things worse, like every typical founder sob-story on the internet, I had PROBLEMS... and something had to change.
Somewhere down the long list of supplements and alternatives I explored was cacao. I remembered a trip to Guatemala years before, trying and loving a brewed cacao tea, which only amplified my passion for chocolate as a truly wonderful food, that still brings me much joy. Many years after, I also remember trying cacao brews at spiritual cacao ceremonies and remember the warm, gentle euphoric feeling of inner sunshine that came from cacao.
Other coffee alternatives simply didn't have anything that could do what caffeine did. The theobromine of cacao was the only thing that came close. Having realised that almost inhaling bars of chocolate for breakfast was not a sustainable way to go (despite eating the high quality dark stuff!), even if it did replace coffee, so I focused on getting the benefits of cacao without the calories and the sugar.
This ground cacao blend I call Cacao Brew was born in my kitchen in 2021. It gave a fuller flavour and stronger lift than the tea brewed from the husks the Mayans used, but a gentler lift and start to the day than coffee. Within a week of better sleep and sustained waking energy, I knew there was no going back.
Since then I've developed my blend to get the optimum flavour and tested it on people with different lifestyles. Some like it in the mornings and some like it as a guilt free chocolate hit at the end of the day. It's certainly helped me and Giselle reduce our excessive chocolate consumption 😅.
We made sure that from day one in my test kitchen we packaged Cacao Brew in packaging that was better for the environment, and accessible to all - it's naturally vegan, dairy free, gluten free, and free from all other allergens. Know someone who needs to nourish their soul? Show them Cacao Brew, and drop me a message to share your questions, comments or stories from your journey.
Edward
* err no, don't start that rumour.
** decaf still has caffeine, just less. Around 10-15mg per serve. I also felt bloody outraged when I found out. And quickly stopped drinking decaf with dinner.
On one of our chocolate driven adventures in London - beverage in photo is not Cacao Brew - yet to be launched as an iced shake!
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