Sharon's Interview

— Sharon founded Herbal Cacao in 2021 as she was coming back from a long journey around the world and felt the call to bring her favorite superfoods together and accomplish her mission: to share love through cacao.

Going through major setbacks, she and her “cacao family” managed to accomplish this mission, and to set further goals so this love could reach more people, via more ways.

Her passion for superfoods, personal history with medicinal mushrooms and dedication for living a purposeful life transpire from every angle of her project.

Discussing these matters turned into a very inspiring conversation and it is with great joy that I share a piece of her story through this interview.

Cacao Guide

Herbal Cacao

" Coming home I had this strong feeling of wanting to do something with cacao and mushrooms but I didn’t know quite well how to orchestrate it. [...] One day I had a very powerful big ceremonial cup, and it just literally burst my heart open. I just felt again that really strong feeling of “this is what the world needs”. We are living so completely disconnected from ourselves, our community, from earth. Let’s share cacao and bring back this love we miss. "

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May 18th, 2024

Starting her journey

What’s the starting point of your story with cacao?

Sharon / It goes way back, I can remember for all my life being a chocolate lover you know loving chocolate — where do we even start..!
I’m originally from the Netherlands and I had to leave and spread my wings quite early on. My dad is from Scotland and my parents used to live in London as well so I come from this adventurous family.

I went to the big city of London, lived there for 8 or 9 years and at some point was really craving more connection with nature.

I ended up being in Mexico for 3 years and that was about more than 10 years ago now. When I lived there, my whole passion and love for chocolate transformed into the nutritious superfood side of it and I was really going on a different course of my life anyway, focusing on my health and studying nutrition.

I did several educations online from the School of Natural Health Sciences and was really diving into the world of superfoods and mushrooms. It was really personal interest. There was no intention at all to do anything like coaching or opening up my own business that was not even like on my mind at all.

So cacao came into your life while you were in Mexico?

Sharon / Exactly, I fell deeply in love with cacao in Mexico and really got to learn more about the whole ancient Maya history scene in Oaxaca, how they’ve been incorporating cacao in different ways in their cuisine, into the traditions etc… It was like a whole world was opening up for me.

That’s really where it all got tied in together, I knew this was something that I wanted to just share with as many people as I could. Cacao became my all time favorite superfood and it stayed that way since.

When I was there I heard of this Mayan elders’ prophecy that there will come a time in human history when cacao is going to make its way from the jungle to the whole world to really help open people’s hearts. This is something that only came later on in my journey but it just stood by me for so long because I feel it’s part of the mission of Herbal Cacao and I feel so honored in a way of being a part of it.

Was that when you started thinking about sharing it with the world?

Sharon / I guess it was the beginning of the vision that then led to Herbal Cacao. At this point in time I was only sharing cacao with close ones and still travelling a lot.

I do remember this specific memory when the vision broadened: I left Mexico and went traveling in Asia and I was in the Himalayas with my friends. We were at a Workaway farm and they were cultivating mushrooms there, which is another passion of mine.

I did a really beautiful profound meditation there and I remember that moment so vividly, up to this day, I had such a strong calling to come back home and to bring together these two amazing undervalued things of nature and bring that to the world.

I just come back often to that feeling that I had in that meditation and that was kind of the first spark.

Setting up

How did Herbal Cacao came to be?

Sharon / So this first seed was planted during this meditation.

At this point in time, my world was opened, I didn’t know if I was going to Australia or coming back in the Netherlands. Yet my father was sick and his illness progressed significantly so I decided it was time for me to go home to be with him and also feel the safety of being in a place I knew.

Coming home I had this strong feeling of wanting to do something with cacao and mushrooms but I didn’t know quite well how to orchestrate it.

I was handling my return, my father’s situation, it was also the Corona period so it was a turbulent time and I was kind of upside down.

But it was also this huge opportunity for a reality check and I went all in, asking myself: what am I doing with my life, where do I want to take it? What do I want to bring to the world? What do I want to create? What kind of legacy do I want to live?

And that’s when I was like, Sharon, get your shit together. You know very well what you want. You need to step into your own power and claim it and just walk the path of your desires.

And I just went okay, let’s do it.

I have another beautiful memory from this time. One day I had a very powerful big ceremonial cup, I usually take around 20 to 30 grams, but this time I was like, all right let’s go in, let’s have a beautiful experience and it just literally burst my heart open. I just felt again that really strong feeling of “this is what the world needs”. We are living so completely disconnected from ourselves, our community, from earth. Let’s share cacao and bring back this love we miss.

Bumps on the road

On “a rough start that led to beauty”

Sharon / In terms of timeline, I created Herbal Cacao in the summer 2021 and it really became a thing in January 2022 when I took a leap of faith and put my entire focus on it.

I was all out, in festivals and events presenting me and my brand, sharing cacao with anybody that was open to it. I was also handling everything. And by that I mean literally EVERYTHING. Import, production, marketing, sales, content creation… You name it, I was doing it. But I just had this fire burning in me that kept me going at this pace.

Until April 2022 when my dad passed away, and I was involved in July of the same year in a big car accident.

These were major setbacks that left me unable to do anything and I was fortunate to be supported by my family and friends who simply took the whole thing up for me when I needed to recover.

I didn’t know it at the time but being forced to slow down, delegating and sharing the energy that needed to be instilled in the project would help me grow this cacao family around me and take Herbal Cacao further than I could imagine doing on my own.

Yet my heart was hurting a lot, I was dealing with very strong emotions and I had these moments when I felt like pushing cacao away, but it was only to come back to it later, even more amazed with what it is capable of doing

Mathieu / Hearing this from you makes me think how funny it is how our bond with cacao just evolves like a proper relationship, right?

Sharon / Exactly. It’s powerful. It just feels good. I just wanted to say that, actually. It feels good to hear it from you.

How did those events impact your plans on the build up of your brand?

Sharon / Well, so my family and friends took up everything. One specific challenge was production.

I was doing the whole process myself but already had this idea of collaborating with a social working place at some point and see if this was something they could handle.

So my family approached them and they were thrilled with the idea.

This is a place in the Netherlands that’s designed for people who fall short of society’s working norms through a physical or mental disability. So they can’t work but they come here to do what they can.

What’s amazing is they have a very big love for cacao itself, they love the process and in fact I could immediately feel that this was going to add to what I was going to share with the world. Because of the extra intention, the love, and the detail.

The workplace is designed so that each person has one specific task, it’s very artisanal and you can see the amount of care they take in performing their work. I’m just really grateful for this synergy, it is meaningful and purposeful.

Production

How is production handled then?

Sharon / So we get the cacao beans to be sent directly to them and they minimally process it. It’s about getting the cacao beans, crushing them into nibs, then it goes through the stone grinder. We get the cacao paste and then they manually put the spices and other ingredients in and take care of the packaging.

Mathieu / Do they take care of roasting too?

Sharon / No, we don’t do the roasting for the Belize cacao.

Mathieu / Really? Wow I didn’t know about that and I’m really surprised! I didn’t feel it at all and as I wasn’t looking for it, my experience wasn’t biased you know. I’m actually glad to discover it now!

Sharon / Yeah it’s a bit of a controversial matter. I know in Maya traditions, roasting is the fire element that goes in the preparation of cacao, which is a very important one.
But I guess it’s something that stayed with me from when I started to dig deep into nutrition and the benefits of raw foods.

I did try to roast it at first but compared to the samples I made unroasted, I didn’t feel it, the energy just wasn’t the same. I couldn’t feel the activation. I just wanted to bring it down to its essence and it just feel so powerful unroasted.

Mathieu / Well, I mean, on my side, for the Belize, I wouldn’t change a thing. If you just leave it like that, I’ll be happy.

Sharon / That is the intention, this is not going to be changed at all. We are considering to probably change it with another cacao from another source and do it in a roasted way. Because it’s different, each cacao is different.

Mathieu / I like the fact that you’re not closed to it and also not using this specificity as a marketing claim. Because it’s not only about what is and what isn’t raw or unroasted, it’s about respecting your product and your feeling.

Sharon / You know I’m not even sure if it would work for us to promote it as raw or unroasted because I just feel like it creates a lot of question marks within our community. I feel I’m transparent but I’m not promoting it. It is unroasted but it’s not something that I feel like I want to promote or highlight because it’s not about that.

If we come to offer a roasted cacao, I’ll look at meaningful ways for it to happen. I’d like it to happen at the source, where the knowledge is you know.

The whole sourcing is an adventurous journey on its own. That is not just gonna happen in a few days or weeks. It’s months, sometimes even a year before that is being set up so that is an ongoing process where we’ve been looking into about expanding.

Sourcing

Speaking of sourcing, I understand that you do the whole thing on your own. How did you choose those beans?

Sharon / That’s correct.
I did a lot of research, ordered different samples and had different options. But at some point I was just like “you know what, I’m just gonna go out there, to Mexico, to Belize, feel the source and be there”.
So it was very intentional. When I tasted the Belize there was just something so powerful about it, it was already my n°1 but I was really connected to Mexico and still wanted to try to find one that resonated with me the same way.

So I went, and I just felt this strong pull from Belize. I feel that the Belizean have a lot of suppression of their culture and I felt I wanted to be there on their side to support them and bring their beautiful medicine to the world, be a part of what they’re doing there.

It's even more beautiful to know that this was your gut feeling, not you trying to correspond to what’s happening on the market.

Sharon / Yeah, this journey asks for a lot of reality checks. Having my own brand, my own business.

Because we can so easily doubt about “what are we supposed to be doing? What is becoming a new norm in the whole ceremonial cacao world? What is everybody else doing? »

I constantly have to check in and remind myself “it’s about you, your heart, what do you feel like? What do you want to bring to the world?”

When did you decide to broaden your range and go for another cacao, how did it happen?

Sharon / There’s a lot of different components. So ideally I would’ve liked to stay with just Belize for a little longer, but it is a very popular cacao bean. It is a super high quality and if we look at like the whole fine cacao industry, a lot of people are trying to get their hands on it. It is a very special bean so limited production is available.

Also, it was always my intention in the future to look into Mexico and Guatemala as well. For some reason I felt like bringing more of the Maya culture and traditions back on the map. That’s the feeling I’ve had when I was there, really looking into different Maya nations and in Mexico and kind of bringing those three countries together in Herbal cacao.
So for now it’s still fresh but we went with Guatemala, we had good contacts there and it just felt right.

The blends' components

Could you share some insights about the adaptogens, plants and mushrooms, that you use in your blends?

Sharon / So Chaga is my all time favorite mushroom. It is so close to my heart, because of its incredible effects and health benefits. It really was a companion during my travels that helped me feel balanced and healthy you know.

Lion’s mane just followed really. It became popular in Europe for its brain boosting activity and I got to experience it and just really felt a bond. It’s ironic because it then became my number 1 ally after my car accident as I was suffering from a brain injury.

So these two I encountered during my travels and got into the precious gifts of medicinal mushrooms. The last one, Mucuna, I found out about it during my travels too, and it’s just that extra happiness and love that you can already get from cacao, but when you add it it’s just a burst of love, happiness, nutrition and everything together.

I knew I wanted to bring together cacao and adaptogens and those were my pick.

Do you remember why you chose these specifically?

Sharon / Yes, first because of their high nutritional value. Second, their ability to go beyond the physical.
And third is because they’ve touched me in a very personal, profound way.

Mathieu / I know that it’s really difficult to access high quality medicinal mushrooms for many different reasons. The culture but also the extract and conservation are all challenging parts. I read on your website that you put as much care in their sourcing as you do for cacao. Do you have personal history that helps for that?

Sharon / Definitely.

I want a quality connection with the ingredients that I want to bring together. I don’t want to just put some Chaga powder in the cacao. If people drink it, I mean, it’s a high quality product, I want people to feel the activation. I really want it to be giving an extra benefit for their health. But on all levels, it’s a holistic wellness product. It goes not just on the physical. It goes beyond. And I mean, Chaga, for example, is also known to help to activate the third eye. So I really wanted to bring a high quality Chaga into the cacao.

When you look into the world of mushrooms and how you can get the most potent ones, it’s when it is actually made into an extract, actually. in two different extracts. You have the water soluble and alcohol soluble components. If you combine both, your body can absorb all the nutriments that are in there. And then you have to get a mushroom that is sustainably wild harvested from a forest where there is a high biodiversity, very good climate. All those components are very important and I check everything when I make the decision to work with an ingredient.

I made a really beautiful connection with a man in Estonia. He and his family have been cultivating Chaga for some years now. And they’ve had a very deep connection with the spirit of Chaga because they’ve been using it as a medicine for healing. And he went through multiple stages of cancer.

He’s been using it as a way for him to get his health back. I mean, there are different studies done on how Chaga can support in a whole cancer journey, especially about helping to reduce the symptoms with radiation and chemotherapy.

He has a very strong emotional connection with it and his wife’s family have been using it from generations in ceremonial purposes already. So there is like a very deep connection with this mushroom and them.

It happened that he expanded into the world of Mushrooms and started to offer Lion’s Mane as well so for me it was just a no brainer to get his as well.

The importance of community

On another matter, I understood that bringing your community together was also an important part of your mission. Can you tell me more about it?

Sharon / Yeah I felt really strong about creating a community around Herbal Cacao, as well as creating partnerships with people that have their own circles you know. People we could support with cacao so that they could share it with their own communities, through their personal expertise. It’s about empowering people really and cacao is a good way to do that.

So we have these monthly online ceremonies where we open a space and share a cacao together with the participants and really just connect.

In the past we also did this annual Herbal Cacao party which is one big day filled with activities such as breathwork, yoga nidra or kundalini, followed with a dinner and then a huge ecstatic dance. It’s really about bringing the community together, getting to know each other and sharing. I hope we can bring it back this year!

I also want to bring more education into the community, like through different courses, but that’s something for the future.

Fast Five

How are you using cacao today ?

Sharon / I usually take 20 grams, sometimes 30 but minimum 20 grams and yeah, take a moment for myself, set an intention and open up the space.

I usually do it also in combination when I know that I’m going to have a conversation with somebody. So my intention is then to go back to the heart. What do I want to bring to this conversation? What do I want to to share?

Your favorite recipe or favorite way to prepare a cup ?

Sharon / I go through phases you know, sometimes I’m like all over our Pasiòn and then I’m like oh no I kind of miss my spices and I go back to the Immune Support with the spices. Now we changed over the Brain Power with the cardamom so it just, it depends what I feel like but I definitely stick to our blends.

Your best memory linked to cacao ?

Sharon / I think it is the one that I’ve mentioned earlier in our interview about that moment when I really kind of called cacao back into my life, very profound.

And I had, I almost feel like it was her essence, literally moving through my veins of saying, step into your power, claim your path and bring this medicine to the people. And yeah, I mean, it still gives me goosebumps and I was there in tears.

How do you define ‘ceremonial grade’ ?

Sharon / Okay, wow. It’s a cacao, first of all a high-quality cacao that is dealt with at the source with love and intention in a biodiverse atmosphere.

It’s used for ceremony and when you use anything, any plants for ceremony, you just want to make sure that wherever it’s coming from, from the source to your cup, it is done with love and intention. So it is about having the knowledge of who is dealing with it, where does it come from, what kind of energy is behind it?

I think that is really defining something for ceremony or not for ceremony.

There is such a broad spectrum about it, right, in this world, but I think this is the essence, and yeah, I would definitely support some kind of a more stricter rules or something around it, because right now there is a lot of pressure put on the end consumer of doing their investigation to make sure that it aligns with their values, right?

So I guess it’s just up to us to be transparent enough for them to understand if it is aligning for them. And that’s the only thing that I can really do.

What’s next for you and your brand?

Sharon / Oh my god, I’m so excited. There are so many nice things to come. I’m just so excited to start sharing more with the world. We had all these challenges but now I feel like I’m ready to fully step back into the mission.

So it’s going to be annual parties, new sources of cacao, new blends! This is kind of an exclusivity but a new blend is in the making and its main ingredient will be Blue Lotus!