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Essential Cacao & Spices Kit

Name: Essential Cacao & Spices Kit
Brand: Spice Tribe
Price: 59.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Cacao & 4 Single Origin Spices

$59.99 ~~$79.99~~

We have paired our delicious drinking cacao with 4 of our favorite spices to enhance your morning ritual. Whether you like the warmth of the Padang Cassia Cinnamon and Island Nutmeg, the complexity of our Senahú Green Cardamom or the fierce heat of our Comapeño Chile Powder, we are confident you will find the perfect combination to fuel your creativity.

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What's Inside

Origin

Sacred Maya Cacao - Up in the mountains of Guatemala is the remote Maya village of San Juan Chivite, accessible only by crossing a swinging bridge over the wide, rushing Cahabón river. 125 indigenious Maya families have perfected the art of honoring their land and growing some of the purest cacao ever tasted by us. With limited electricity, cacao is harvested April to June by hand and fermented in wooden boxes, gently drying in the bask of sunlight that graces the 600 ft altitude.

Comapeño Chile Powder - In the coastal California county of Mendocino, 100 miles north of San Francisco, the hills are twined with grapevines that produce a perfect Pinot Noir. Here, in the sunny Anderson Valley where the climate is tempered by cool marine air, you’ll find Boonville Barn Collective. This woman-owned farm has been producing unique chile powders for more than a decade. The collective grows, hand-picks, dries, and grinds chile peppers into spices using sustainable agricultural techniques. Their goal is to produce healthy food without compromising future generations’ ability to do the same. The farm is Renegade certified, and they grow crops with organic growing practices.

Padang Cassia Cinnamon - In the misty Kerinci Valley of Sumatra, Indonesia, near the city of Padang, cassia cinnamon trees grow in regenerative forest plantations long established in the fertile, volcanic soil deposited by the ancient eruptions of nearby Mount Kerinci. Generations of farmers have been harvesting cassia—fiercer in flavor than its more delicate cousin ceylon—every 10 years by stripping the tree bark on location for maximum freshness. Then, on sleds pulled by buffalo through winding backwoods trails, the fragrant raw material makes its way to our fair-trade-certified organic farm to be sun-dried and ground.

Senahú Green Cardamom Pods - In the high-altitude city of Cobán in Guatemala’s Alta Verapaz Department, the chipi chipi (misty rain) from the cloud forest creates the ideal microclimate of cool humidity to grow the world’s best cardamom, the third-most expensive spice in the world. Intercropped with other cloud forest comrades like coffee and cacao on a hillside family farm where our native grower is implementing new regenerative methods, the cardamom fruit, or pod, grows from vines that shoot from the base of a stalky, leafy clumping plant.

Island Nutmeg - At our regenerative farm located on rain-drenched mountain slopes of Sangihe Island, North Sulawesi in the Indonesian archipelago, mature nutmeg trees tower up to 60 feet in the air, bearing apricot-like fruit. The ripe drupes are always tree-picked (fallen crop is susceptible to contamination from mold on the forest floor) and the seeds dried in the sun for six to eight weeks before they’re cracked with a wooden mallet to reveal the nutmeg kernels in all of their warm, exotically fragrant glory.

Tips for Success

You can grind the whole spices to a fine powder and add a pinch of spice directly to the hot cacao drink.
Start with a small amount as the flavor will bloom with the heat.
You can also steep the whole cardamom pods in hot water to infuse and then strain the pods out before using the cardamom flavored water to make your drinking cacao.
We recommend using a micro plane grater to shave the nutmeg directly on top.
For a rich hot chocolate you can infuse warm milk with the desired spices and sweetener before mixing with the cacao discs. Top with whipped cream and a pinch of cinnamon and a grate of nutmeg.
Use the Chile powder and cinnamon together for a classic Mexican hot chocolate.
You can also use the cacao and spices to make delicious chocolate sauces and dips by using less liquid. (Think churros!)

FAQ

What is cacao paste?

Cacao paste is made from the whole cacao bean. It is ground between stones until it liquifies into a smooth paste. It is then formed into discs or chips that harden as it cools. Cocoa powder on the other hand has been processed to remove the cacao butter which is why it is a dry powder and does not melt.

How to store cacao?

Cacao can last 2 years if stored properly. It can melt at 93f-110f and should be stored in the coolest place of your kitchen.

Is this cacao raw?

Our cacao has been lightly toasted just as the indigenous communities have been doing for centuries. Additionally during the fermentation process, the cacao can reach 110f so even if it wasn’t toasted it is technically not raw.