Brontie and Co Bare Cacao Coffee alternative 225g

A 225g pack of Bare Cacao. A healthy hot drink made of the whole cacao bean. Use just like coffee. Made only with the finest, organic, Criollo beans from Peru. Ground by a special process in house to give coffee like granules. This contains no added sugar and no caffeine. It is suitable for vegans, diabetics and any one who is intolerant to coffee.

This amazing brewing cacao is a little piece of history! It is possible to trace the origins of hot, pure cacao drinks right back to approximately 2000 years ago. In the highly civilised Mayan culture of South America, brewed cacao was revered as the food of gods and this continued right up to the Aztec period of 1521AD. It was made by expert tribeswomen who would brew natural spring water and ground cacao nibs over communal fires. It was a drink that was bestowed on the worthy by the rich and ruling classes. It was so important as a nutritious drink because it was believed to possess lots of health, spiritual and aphrodisiac benefits. Modern laboratories are now proving this of course, with cacao being named as a potent superfood, with strong cardiovascular, antioxidant and mood boosting nutrients.

The invasion of the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés unfortunately changed everything for brewed cacao. His advisors decided that Europeans would never buy the stuff unless it was highly sweetened. So they added huge amounts of cane sugar before sending the product back to Western Europe. Sadly, this one decision meant the true roots of cacao use were lost over the many centuries that followed. Meanwhile the resulting sugary ‘chocolate’ industry flourished and is now a multi-billion-dollar market driven by a handful companies who produce highly refined and high sugar products that barely resemble the original simple beverage.