Cape Cacao, Somerset West (2025)

10/09/2025

Each year our Cacao Pilgrimage to Bali deepens our connection to ixCacao and her heart medicine.

We wish for all cacao practitioners to experience preparing and drinking fresh ceremonial-cacao under the cacao trees were the beans were harvested, sharing a ritual with the farmers who tended to the fruit from the family-run Balinese small-scale farms we work with, honouring the same land that nourishes our bodies ans that of Mama Cacao.

Our 6-day Cacao Pilgrimage, which takes place in August each year, is an invitation to join our founder, Fran Siebrits, in paying homage to the cacao-growing communities, energy and land of Bali, Indonesia.

All the details are on our website (link in bio):
www.capecacao.com/bali-pilgrimage

18/08/2025

Our trainings honour Cacao as a sacred medicine, and we have been called to offer this knowledge in a way that is respectful to both people and land. While you will learn all the science of Cacao as a superfood for physical health as part of the training, our focus is predominantly on personal development and spiritual connection.

We work in reverence, integrity and respect to all of life, learning about '"right relationship" and trusting the wisdom of our hearts in response to the breathing world which we are a part of.

Join Cacao Alchemist and Medicine Woman, Fran Siebrits, as she shares her wisdom on this plant ally, learning all about the origin, history, uses, and how to connect deeper through sacred ritual and ceremony with ixCacao.

🪶Level 1🪶 Practitioner Training
3 months in group / 2 months private
Become a Cacao Practitioner
Learn hold a private, at-home Cacao Ritual

🪶Level 1 & 2🪶 Facilitator Training
6 months in group / 4 months private
Become a Cacao Facilitator
Learn how to hold space for others in Ceremony

📍 Online ceremonialist training
📚 Self-study modules and regular live sessions
🗓️ Next Group training starts October ~
Private training starts anytime ~ please inquire via email info@capecacao.com

ANY QUESTIONS?

📞 Book a Free 15 minute "Explore Call" with your trainer, Fran Siebrits.

✨️ LINK IN BIO ✨️

♡

18/08/2025

Many of you have journeyed with us for a while now - sharing cups of warmth, monments of quiet reflection, and the deep heart work that this beautiful plant medicine invites us into.

So we're reintroducing you to something close to our hearts: the sacred origins of our ceremonial-grade Cacao.

Cape Cacao is based in South Africa 🇿🇦, and so we source our ceremonial-grade Cacao through partnerships we've developed in the tropical Cacao lands of >>>

1. Bali 🇮🇩 and 2. Guatemala 🇬🇹 >>> to bring these beautiful, ethically sourced ceremonial Cacao origins to your home.

Each origin carries its own essence, shaped by climate, culture, and ceremony...

🍫🌴 Our Balinese Cacao is smooth, creamy, and subtly floral — grown in the island’s Jembrana region by small-scale family farmers whose prayers bless the cacao at every step, from the seeds to the harvested and sun-dried beans that gets processed into paste.

This is the Cacao many of you have come to know and love — light, soft, heart-opening and energetically balancing. She is also the cacao origin we have worked with the longest at Cape Cacao, and we deeply value our relationship with her.

🍫🫕 Our Guatemalan Cacao carries the deeper earth-tones of the Lanquín Valley. Tended by Mayan families and lightly roasted over traditional open fires, it offers a more grounded, bitter complexity, with light hints of citrus and vanilla. It also encourages the energetic fire element to strengthen.

This Cacao joined our Cape Cacao family after Fran’s pilgrimages to Guatemala last year, where she sat in many fire ceremony with indigenous elders - and the spirit of the medicine called to come home with her.

❤️🙏🏽 Both cacao origins are true. Both sacred.

We don’t offer one as “better” than the other - but rather as distinct expressions of a shared Spirit. We invite you to meet each one, to listen with your heart, and to feel which ally calls to walk beside you.

▵ Our Ceremonial-Cacao Cacao origins form a sacred triangle, between Guatemala, Bali, and South Africa... and the Spirit of Cacao will meet you wherever you are at.

Read more / purchase via the link in our bio.

29/07/2025

Exploring the experience of ritual vs ceremony when meeting Mama Cacao...

If you participate in, or follow this work, you know that Cacao offers herself to us in many forms, depending on the context in which we prepare to meet her — we may encounter her as a gentle companion in quiet daily rituals, or as a soulful, transformative guide in deeper ceremonial spaces.

Both are sacred. Both invite us to listen, to open, to remember.

🌿 In everyday ritual — Cacao meets us softly; a morning cup prepared with intention, a few slow breaths, and a moment of stillness. She supports us to soften into our day, reconnect to the heart, and move through life with more presence.

🌕 In ceremony — While this context may be less frequent, here we meet Mama Cacao as a profound teacher. We create a container, call in Spirit, and step across a threshold. This is where we work with Cacao more consciously as a medicine, ally, and guide for healing, insight, and transformation.

There is no hierarchy here — no “better” way. Both daily ritual and occasional ceremonial work serve different purposes, and both are a beautiful part of the path we walk with Cacao.

Ritual nourishes the heart in simple, everyday ways, while ceremony opens a container where we can listen more intently, work more deeply, and honour the medicine with fuller presence.

These nuances — how we attune to the spirit of Cacao and how we honour the traditions that have carried this plant ally through generations — are threads we explore more fully in our Level 1 & 2 Cacao Training.

May the soft, nurturing presence of Mama Cacao bless you and guide you through your day, and help you navigate the path of your own heart with wisdom and clarity. ✨

24/07/2025

We are back from our winter pause, and with it an important message form the stillness and the listening.

In a world where wellness trends bloom, there are a few sacred allies that endure — ancient, rooted, and true...

Cacao is one of them.

Long before cacao found her way into glossy pseudo-spiritual communities and curated Instagram posts, she was — and remains — a sacred plant teacher.

For thousands of years, Cacao has been tended, revered, and communed with by indigenous communities across Mesoamerica. Not as a product… but as a being.

A heart medicine. A spirit ally. A way back to ourselves.

At Cape Cacao, we carry this lineage with deep reverence. And in a world that can easily forget the sacred in search of the shiny, we are devoted to remembering.

That’s why our Cacao Practitioner & Facilitator Training isn’t just a course. It’s a heart journey. A ceremonial immersion. A way of listening to the whispers of your own soul — and learning to hold sacred space for others to do the same.

There’s no rush to decide anything today. But if Cacao has been calling to you… if your heart stirs when you hear her name… then this may be the path your soul has been preparing for.

We’ll share more in the coming weeks. For now, just breathe. Listen. And know that you are already held.

With Love and Cacao,
Fran and our Cape Cacao Team

19/05/2025

Since ancient times the highest quality Ceremonial-grade Cacao has been used for health, healing and spiritual benefits.

We offer group and private ceremonies at a variety of venues around the Cape of South Africa, as well as virtually online.

💫 Email us to set up a private in-person or online ceremony info@capecacao.com

💫TO BOOK FOR AN UPCOMING PUBLIC GROUP CEREMONY VISIT OUR WEBSITE (link in bio)

10/04/2025

This very special immersion is a highlight in our calendar.. . and this year Fran will be taking a small group on our Cacao Pilgrimage to Bali from 10-15 August.

Bali Pilgrimage Highlights:

🌴 Six days living in the world of Cacao, sacredness, ceremony, ritual, & of course the landscape & culture of Bali.

🌴Cacao Ceremonies, drinking rituals, and meditations to tune in to the elements of Fire, Earth, Water, Air & Ether.

🌴Day excursion to visit our Cacao growing communities in the west of Bali, where we visit a Cacao farm & the community cooperative where the fermentation, drying and sorting happens.

🌴Excursion to an artisanal bean-to-bar chocolate shop to see the process of raw chocolate making, as well as a small workshop on processing Cacao beans into Ceremonial-Cacao paste.

🌴Workshops & lectures to understand the physical & metaphysical properties of Cacao and how to work with Cacao as a transformative heart medicine.

🌴Many opportunities to engage with the friendly, gentle Balinese people & immerse yourself in their culture

🌴 Time to explore the surrounding area and enjoy nature walks, or rest and reflect.

While based in the village of Penestanan, Ubud, we gather daily at a local artist's residence situated in a traditional family homestead, where we are always so lovingly welcomed by our Balinese family.

Midway through our Pilgrimage, we travel to the western area of the island to visit the Cacao growing communities. While we are there we hold a Cacao Ceremony on the land, surrounded by all the Cacao trees!

Another excursion is to a Cacao work-shop, where Cacao beans are processed into the Ceremonial-grade Cacao paste that we bring to South Africa. The outing is complete with a yummy Cacao and raw chocolate tasting experience.

Throughout our pilgrimage we learn how to work with Cacao as a transformative heart medicine through ceremony, ritual, meditations & lectures.

We explore the surrounding village & nature spaces, with plenty of much-needed opportunities for rest & integration, connection, & grounding.

~ more details ~ link in bio ♡

10/04/2025

We've begun preparations for our next Cacao Pilgrimage to Bali, taking place from 10-15 August next year & bookings are already coming in for this very special immersion (a highlight in our calendar).

Bali Pilgrimage Highlights:

🌴 Six days living in the world of Cacao, sacredness, ceremony, ritual, & of course the landscape & culture of Bali.

🌴Cacao Ceremonies, drinking rituals, and meditations to tune in to the elements of Fire, Earth, Water, Air & Ether.

🌴Day excursion to visit our Cacao growing communities in the west of Bali, where we visit a Cacao farm & the community cooperative where the fermentation, drying and sorting happens.

🌴Excursion to an artisanal bean-to-bar chocolate shop to see the process of raw chocolate making, as well as a small workshop on processing Cacao beans into Ceremonial-Cacao paste.

🌴Workshops & lectures to understand the physical & metaphysical properties of Cacao and how to work with Cacao as a transformative heart medicine.

🌴Many opportunities to engage with the friendly, gentle Balinese people & immerse yourself in their culture

🌴 Time to explore the surrounding area and enjoy nature walks, or rest and reflect.

While based in the village of Penestanan, Ubud, we gather daily at a local artist's residence situated in a traditional family homestead, where we are always so lovingly welcomed by our Balinese family.

Midway through our Pilgrimage, we travel to the western area of the island to visit the Cacao growing communities. While we are there we hold a Cacao Ceremony on the land, surrounded by all the Cacao trees!

Another excursion is to a Cacao work-shop, where Cacao beans are processed into the Ceremonial-grade Cacao paste that we bring to South Africa. The outing is complete with a yummy Cacao and raw chocolate tasting experience.

Throughout our pilgrimage we learn how to work with Cacao as a transformative heart medicine through ceremony, ritual, meditations & lectures.

We explore the surrounding village & nature spaces, with plenty of much-needed opportunities for rest & integration, connection, & grounding.

~ more details ~ link in bio ♡

10/04/2025

Since ancient times the highest quality Ceremonial-grade Cacao has been used for health, healing and spiritual benefits.

We offer group and private ceremonies at a variety of venues around the Cape of South Africa, as well as virtually via Zoom.

💫 Email us to set up a private in-person or online ceremony info@capecacao.com

💫TO BOOK FOR AN UPCOMING PUBLIC CEREMONY VISIT OUR WEBSITE (link in bio)

27/03/2025

Meet Fran - our founder, cacao alchemist and training educator...

At Cape Cacao, our signature Cacao Trainings are presented and facilitated by Cape Cacao's founder and medicine woman, Fran Siebrits. Born and raised in rural South Africa, with ancestry from all around the globe, Fran has been bridging cultures and environments her entire life.

Fran has a deep connection to Mother Nature and the Spirit of IxCacao, serving as a devoted cacao alchemist, and working closely with Spirit.

The Spirit of Cacao first whispered to Fran in 2009 when she met the Apus (spirit of the sacred mountains) while traveling in South America. Her relationship with Mama Cacao began in the cycles of hardship, suffering, heart-break, depression, loss and grief…

Over a period of 6 Moon Cycles, Fran went into self-isolation in dieta with the Spirit of Cacao. She learnt to listen, heal, and deepen into profound love.

Since then, Fran has been a conduit for the Spirit of the Heart, and has shared Cacao to hold space for anyone ready to start reconnecting to their own heart, to the hearts of others, and to the heart of Nature.

🙏🏽

We accept trainees onto our Level 1+2 Cacao Training twice a year, whether it is to join a group container OR to have a private 1:1 training online with Fran!!

Our signature Cacao Training is a core component of who we are and what we do at Cape Cacao. We strongly believe in sharing the medicine of cacao with ethics and integrity that reflect deep respect for the plant spirit and the cultures that have been the traditional custodians of mama cacao for generations.

Level 1 Cacao Training is a 3 month training immersion that equips trainees to work profoundly with ceremonial-cacao on a personal level, as an ally for transformation and spiritual growth.

Level 1+2 Cacao Training equips trainees not only to work with cacao for personal transformation, but to hold space for others when sharing this heart medicine.

Our next intake of Cacao Trainees join the training nest in April - all details and enrollment process on our website (link in bio).

17/02/2025

Join medicine mama, Fran Siebrits, as she makes Ceremonial Cacao in her kitchen, sharing great tips and her favourite recipes.

It has been a while since we have invited you into our cacao kitchen, but we are back, and we would love for all you chocolate lovers to join us.

📅 Sunday, 16 March
⏰️ 12h00-13h00 (South African Time)
💻 We will send some suggestions on how to prepare as well as the Zoom link a day before the workshop 👉🏼 You need to sign up below to our special event list to receive this email...

A recording will be available if you are unable to attend live – however if you join live you will be able to engage more and have the opportunity to ask questions.

Q: What can I expect?

You will be connecting with our founder Fran as she streams live from her cacao kitchen, sharing her favourite ritual cacao drink recipes, preparation guidelines, and some helpful tips on how to connect to the spirit of cacao.

Q: Do I need cacao to attend?

You don’t have to have cacao to join the workshop. But if you would like to make the cacao with us live, you are welcome to source some ceremonial-grade cacao.

Q: Can we source cacao from Cape Cacao?

Absolutely, yes! To purchase in time for the workshop please allow 4-7 business days for delivery to all major centres in South Africa (and 7 days for outlying areas). For our international friends, please source an ethically sourced ceremonial-grade cacao, or just join to make some notes for later.

Q: Will a recording be available if I can’t make it?

Yes! Please sign up to make sure we have your email address to send you the recording after the workshop.

Q: What do I need to prepare for the workshop?

We will send some suggestions on how to prepare as well as the Zoom link 1 day before. It is optional (yet beneficial) to source some ceremonial-grade cacao beforehand.

Q: How do I learn more about sacred cacao?

This workshop is a good start. We have an online training starting in April, which is either a 3-month Level 1 Practitioner Training, or a 6-month immersive Level 1+2 Facilitator Training.

We're so excited to share the ancient art of preparing ceremonial cacao with you!

✨️ LINK IN BIO TO SIGN UP ✨️

♡

17/02/2025

Our 100% pure CEREMONIAL-GRADE CACAO is ethically & personally sourced from Guatemala & Bali 💫 Link in bio to purchase 💫

We've all heard the term "ceremonial grade" but how much do we actually know?

You may have already come across information such as it positively affects body, mind & spirit, with benefits including immune support, gut health, increased vitality, elevates mood, focus & clarity, is heart-opening, grounding & enlightening.

This is all true; since ancient times the purest cacao has been used in sacred ways for health, healing & spiritual connection.

While that all sounds wonderful, what exactly is CEREMONIAL-GRADE & how do we distinguish it from regular cacao?

CEREMONIAL-GRADE is a term we use in the our modern Western culture to distinguish:

✨️INTEGRITY
✨️QUALITY
✨️RESPONSIBILITY
✨️RECIPROCITY
✨️HARMONY

Honestly, it's a bit of a loose term because there is currently no global association defining nor monitoring the protection of this term.

So how do you know if you're just being sold a trending label, or if the cacao you are consuming is one of the highest integrity?

~ CEREMONIAL-GRADE CACAO means there is ~

👉🏼SPIRITUAL RECIPROCITY WITH MOTHER NATURE:

- Cacao growing communities respect the land & pay homage to Mother Nature
- There is a harmonious relationship between people, the land & all life on Earth

👉🏼INTEGRITY IN THE FARMING PRACTICES:

- Small-scale farming communities treat the land with respect
- Permaculture, organic & regenerative farming practices apply

👉🏼CARE IN THE BEAN PROCESSING:

- Cacao beans must go through natural fermentation cycles
- Beans should be naturally dried
- Know how the beans are winnowed (de-husked) & sorted
- Minimal grinding of beans to reach the “cacao paste” consistency should not have added heat

👉🏼RELATIONSHIP BUILDING & care about SOCIAL IMPACT:

- Get to know the farmers, co-operative, association or reputable Ceremonial-grade Cacao source (thereby ensuring direct-trade)
Farmers should decide on the price, not the industrial market
- Get to know how much revenue goes back to the communities - is it a fair compensation?

Live in harmony 🙏🏽

Cape Cacao

10/09/2025

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