Theobroma Cacao – PachaMama, Costa Rica

Theobroma Cacao is a cacao ceremony and hands-on cacao program at PachaMama Eco Village & Retreat Center in Nicoya, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. It is for anyone curious about cacao as a plant, a food and a ceremonial companion, and who would rather learn it by visiting a farm, making chocolate and sharing a circle than by reading about it. It runs a few times a year, and the program takes three days.

What to Expect

The program is practical and sensory. It includes:

- A guided visit to a local cacao farm, where you see where the cacao comes from.
- Hands-on chocolate making.
- Creating your own cacao blend to take part in shaping.
- Cacao tastings.
- Educational sessions on the plant.
- A community cacao ceremony.

Learning and ceremony sit side by side here. You handle the raw material, taste what it becomes, and then sit with it together as a group. The name Theobroma is the botanical name of the cacao tree, and the program takes the plant seriously both as a crop and as a medicine for gathering.

The Setting

PachaMama is an eco village and retreat center in the tropical forest of Guanacaste, near the town of Nicoya. It hosts meditation retreats, body cleanse programs, emotional healing workshops, yoga workshops, Red Road ceremonies and musical journeys, so a cacao program here takes place among people who come to the land for inner work and community. Cacao is one of several ceremonial and educational offerings in the center's annual calendar.

PachaMama closes for September and October, during Costa Rica's rainy season. The cacao program is held in the open months, with sessions in both the later part of the year and the early part of the following one.

Before You Go

The program is described as open to those drawn to cacao, with no prior experience of ceremony or chocolate making mentioned or required. Come ready to be hands-on, to taste, to ask questions and to take part in the group ceremony. Because part of the program is a visit to a working farm and the center sits in a tropical forest setting, dress for warm, humid weather and for walking outdoors.

For a different pace around your stay, PachaMama also offers yoga, breathwork, Reiki trainings and silent retreats at other times in the calendar, and some guests choose to pair the cacao program with one of them.