About this episode

This episode explores the 8,000-year journey of cacao, its origins, and its cultural significance across civilizations.

Hello, hello — and welcome back to this cacao series. I want to take you on this journey with me. A journey of learning about this plant — this plant medicine — and how it has traveled across continents, across languages, across civilizations, across cosmologies. How cacao transforms us not only through consumption, but through observation, mindfulness, reflection, embodiment, and relationship. This is Episode Two. And as always, I don’t edit these. I like things raw, rugged, unpolished — as natural as possible. So you may hear the wind in the trees, my footsteps on the trail, the grass brushing against rocks. I want you to feel like you’re here with me. Let’s begin. Cacao’s True Origin Story (The One Most People Don’t Know) We often hear the story of cacao as a Mesoamerican plant — Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras. And yes, cacao is deeply woven into those cultures. But the cacao tree is actually **native to South America** — specifically Ecuador, northern Peru, and parts of the Amazon basin. The earliest evidence shows that 7,500 years ago, people were already working with this plant. Almost 8,000 years of relationship. 8,000 years of transformation. 8,000 years of…

People in this episode

Host: Miriam Raquel Sands

Topics covered

• cacao history
• plant medicine
• cultural significance
• transformation
• mindfulness
• civilizations

Keywords

• cacao
• plant medicine
• Mesoamerican culture
• transformation
• mindfulness
• civilizations
• cultural erasure
• colonization

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Ecuador, northern Peru, Amazon basin, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras

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