The Interconnectedness of It All Through the Lens of Cacao with Jonas Ketterle

Podcast Episode Summary

Jonas Ketterle crafts unsweetened ceremonial grade cacao that is used in cacao ceremonies around the world.  It all began in a Zapotech town in Oaxaca Mexico with strong chocolate traditions with one afternoon of making chocolate the traditional way, open fire roasted, hand peeled within sight of their sacred mountain and stone ground with a.molino.  He regularly teaches how to stone grind fresh cacao paste from the bean using a traditional metate.  Jonas founded the bean to bar dark chocolate company Firefly chocolate, in 2014, with the mission of inspiring awe and wonder through cacao.  He is a mechanical engineering graduate from Stanford university, and his engineering know how keeps all the tools running at firefly.  Always with a focus on health, he initially launched 85% dark chocolate in a variety of flavors and sweetened with low glycemic coconut sugar.  He studied permaculture and nature awareness at the regenerative design institute and has lived in eco-villages and cooperative houses for the majority of the last ten years.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that this may be one of the most important conversations you’ve ever tuned in to, no matter where you are on the cacao spectrum.  This exchange goes deeply into how we actually create real change in consumerism, capitalism and our individual lives.  Do you know where you’re food comes from, the lands that are impacted, the harm or health it has created in it’s environment,  the indigenous communities or farmers it does or doesn’t support, the nutrients it provides in it’s whole form or how it has been manipulated and deprived?  Or ways to create miracles in your own life?  How there might be a more effective way to encourage large scale climate reform?  Jonas and I get into conscious consumption, value systems in business, cacao plant medicine, history, production and consumerism, climate change through consciousness, reverence for all things life, story telling, ancestral wisdom and creating miracles.  Honestly we cover some great life bullet points that may just be the key to our desperately needed pivot and ultimate healing.

Scroll down to check out the conversation!

Show Notes

How Jonas met cacao through it’s traditional roots
Conscious consumption
Communing with creation energy and our senses
Disconnection from our food sources
Colonialism continues in the chocolate industry
Changing the social impact and value systems in consumerism
Climate change and genetic engineering
Rainforest ecosystem devastation and recovery
Polyculture planting
Global chocolate vs Ceremonial Cacao
Supporting businesses with clear value systems
What cacao is and what it isn’t
The plant spirit and medicine of cacao
Story telling and connecting to gratitude for harmonious outcomes
Intention setting with cacao
Cacao as a catalyst to embodiment
The versatility and numerous benefits of cacao
The history of cacao
Cacao alcohol??
Cacao as a whole food vs. cacao powder or chocolate
Cacao has co-evolved with humans!
A deeper look at the benefit of the whole food
Diving into ceremony and ritual
The power of sharing in the collective
Building a practice is where your true knowledge comes from
Sensitivity around the word ceremony and exploitation of indigenous communities
Ceremony as a human birthright
The concept of cultural mentoring
Reverence for elders
Holding sacred space for spirit transition and grief simultaneously
What happens when we disrupt our personal status quo
Miracles are changes of perception
What happens when we create instead of defend
Climate change deeply needs human consciousness and miracles...