Heart Magic Cacao
Sourcing &
Supply Chain
Where our cacao comes from, who grows it, and how it gets to your cup.
Where our cacao comes from, who grows it, and how it gets to your cup.
Three sources. Two single origin cacaos and one mushroom partner. Everything bought directly from people we know, no commodity blends, no anonymous middlemen, no shortcuts.
This guide walks you through the people, the places, and the path from harvest to your kitchen.
This is the cacao we use in our Heart Magic Discs. Sourced from small family farms in the Morropón valleys of Piura, on Peru's northern coast, in the heart of the Sechura Desert. One of the most unlikely places on Earth for cacao to grow: just 5° south of the equator where you'd expect jungle, but instead sand, wind, and almost no rain.
The Andes block moisture from the Amazon; the cold Humboldt Current keeps rain clouds from forming. Yet cacao has thrived here for over a thousand years, fed by narrow rivers from the Andes, cultivated by farming families who pass white cacao genetics from one generation to the next.
Adapted over centuries to desert conditions, the Piura white bean uses ten times less water than jungle cacao. Fewer insects meant less need for tannin defense, which is why the beans are pale cream rather than purple, and why the cup tastes naturally bright and low in bitterness.
This is the cacao we use in our Heart Magic Hearts. Sourced from smallholder family farms in the high jungle valleys of the Peruvian Amazon, the corridor where the Andes descend into the Amazon basin, through our direct partnership with Terra Nostra Organics. Cacao that tastes unmistakably like chocolate.
Grown in true agroforestry, alongside fruit trees and a canopy of native shade, the way the rainforest itself layers. Certified Organic, Fair Trade, and Regenerative Organic. No clearing. No monoculture. No chemicals.
Genetic studies trace cacao itself to the upper Amazon, the place the plant came from.
Our mushroom extracts come from Nammex, a Vancouver based company that has been pioneering certified organic mushroom extracts since 1989, longer than almost anyone in the industry.
Founded by Jeff Chilton, a commercial mushroom grower who began his career in 1973 and co authored one of the bestselling cultivation guides of the 1980s. In 1996, Chilton traveled to China to organize certified organic mushroom production with growers in the mountains who'd been cultivating these mushrooms for centuries. Those partnerships are still the source of every Nammex mushroom today, grown in shaded greenhouses with deep well water, natural sunlight, and protein enriched sawdust or hardwood logs. Wild Chaga is wildcrafted from boreal birch forests where it's been used for hundreds of years.
This is the most important sourcing distinction in the medicinal mushroom industry. Most "mushroom" supplements on U.S. shelves aren't mushrooms, they're mycelium grown on grain like oats or rice, with the grain not separated out. The result: a powder that's mostly grain, with low beta glucan, very high starch, and undetectable levels of the secondary compounds that matter.
A real extract uses the fruiting body, the actual mushroom, hot water extracted to concentrate the actives. That's what Nammex does. Every batch is independently HPLC tested.
Every batch of Heart Magic cacao undergoes third party heavy metals analysis. Our levels are under the California Prop 65 limits, among the lowest detectable traces of any ceremonial cacao on the market.
100% cacao paste, no additives, no emulsifiers, no alkalization, no fillers. Our blends include other ingredients like spices, tahini, and rose powder. Every additional ingredient we use is organic and sourced to the highest standard.
Want to see a recent lab report? Write to us, we'll send the documentation directly.
Both origins follow the same fundamental path. Timing varies, the desert dries fast, the jungle dries slow. The principles don't.
![Cacao beans drying on raised beds](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0910/9553/1885/files/IMG_3692.jpg?v=1777569101")
We work directly with small family farming communities in both cacao origins. By paying more than double the usual wages and maintaining direct trade relationships, we help them preserve rare cacao varieties the rest of the world is only beginning to understand.
Our farmers and cooperatives earn meaningfully more than the New York price.
Same partners year after year, continuity that lets cooperatives invest in their farms.
We know the cooperatives, agronomists, ports, and lot numbers. Every step is a person we can call.
A desert ecosystem holding a rare genetic line. A rainforest holding the original home of cacao.
Whether you choose our discs or heart blends, you're reaching for ingredients grown by people we know, on land that was cared for, processed with the time it takes to do well.
Questions about a specific batch or want a recent lab report? Write to us. We answer.
Ceremonial cacao and 6 functional mushrooms, sourced the way you've just read about.
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