There's No Such Thing as "Ceremonial-Grade" Cacao
You've seen the label everywhere. "Ceremonial-grade" cacao, sold like it's a certification, something official, something a bag either earns or doesn't.
It isn't. There's no authority that grants it. No standard body that regulates it. No test a batch of cacao passes or fails to get the name.
So who decided what "ceremonial-grade" means? Whoever's selling the cacao. A brand writes it on the label, and because enough brands have done the same thing, it starts to sound like a fact instead of a marketing choice.
Ask around and you'll usually hear some version of the same four ideas:
The bean hasn't been broken down or had anything removed from it — it's used whole, as it is.
It can be traced back to an indigenous growing community, using a bean considered native to Central or South America, picked by hand from a single origin.
It's grown organically, under the shade of a forest canopy alongside other plants, rather than on a cleared, single-crop plantation.
The people who've cared for that land for generations have given it their blessing, and it's been made in a way that respects their customs.
None of that is necessarily wrong. Some of it might genuinely be true of the bag you're holding. But nobody checks. There's no inspector, no paperwork, no third party confirming any of it actually happened. It's a list a brand can recite on a website — not a list anyone is required to prove.
Why we don't use it
We could call our cacao "ceremonial-grade." Plenty of brands do, including ones selling cacao that isn't meaningfully different from ours — or from what you'd find at a fraction of the price. But the term doesn't mean anything, and we'd rather just tell you what's true.
Here's what's actually true about Luna.
Ours is single-origin Criollo, grown in the Peruvian Amazon. That's a fact we can point to, not a tier we assigned ourselves.
It's cacao paste — whole bean, stone-ground. Nothing stripped out, nothing added. No sugar. No soy. No fillers. This matters more than any grade could, because it's the difference between cacao paste and cacao powder: powder is made after the fat has been pressed out of the bean, which is also where a lot of what makes cacao worth drinking goes with it. Paste keeps the whole thing intact.
And we know where it comes from. Our cacao is grown in the Andean Amazon of northern Peru, by farming communities we've built a real relationship with over time — not bought through a broker or an anonymous supply chain. Through a UTZ-certified program, that relationship includes fair trade pricing, sustainable growing practices, and care for the land the cacao actually grows on. Part of what that looks like is putting tools, resources, and education back into those communities — not just taking the beans and moving on.
What actually matters
None of this needed a made-up label to be true. It just needed someone to say it plainly.
If you're choosing a cacao and trying to work out whether "ceremonial-grade" on the packet means anything, it doesn't — not in any regulated sense. What's worth asking instead: Where did this come from? Is it the whole bean or stripped-down powder? What's actually in it besides cacao?
Real cacao doesn't need a made-up name. It just needs good sourcing, an honest process, and nothing hidden. You can taste the rest for yourself.