Top three most common mistakes when making your morning cacao
f you've tried Soma Cacao and don't get what the all the fuss is about, chances are you haven't quite mastered the art of preparation 🙂.
Whenever I make cacao for a group, someone inevitably comments "why doesn't mine taste/feel as good as this?!"
In all honesty, there is nothing particular special about the way I prepare cacao. I think it always tastes delicious for two reasons:
1. I 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 use Soma Cacao - which has been very carefully sourced from small farms, ensuring it is the highest quality cacao made from rare fine-flavoured beans, AND it is processed by highly-skilled chocolate makers, which makes a huge difference (we've heard from some chocolate experts that the post harvest processing actually accounts for 70% of the taste and quality of the final product).
2. I've got my recipe down pat. Having spent several months when we first started out attending markets each weekend, I was able to experiment with the recipe to come up with the one that made almost everyone go HOLY MOLY WOW!
So point number 1 can be addressed simply by choosing to order your cacao from us 🤩
For point number 2 - read on for the top three reasons people seem to go wrong when preparing cacao, either for themselves or in bulk for a group.
As always - we're here to advise you if you need some further guidance, or also feel free to check out our preparation page 🙂 we've got tips and tricks that we continue to develop based on your questions and feedback.
TOO MUCH LIQUID
If in doubt, always start with LESS liquid and add more if your cacao is too thick. The cacao should taste and feel decadent and rich, not watery like a tea. By the way, our favourite ratio of water:plant milk is about 3:1.
2. NOT BLENDING YOUR CACAO
We can’t stress enough how much of a game changer it is to blend your cacao. Whole bean cacao, unlike a powdered version, is not soluble in water, so it needs some kinesthetic action to make the magic happen. Just like coffee, where you generally need tools (e.g. at the very least, a coffee plunger), we do urge you to have the right equipment to make the most of your cacao.
Our go to tool is a handheld stick blender (you can pick one up cheap at Woolies or Kmart). You can also use a nutribullet or similar (but make sure the water isn’t too hot or it could explode!). Third option is to whisk up your cacao manually.
3. USING THE WRONG MILK
While we recommend predominantly using water, we suggest adding a little bit of milk to round out the flavour of your cacao drink. The best option by far, in our opinion, is a good quality oat milk.
We’ve tried alot of different brands and one stands out way above the rest: @thealternativedairyco.
If you are a celiac or prefer other plant milks, the next best options are coconut milk and macadamia nut milk. Almond milk is also ok though we feel it interferes with the flavour of the cacao a little too much.
Avoid soy milk and dairy milk, as these definitely interfere with the flavour, and, potentially the beneficial properties of the cacao.
