Growing up in England, hot chocolate meant a mug of Horlicks on a cold evening. I used to make it for my mum sometimes. A light brown powder, speckled with white, tasting faintly of sugar and weak chocolate. It was comforting in the way that familiar things are, but I wouldn't have called it delicious.
Moving to Colombia changed that completely.
The first time I was served chocolate for breakfast here, I didn't quite know what I was drinking. It was thick, dark, and bitter. Nothing like what I'd grown up with. Sweetened only with panela or a little honey. I found out later I was drinking 100% pure cacao. Nothing added, nothing removed. It tasted absolutely incredible.
It struck me as a shame that the UK had such a strong culture around hot chocolate, but what most people were actually drinking was so far from the real thing. The cocoa butter, the depth of flavour. All of it processed out. Sugar and milk powder put in its place.
Hiking in Santa Elena
The moment it really crystallised for me was during the pandemic. I was staying in Santa Elena, a small hilltop village in Colombia, with my then girlfriend, now wife. Every morning we'd make chocolate together. Boiling, whisking, sweetening, pouring. It became a ritual we both looked forward to, and I kept thinking: people back home would love this. Not just the taste, but the whole thing: the making of it, and the way it fit into the morning.
That thought stayed with me for a few years. Then, through the good fortune of working with my friend Kevin, who's based in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia, where cacao is grown, Sierra Cacao became real.
The Sierra Nevada is a remarkable place to source from, rising from the Caribbean coast to snowcapped peaks, and the cacao grown there carries that terroir with it. Our aim is simple: get that cacao to you with nothing added and nothing removed, and let it speak for itself.
Whether it's a cold morning in January or a hectic Tuesday evening, we hope it becomes part of your routine the way it became part of ours.
Try it for yourself.
Single-origin Pure Cacao from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. 11 sticks per pack, or a Month Supply of 33.