Delicious anytime!

Delicious, 1 Tbs in Greek yogurt with vanilla, organic sugar and a pinch of salt, sooo good! Very low in cadmium and heavy metals compared to all others, couldnt be more pleased! And it lasts a good long time!

Pure Naturals Miracles say their cacao is made from the "Highest Quality Arriba Cacao from
Ecuador" & " Made with the best Arriba Nacional, Criollo cocoa powder from Ecuador"

Seeing I hadn't reviewed this cacao powder & reading other reviews because there's no point in
my saying the same things others have already said repeatedly, I realized that I just wasn't sure if
everything said was true. So, I left Amazon and did a few hours of research of my own: cacao powder,
raw cacoa powder, arriba nacional, arriba nacional crillo, arriba nacional ecuador"¦"¦ I learned a lot.

All chocolate starts as a seed, in a pod, on the Theobroma cacao tree, which means "cacao, the food
of the gods!" It grows under the umbrella of taller trees which protect it from direct sun. The trees
bloom yr round, producing pods which are filled with seeds which are the (cacao) beans.

Cocoa has been cultivated in Ecuador since the 17th century. In the late 18th century & early 19th
century when buyers from Europe went to Equador to buy cacao & asked locals where they could
find the really good (Nacional) cacao, they were told "arriba"¦ río arriba", which means "up the river".
This is where "Arriba" came from. In Ecuador, Nacional cacao is a symbol of quality and great
organoleptic (sensual- as in aroma and flavor) richness. It was the main export up to the 1920s when
diseases struck, destroying crops everywhere. Then the 1997-98 El Niño wiped out most of the
Nacional crop. Arriba Nacional became almost extinct"”however, some heirloom Nacional survived,
were nurtured and resurrected w/help from the Ecuadorian gov. and Int'l, worldwide, development
funding, growers' cooperatives of small family farms formed and worked to preserve the Arriba
Nacional cacao.

Nacional Cacao is one of the first cacaos declared to be an heirloom variety by the Heirloom Cacao
Preservation Initiative (HCP), who's goal is Identifying and mapping fine-flavored beans and recognizing
growers who produce the highest-quality beans. Today Nacional cacao, exclusive to Ecuador, is considered
to be among the world's finest. It's grown in mineral-rich volcanic soil at a high elevation in the Arriba
Nacional forest of Ecuador.

The cacao is grown and processed organically thanks to the Cacaolands project. The cacao is monitored
to ensure total control of the channeling system, to safeguard the environment, to develop sustainable
agriculture and provide a fair & livable income for the farmers.

The strong floral aroma these trees develop is unique to the Nacional cacao & is called the "Arriba"
flavor.
Please note"¦it can be confusing"¦especially when marketers are intermixing & using terms like
"Nacional" and "Arriba" for the lessor quality CCN-51"” an increasingly prevalent hybrid of mass
market quality and flavor. Arriba can mean chocolate products made from not only Nacional but
also this hybrid. CCN-51 has a high-yield, 3-4 times per hectare more than Nacional, has a high cocoa
butter content, is disease resistance, has a more bitter flavor and is the workhorse of cacao.

Other Natural Cacao varitieties are:
Forastero"” Spanish for 'foreigner' or 'stranger' originally from the Amazon basin and domesticated
later than Criollo. Forastero cacao is generally a strong, vigorous plant that grows quickly. It produces
a lot of fruit, accounting for over 80% of the world's cacao and is grown mainly in Africa and Asia. It
was unclear from all I read if Forastero is one & the same as CCN-51 or not.

Trinitario- This is a naturally occurring hybrid of Criollo and Forastero cacao dating back to the 1700's.
It's the result of natural cross-pollination between Forastero trees and the few Criollo trees that
survived a natural disaster in the early 18th century. It was developed in Trinidad. Trinitario cacao
has the delicate flavor and intense aroma of the Criollo, combined with the strong, vigorous plant
growth & fruit production of the Forastero bean. Grown mainly in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the
West Indies and South America, it represents about 10-15% of the world's total production.

This raw cacao powder is of the Criollo variety. The ancient Criollo variety of Nacional cacao
was saved from extinction and is sourced from the native-born heirloom species. Crillio means
"native" or "'of local origin". It is believed to be the first cacao variety to be cultivated in
pre-Columbian times. It's known for it's complex, powerful flavors that can be fruity or spicy,
intense aroma and lacking the bitterness found in other varieties. It's susceptible to disease, yields
fewer fruit pods, and thus beans, and ripens later. It accounts for approx. 5% of the world crop of
cacao. The Criollo variety is considered worldwide to have the finest floral aroma and flavor profile.

Bottom line: Based on all I learned, I'd say when Pure Naturals Miracles says it's certified organic raw
cacao powder is "the best Arriba Nacional, Criollo cocoa powder from Ecuador; our premium cacao is
100% pure, raw and unroasted, natural, non alkalized, organic and packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.""”"”they aren't kidding. It's the real deal"”no sugar added, no nutrients lost in repeated
heatings to roast or process removing the butter. I'm on my third order of this cacao. I use it: to make
cocoa, put it in fruit & vegetable smoothies. have added it to the cook variety of pudding mix & for baking.

It may cost more, but old sayings get to be that way for a reason"”they're true.
All too often, you really do get what you pay for.

Best tasting cacao powder, compared to every organic and non-organic, raw or roasted, etc I've ever tried! And I've tried a lot. I've had pretty much all the top rated brands in most stores and on Amazon (Healthworks, viva naturals, store brands like trader joes, mountain rose herbs', and more) and this wins. It completely loses in the price category, being almost twice as expensive as the already expensive raw organic brands, BUT it's worth it:

1. It tastes so much better. I don't know if it's the magical rainwater, the single source, how they treat the beans, or the higher fat content, but it just tastes so much better, and everything I make with it tastes so much better. It's smoother, it blends better in my recipes, it's less bitter, it's robust and rich, it's amazing.

2. It doesn't cause digestive issues. All cacao powders are high in nutrients like magnesium, and this can cause lots of people to get cramps and other issues, but for some reason this one doesn't cause that in anyone I've fed it to. My guess is the natural fats slow down the absorption of the nutrients so they don't hit your gut like a train. This seems weird since I usually mixed all cacao powders I've tried with other fats, but maybe the fat and nutrients being from the same plant make them digest more efficiently or something? Whatever, it works here.

3. The health benefits are noticeable and sustained for hours. I eat lots of cacao just for the taste, but after getting this brand, I've been using it just for the health kick. It's equivalent to other health food and drinks, like matcha. I notice the increased energy and mental clarity soon after eating/drinking, and it lasts for hours. At first I thought it was a coincidence, but after a few different recipes I realized the cacao powder was the cause! I have never noticed this from other cacao powders. I could just be imposing benefits on it though, but it feels as good as it tastes to me so I'm going to keep using it as long as I can afford it!

I compared all 4 brands: Navitas, PNM (Pure Natural Miracles), Divine Organics and Trader Joe's.
Now let me start saying that they are all USDA Organics, but Trader Joe's cação powder is roasted as it does not state otherwise. Navitas states that it is Unroasted, while Divine Organic states that it is raw and unroasted, and PNM states that it's just raw. Just for everyone's information, raw does not truly mean raw but it means Unroasted instead. In order to make cacao into powder, the beans undergo fermentation and can easily achieve temperatures warm enough, it's not like they take the beans out of the cacao pod and grind it into powder right away, so again raw = Unroasted as far as cacao powder goes.
Now I'll compare the Flavor, how well they blend, of the powder as powder, mixed in milk, and chocolate making. This list goes from worst to best:

4th (The Worst) -Trader Joe's Organic cacao
I love Trader Joe's and I've been drinking their cacao for a long time, but after comparing it to all other 3, Trader Joe's tasted horrible, like cardboard, and you can tell it's the cheapest of all. It is also roasted so it's not the fairest comparison to all other 3 that are Unroasted.

3rd - Divine Organics: I kept comparing this to Pure Natural Miracles and there is a difference. Divine Organics has a more powdery feel to it, maybe due to the lack of fat that PNM has, and it also had a more "˜earthy' taste to it. That earthy taste is what made it fall into the 3rd place, but it is still good, I paid a great price on sale (half the price of PNM).

2nd best - PNM (Pure Natural Miracles): I wish I had liked this more for the price, I did not think it had much taste to it at all! I could taste it directly as a powder, but mixed in milk or in chocolate making, I found myself putting higher amounts of this cacao without achieving much flavor, so I just think it is a bit overpriced. Compared to Divine Organics, I found PNM to have a bit of a "capuccino" taste, idk why. It mixed better but note the higher fat content. I just really wish it had more taste to it like you seem to get from the reviews.

1st (the best): Navitas: Now this was a funny powder. It semelled amazing (like chocolate) but it's daid that it is Unroasted at the same time, so it makes you wonder.. also there isn't the fat content (like in PNM) so Navitas took the longest time to blend in milk but once t did, it just melted and it was the smoothest of all, with the least powdery feel to it! It was also creamy just eating the powder by itself. The best thing was the flavor itself, there is something about this powder that tastes unique, the most chocolate taste of all (again weird considering it states in the back label to be Unroasted). Idk IF or What they do to this cacao powder but it tasted the best which in the end makes it worth paying the price. Between PNM and Navitas, Navitas has a lot more flavor to it.

Ps: they all have some cadmium and lead levels. Divine Organics and Navitas has a CA Prep warning in the back label, which I appreciate knowing as they ALL have amounts of it. Trader Joe's does not have in the label but in CA it had the CA prep on the market shells, but that's only in CA and the sign won't be in other states within the US. PNM does not have any warnings but they have amounts of it as well. LowHeavyMetals.org offers a grading system of A++ (excellent) to F (fail) that ranks foods and supplements according to their heavy metal content. Both Navitas as Pure Natural Miracles are graded as "B", and so does most cacao powders, but some can be graded as C! So in the end, moderation is key - as it seems that almost everything is a source of radiation, heavy metals and lead to cancer these days!