What Cacao Can Really Do for You!

How L tryptophan, phenylalanine, anandamide and the living intelligence of cacao may influence mood, creativity, focus and rest

Nature did not wait for science to become intelligent.

Human beings worked with plants long before we had names for neurotransmitters, receptors, polyphenols or the endocannabinoid system. We observed what happened when we ate something, brewed it, shared it, sat with it or returned to it during moments of transition.

Sometimes that knowledge became medicine. Sometimes it became ritual. Sometimes it became ceremony. Cacao belongs to all three worlds.

For centuries, cacao has been associated with vitality, communion, contemplation and ritual. Today, people describe drinking minimally processed cacao before meditation, creative work, breathwork and meaningful conversations. They speak about warmth, alertness, emotional openness and a particular kind of presence that feels different from coffee.

Modern science has begun to identify some of the molecules that could help explain these experiences.

L tryptophan, a precursor of serotonin.

Phenylalanine, a building block within the dopamine and norepinephrine pathways.

Anandamide, the endocannabinoid known as the bliss molecule.

Flavanols, which interact with blood vessels and blood flow.

Magnesium, which supports the nervous system, psychological function and energy metabolism.

Theobromine and caffeine, which change alertness and the perception of energy.

But identifying these molecules is only the beginning. Nature rarely works through one compound in isolation. It works through relationships, timing, synergy and context. The complete experience of cacao may be far greater than anything we can currently explain by measuring its individual components.

That is not an argument against science. It is an invitation for science to become more curious.

What happens when cacao enters your body?

Cacao contains proteins, fats, fibre, minerals, polyphenols and hundreds of naturally occurring plant compounds.

During digestion, cacao proteins are broken down into peptides and amino acids. L tryptophan and phenylalanine are absorbed through the small intestine and enter the bloodstream. From there, they become available to the body.

Some will contribute to the production of new proteins and enzymes. Some will be transformed in the liver. Some may interact with intestinal signalling and the microbiome. A proportion may circulate towards the brain.

To reach the brain, aromatic amino acids must cross the blood brain barrier. They share transport systems with other amino acids, meaning their uptake depends on the total composition of the meal, the condition of the body and the balance between competing nutrients.

This makes the effect personal. It does not make the effect irrelevant. The fact that we cannot calculate exactly how much tryptophan reaches a particular neuron does not mean that dietary tryptophan has no influence. Research shows that diet can affect the availability of neurotransmitter precursors and, under particular circumstances, their conversion inside the brain.

Food is not a pharmaceutical tablet. It is a conversation with the body.

L tryptophan, the molecule before serotonin

L tryptophan is an essential amino acid. The human body cannot produce it, so it must be obtained through food.

Once available to the brain, it can enter one of our most fascinating biochemical pathways:

L tryptophan → 5 HTP → serotonin → melatonin

This pathway connects nourishment with mood, wakefulness and the biological rhythm of day and night.

Serotonin is often called the happiness chemical, but its role is much broader. It is involved in emotional regulation, appetite, perception, cognition, impulse control, social behaviour and the organisation of different states of consciousness.

It helps us engage with the waking world.

Serotonin and melatonin belong to the same story

Serotonin and melatonin are sometimes presented as opposites.

Serotonin wakes you up.

Melatonin puts you to sleep.

The reality is far more elegant.

Serotonin participates in the regulation of wakefulness, but it also provides the biochemical foundation from which melatonin can be produced at night.

Melatonin is not the enemy of serotonin.

It is part of its continuation.

This opens an intriguing perspective on sleep:

Perhaps better sleep does not begin when we close our eyes. Perhaps it begins with the quality of our waking state.

A body that experiences natural light, movement, nourishment, alertness and meaningful engagement during the day receives clearer signals about when the day ends.

Cacao is not automatically a sleeping aid. It naturally contains stimulating compounds, and concentrated cacao may be too activating when used late in the evening.

But cacao’s L tryptophan, magnesium, flavanols and ritual use may still form part of a larger rhythm that connects daytime presence with nighttime rest.

Research into isolated L tryptophan has found effects on sleepiness and sleep latency, usually at quantities higher than those expected from a normal serving of cacao. Research also confirms that serotonin participates in both sleep and wakefulness. Explore the scientific review.

This does not give us a simple promise. It gives us a beautiful possibility:

Cacao may not sedate the body. It may help support the chemistry of a nervous system that remembers how to move between activation and rest.

Phenylalanine, the molecule before motivation

Phenylalanine is another essential amino acid found naturally in cacao protein.

The body can convert phenylalanine into tyrosine, after which it can enter the catecholamine pathway:

Phenylalanine → tyrosine → L DOPA → dopamine → norepinephrine → epinephrine

These molecules are deeply involved in attention, motivation, learning, reward, alertness, movement and our capacity to respond to a challenge.

Dopamine helps the brain recognise relevance.

Norepinephrine helps mobilise attention and energy.

Epinephrine prepares the body for action.

Phenylalanine does not guarantee the production of any particular quantity of these neurotransmitters. Enzymes, neuronal activity, tyrosine availability and the overall nutritional environment all influence the pathway.

Yet we should not make the opposite mistake and pretend the building blocks do not matter.

A scientific review concluded that dietary changes can influence brain pools of aromatic amino acids and their conversion into neurotransmitters, particularly within active neurons. Tyrosine appears to be the preferred substrate, but phenylalanine remains part of the biochemical foundation from which this family of signalling molecules emerges. Read the review.

This may be relevant to the experience people describe as cacao clarity.

Not the sharp, hurried stimulation of being pushed beyond yourself.

More like having additional material available when the brain is already engaged in meaningful work.

Cacao does not create purpose. But it may accompany the chemistry of pursuing it.

Phenylalanine and the hidden intelligence of the microbiome

Phenylalanine does not interact only with the brain.

A proportion of dietary amino acids reaches the intestinal ecosystem, where microorganisms can transform them into aromatic metabolites. Phenylalanine can be converted into phenylacetic acid and related compounds, which may then enter further metabolic pathways in the human body.

Some experimental studies also suggest that phenylalanine participates in intestinal nutrient sensing and may influence signals such as GLP 1 and PYY, hormones involved in appetite and metabolic communication. Much of this research is still based on cells and animals, but it points towards a deeper relationship between amino acids, microbes, intestinal receptors and the brain. Explore the experimental research.

These pathways are not automatically beneficial or harmful.

Their effects depend on the microbiome receiving them.

This is where the whole cacao matrix becomes important.

Cacao does not deliver phenylalanine in isolation. It brings fibre, minerals and a remarkable spectrum of polyphenols. These compounds interact with microorganisms and may influence which species and metabolic pathways thrive.

The microbiome may therefore be one of the missing bridges between cacao as a food and cacao as an experience.

We are only beginning to understand the language spoken across that bridge.

Anandamide, the molecule of bliss

Anandamide is perhaps the most mysterious part of the cacao story.

It is an endocannabinoid, a lipid messenger created naturally by the human body. Its name originates from the Sanskrit word ananda, meaning joy, delight or bliss.

Anandamide interacts with the endocannabinoid system, a vast biological network involved in emotional processing, stress adaptation, reward, appetite, memory, pain perception, nervous system balance and synaptic plasticity.

It appears to help the nervous system adjust intensity.

When to hold on.

When to soften.

When to release.

When to feel safe enough to become open again.

This may be one reason anandamide has attracted interest in research into fear extinction, emotional flexibility and recovery from stress. Discover the endocannabinoid system.

Dawson Church and the bliss molecule

In Bliss Brain, Dawson Church explores how meditation and elevated emotional states may change the chemistry and structure of the brain.

Anandamide is central to his idea of the bliss brain.

Church’s work invites us to consider meditation not as something imaginary or separate from the body, but as an embodied biological state involving neurotransmitters, brain networks, breathing, expectation, attention and emotion.

A profound inner experience is still a physical event.

The fact that we cannot yet measure every part of it does not make it unreal.

Church describes anandamide as one of the neurochemicals associated with meditative states, creativity, resilience and joy. Discover Bliss Brain.

This brings us to the controversial question.

Does cacao contain anandamide, or does it help us create it?

A famous 1996 paper in Nature reported anandamide and related lipid compounds in chocolate. The publication helped establish the idea that cacao contains the bliss molecule. View the original research.

Further research made the story more intriguing.

Scientists identified related cacao lipids, including oleoylethanolamine and linoleoylethanolamine. These substances did not activate cannabinoid receptors directly, but they inhibited the breakdown of anandamide in laboratory experiments.

This suggested an extraordinary possibility.nCacao might not need to provide a large dose of anandamide itself. It might contain compounds that allow the body’s own anandamide activity to remain present for longer. Read the scientific correspondence in Nature.

But perhaps the question “how much anandamide is inside the cacao?” is too narrow.

The more interesting question may be:

What happens to our own endocannabinoid system when cacao, attention, breathing, sensory pleasure and emotional safety occur together?

The endocannabinoid system is dynamic. The body produces its signalling molecules in response to internal and external conditions.

Movement can influence it. Stress can influence it. Social safety can influence it. Pleasure, attention and emotional experience may influence it.

Cacao may contribute directly through related lipids, and indirectly through the total physiological and ritual experience it helps create.

Why cacao ceremonies can create a different state

A cacao ceremony brings several potentially meaningful elements together.

• There is the cacao itself, with its theobromine, caffeine, flavanols, minerals, fats, aromatic molecules and amino acids.
• There is warmth, which changes how slowly we drink and how we inhabit the body.
• There is bitterness, which demands attention.
• There is aroma, which speaks directly to memory and emotion.
• There is intention.
• There is breathing.
• There may be music, movement, silence or social connection.

These elements are part of the chemistry of cacao.

Set and setting are sometimes used to dismiss an experience as placebo. But the nervous system never receives a substance outside a context.

Expectation changes attention. Attention changes perception. Breathing changes physiology. Safety changes how the nervous system processes sensation. Ritual does not necessarily create an effect from nothing. It may organise the body so that the effect can be received more completely.

This is why cacao does not need to be psychedelic to be meaningful.

Cacao and creativity

Science has not yet placed creativity inside a laboratory measuring cup.

Creativity emerges through the interaction of attention, imagination, memory, emotional openness and the capacity to form new connections.

Cacao may support several of the conditions in which that becomes easier.

• Theobromine and caffeine can increase alertness.
• Flavanols may support blood flow.
• Phenylalanine and tyrosine belong to the chemistry of dopamine and norepinephrine.
• L tryptophan belongs to the chemistry of serotonin.
• Magnesium supports normal psychological and nervous system function.
• The endocannabinoid system participates in emotional flexibility and synaptic change.

None of these molecules is creativity by itself. Together, within the right person and moment, they may help establish a state in which the mind is awake without becoming rigid.

Many people describe coffee as pulling their energy upward. Cacao can feel wider. More embodied. While Coffee often says: perform, Cacao seems to whisper: enter.

That difference has not been fully captured by modern research, but it has been experienced often enough across cultures and generations to deserve more than dismissal.

Six expressions of cacao, six different ways to meet the plant

Reducing cacao to caffeine and theobromine would be like reducing olive oil to fat.

It misses the living complexity of the product.

Each Flava’Choc product offers a different entrance into that complexity.

For a powerful morning or creative ritual

The Flava’Choc Raw Cacao Powder is made from rare Chuncho cacao from Peru. It is unroasted, never alkalised and cold pressed.

A 10 gram portion provides approximately 262 mg measured cacao flavanols, 63 mg magnesium, 158 mg theobromine and 49 mg caffeine.

Its concentration and depth make it particularly suited to a morning cacao drink, focused work, a creative session or a more intentional personal ritual.

For a daily cacao practice

The Flava’Choc Raw Cacao Nibs provide approximately 262 mg measured flavanols, 24 mg magnesium, 94 mg theobromine and 13 mg caffeine per 10 grams.

They offer one of the simplest ways to bring unroasted cacao into a daily routine. Add them to yoghurt, granola or a smoothie, or eat them slowly on their own.

Their natural crunch invites you to taste cacao before it becomes chocolate.

For cacao in its purest chocolate form

A 17.5 gram serving of the Flava’Choc 100% Unroasted Cacao Bar provides approximately 261 mg measured flavanols, 42 mg magnesium, 139 mg theobromine and 17 mg caffeine.

Made from unroasted, single origin Nacional cacao from Ecuador, this bar contains no sweeteners or unnecessary additions. Raw cacao nibs add texture and bring you even closer to the original bean.

It is intense, direct and beautifully uncompromising.

For purity with a softer entrance

The Flava’Choc 80% Unroasted Cacao Bar uses the same minimally processed Nacional cacao, softened with a small quantity of organic date powder and cacao butter.

It contains no refined sugar and delivers approximately 790 mg measured flavanols per 100 grams.

This is the bar for those who want the depth of raw cacao with a more approachable, naturally rounded sweetness.

For baking, melting and sharing

The Flava’Choc 80% Dark Chocolate Drops are lightly roasted to develop their rounded flavour and smooth melting quality.

Made with single origin cacao from Madagascar, coconut blossom sugar and honey, they allow cacao to move from personal ritual into the kitchen.

Melt them gently, use them in baking, add them to breakfast or simply eat them as they are.

For cacao as close as possible to the original bean

The Flava’Choc Raw Cacao Beans may be the most elemental expression of the collection.

Each bean is peeled by hand without heat or mechanical processing. The beans are then treated with UV light for food safety while preserving their natural character as closely as possible.

Eat them whole, break them into pieces or grind them freshly into your own cacao preparation.

They are not officially labelled ceremonial grade, because that term has no regulated definition.

But they possess what many people truly seek from ceremonial cacao: a traceable origin, minimal intervention, an intense whole cacao experience and the freedom to build a personal ritual around the plant.

Preserving what conventional chocolate leaves behind

Even the impressive laboratory measurements of Flava’Choc cannot describe the complete experience.

The products protect what conventional chocolate production frequently destroys. The cacao is minimally processed, never alkalised and, depending on the product, kept unroasted or processed at carefully controlled temperatures.

That matters because processing changes plants.

Heat can transform flavour, but it can also reduce delicate compounds. Alkali may soften acidity and darken cacao while dramatically altering its natural polyphenol profile.

The purpose of Flava’Choc is not to turn cacao into another functional powder.

It is to let cacao remain as close as possible to itself.

The food of the gods

Cacao occupied an extraordinary place within ancient Mesoamerican cultures. It was nourishment, currency, tribute, medicine, offering and ceremonial drink.

The Maya and Aztec peoples did not know the words anandamide, polyphenol or endocannabinoid receptor.

They knew the experience.

They observed cacao across generations. They saw how it influenced energy, connection, endurance, ritual and perception. That knowledge became embedded in stories and cultural practices.

Culture can preserve observations long before science develops the instruments to explain them.

The botanical name Theobroma cacao was given by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. Theobroma is derived from Greek words commonly translated as “food of the gods.” Read the botanical history.

Linnaeus supplied the European name. Nature and ancient cultures had already recognised the wonder.

Where science ends, exploration begins

There are things we can state with confidence. Cacao contains essential amino acids.

• Tryptophan is a precursor of serotonin and melatonin.
• Phenylalanine participates in the pathway towards tyrosine and catecholamines.
• Anandamide is an important messenger within the endocannabinoid system.
• Cacao flavanols support normal blood vessel elasticity and blood flow.
• Minimally processed cacao can provide meaningful amounts of magnesium, theobromine and other bioactive compounds.

Then there are possibilities.

Cacao may influence mood through several pathways acting together.

Its amino acids may contribute to neurotransmitter availability according to the needs and state of the body.

Its related lipids may interact indirectly with anandamide metabolism.

Its polyphenols and fibre may communicate with the microbiome.

Its combination of gentle stimulation, circulation and embodied warmth may create fertile conditions for contemplation and creativity.

Ceremonial use may amplify these effects by aligning chemistry, attention and intention.

Not all of this has been proven. Not all of it has been disproven. Science is one map of reality. It is not the territory itself.

Our Farmatuur perspective

At Farmatuur, we do not want to replace one form of reductionism with another.

We will not claim that cacao cures depression, creates instant bliss or guarantees deep sleep. But we also refuse to describe cacao as little more than a source of magnesium and mild stimulation. Nature is more intelligent than the list on a nutritional label.

The value of cacao may live in the relationships between its compounds, the body receiving them and the moment in which they are consumed.

This is why Flava’Choc belongs in the Farmatuur family. It combines ancient wonder with modern transparency. Reverence with laboratory analysis. 

Discover the Flava’Choc collection

Explore the 100% Unroasted Cacao Bar, 80% Unroasted Cacao Bar, 80% Dark Chocolate Drops, Raw Cacao Nibs, Raw Cacao Powder and Raw Cacao Beans at Farmatuur.

A respectful note on use

Cacao can be powerful. Begin with a modest quantity and observe how your body responds. The concentrated raw powder contains more caffeine than the nibs or unroasted bars and is generally better suited to the morning or earlier part of the day.

People with phenylketonuria must restrict phenylalanine and should follow the guidance of their medical team concerning cacao and other protein containing foods.

Cacao is not a replacement for medical care. It is a remarkable food, a botanical ally and, for many people, a meaningful part of a wider practice of wellbeing.