Pure Natural Miracles Cacao Powder Organic - Raw, Unsweetened, Non-Alkalized Cocoa - Ceremonial Grade, Single-Origin from Ecuador - Perfect for Hot Chocolate, Smoothies or Baking - 16 oz

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.

So i have been using cacao powder for about 3-4 months now, everyday habitually. I have used other sources of cacao powder, i always look for raw and organic products and after spending some time on the web, researching cacao and its health benefits and what to look for when purchasing a quality cacao product i have found that this brand (there is another brand, by Dragon Herbs, which can be found on the D.H. website) is the best of the best when it comes to raw organic mineral rich vitamin dense quality. Raw Organic Cacao can come from different places, therefore there are different constituents and sometimes even additional ingredients in your product. This PNM Cacao is the real deal, its some of the BEST DARK CHOCOLATE IN THE WORLD. 100% Arriba Criollo estate grown Cacao, Delicious and nourishing for healthier cardiovascular status. The problem with many cocoa powders is the addition of sugar and extraneous fats, this product contains none of that. this is the best Cacao Powder you can get your hands on, so if you are looking for some mineral rich goodness - BUY THIS PRODUCT! I prefer to purchase the 2 pound bag, and i use an ounce a day. I also take mine in combination with herbs and herbal extracts (Schizandra,He Shou Wu, Reishi, Cordyceps, Ashwagandha, R. Rosea, Goji, Gynostemma, and Panax Ginseng); i have heard that mixing your herbs and herbal extracts with raw organic cacao can really boost the absorption and utilization of the herbal compounds in the human body, so i try and squeeze a little bit of that ounce i take daily each time i take these herbs. I personally have not tried any other methods of ingestion other than bringing filtered water to a boil and adding in the raw cacao powder to dissolve and drinking like a cup of coco (but its cacao). It is unsweetened (thats what you want) and does not contain added fats (another thing that you WANT to avoid in your cacao powder), so the taste is extremely bold in flavor - like really chocolately; Some people love that, it is an acquired taste and takes some time to get used to - but once you break that barrier in the taste, you will learn to LOVE consuming this stuff. it contains so many great things that the human body needs, especially magnesium - its really good stuff. i sometimes add in a dairy-free coffee creamer made with allnatural ingredients like coconut bliss by neste, but i am trying to refrain from that so i am trying other things out, currently i am just taking out an ounce of powder and putting it into a glass jar, and adding a couple scoops of the powder into my drinks - like right now i am drinking some freshly brewed Red Reishi mushroom tea with a bit of Russian Rhodiola Rosea root powder, i have added about a teaspoons worth of this cacao into it and it taste great. I will continue using this product as it has made a big difference for me, i feel better and i feel happier - my mood is stable and i feel happy most of the time, its like this bliss feeling you get from consuming this cacao powder. I LOVE IT. You will too. Hope this helps somebody out there

Quite simply the best cacao I have enjoyed. When I first came across this product and read the high ratings I was naturally skeptical. I can not think of another product that I have bought on Amazon with such high customer satisfaction. I thought to myself: How can this be? How can a cacao product be so good as to receive 728 ratings, with 88% 5 stars (or better). I figure that at most 1-in-10, maybe even as few as 1-in-100 people bother to rate products they purchase on Amazon. If my calculations are accurate then that would imply that 70,000+ people or more use this product and give it five stars. Well let me tell you, if I could give it ten out of ten I would. This product goes above and beyond even the rave reviews found here on Amazon. First of all, let me describe the smell. When you first open the bag, a small amount of cacao powder wafts. A wonderful aroma emanates. This does not smell like ordinary baker’s chocolate purchased at Safeway or Big T or any other large supermarket. Nor is it like the cocoa of yesteryear I drank growing up in wintery New England as a lad, when my mum would make us a steaming brew of brown sludge. Yes that Hersheys stuff tasted great as a kid. But we are talking cheap, chalky, and over processed and highly sugared factory made kind. NOT Pure Natural Miracles Raw Organic Cacao Powder. Pure Natural Miracles is like velvet. Even it’s texture is a minor miracle. I received the product last week, and have been making it one way, the simple way: Heat 12 oz of water in a large mug to near boiling temperature. Scoop a large 1/4 cup of cacao powder. Mix and stir. No sugar. No Milk. No nada. Pure Natural Miracle cacao. It’s amazing! I sip it slowly letting the delicate flavor and silky smooth velvety feel slide over my tongue. I enjoy small sips over the morning until all that is left at the bottom of the cup is a thick slurry of delicious chocolate. Then I spoon the remainder and use the chocolate coated mug as a starter for my morning joe. My blood pressure is down. My spirits are soaring. Life couldn’t be better. My hats off to the providers and makers of this product.

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!

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!

Amazing flavor, I added it to my yogurt, a little sweetener and it was amazing.

After my local market stopped carrying raw cacao powder in bulk, I sought a new source on Amazon. I was completely overwhelmed with the number of options and realized I did not know enough about cacao to make an informed decision. So I researched extensively the varieties of cacao and methods of production. Finally, I felt confident in choosing the raw cacao powder by Pure Natural Miracles. For one thing, it has been sold by Allianz World Products LLC for several years, and they have proven themselves an excellent seller by answering customer questions, including repeat questions that request updates several years after the seller's initial response. One such question is whether this cacao powder is fair-trade, which is one I had myself. Fortunately, the seller addressed this again in August 2018, and I am so pleased the cacao continues to exceed fair-trade standards. For another thing, this is Arriba Nacional, Criollo cacao powder from Ecuador, which I discovered in my research to be the highest quality cacao powder and sourced from native-born heirloom species. I also chose this brand because it is stone-ground and truly raw: unroasted and unprocessed. I am very particular about the products I use, and this one has checked all of my boxes. I am on my third order of this excellent cacao, and it will continue to be a staple in my kitchen. It has a wonderful aroma! It has a good texture and does not clump. I use it primarily in vegan, sugar-free cookies and hot cocoa. It mixes wonderfully in both and adds a truly pleasant chocolate taste.

This cacao powder is awesome. It's my first time consuming cacao in powder form. I heard so much about its antioxidant benefits. The first thing that caught my eye was it's raw and organic instead of being processed. Also, I do like that this item is USDA organic certified. Now, this comes from the Arriba Cacao in Ecuador. The older the trees, the higher grade cacao. Some trees are between 30-80 years old! It has become a hotspot for pure cacao. This chocolate is delicious. and I use it for my shake. It mixes well with no problems. I put a teaspoon of cacao in my shake. Concerning California's Prop 65, cadmium and/or lead, ConsumerLab has a report concerning cadmium/lead that are high in all/most of the cacao powders. In California, due to Prop 65, cadmium level can't be no more than 4.1 mcg. Canada and the EU (well, in 2019) has set a limit also. The FDA hasn't set one for the states. The company claims that it rigorously tests their cacao for cadmium with a third party laboratory It also claims it's below the "strictest food standards." I am assuming it's from Prop 65. As for me, a concerned consumer, I am limiting my intake to twice a week. I can't take chances with my body. I read somewhere that cacao nibs are safer. Since this company says it tests for cadmium/lead, I would like to see the test results posted online so the consumer, like myself, can make a decision of whether we can safely consumed this cacao powder. I have purchased this item, personally for me, at the full retail price. There's no relationship with the seller or the company of this product. Absolutely there's zero compensation involved for my review. I am solely reviewing my experience for other potential customers.