The Alchemy of Mandala Chocolate
Raw Cacao Stone Ground with Superfoods, Super-herbs and Mushrooms
OUR PROCESS
Raw Cacao & Organic Superfoods
Ethically Sourced
We choose ethically-sourced chocolate, adaptogens, and wild-crafted superherbs – unlike any other chocolate maker. Our cacao farmers know and love this plant and honor its power and potency.
Indigenous communities have used this sacred plant for millennia, allowing it to speak through them. Today, cacao helps thousands of farmers around the world earn a livelihood (not on plantations, but in community-owned and small farmer holdings).
Alchemically Formulated
We take our formulations seriously so you get the most nutritious chocolate on the planet.
We use both ancient remedies and modern research to blend our cacao with herbs and adaptogens in ratios that deliver potent benefits.
Our formulas use ingredients that work together to create something greater than the sum of the parts; maximizing bioavailability and flavor for your health!
Stone Ground & Handcrafted
Our bars are slowly stone ground with no heat to maximize bioavailability and absorption of their precious ingredients.
Particles are ground to 10 micron or less in size and suspended in the natural cacao fats to prevent degeneration and oxidation.
Your body uses less energy to digest and absorb these nutrients and compounds, meaning more net energy and nutrition for you
Nourishing
We put in ingredients that nourish your body.
The theobromine in cacao helps dilate blood vessels and activates the cardiac system (unlike caffeine, which constrict the blood vessels and activates the nervous system). The adaptogens help balance this energy and provide stress-adapting benefits unseen in other chocolates.
We leave out trash.
No soy, no dairy, no blood-sugar spiking processed sugars, no gluten.
Sacred Chocolate
I’m in awe of cacao’s abundance.
Working with cacao is an honor, as this plant’s abundance touches its ecosystems, its farmers, and its enjoyers like you and me.
CACAO is one of the most pharmacologically complex plant substances know to man. It contains 300-1200 individual constituents, when consumed together (and with minimal sugar) can boost our state of mind.
Raw Organic Cacao is known to:
Contain high levels of magnesiumBoost neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, anandamine, and phenylethylamineContain theobromine, a gentle energy-booster that helps absorb other nutrients in cacaoExpand blood vessels, instead of constricting themImpact the endocannabinoid system… Raw Cacao & Organic Superfoods
We fuse our stone ground raw cacao & organic foods and go above and beyond the typical benefits of regular food. These commonly-called “superfoods” have been used for centuries to heal. They are backed by modern research and, we believe, can help us become our best selves.
Maca - Lepidium meyenii
From Peru’s Junín Plateau High in The Andes Mountains. Cultivators first to master the art of producing powerful strains of Maca root centuries ago. Naturally farmed at over 14,000 feet elevation. Rich in bio-available Maca proteins. High in essential vitamins and minerals. Can be used in baking as a base or for flavoring
Lucuma Pouteria Lucuma
Beloved by the Incas, lucuma is a super nutritious Peruvian fruit that contains beta carotene, iron, zinc, vitamin B3, calcium, and protein. Its maple-like taste makes it a sweet addition to smoothies, baked goods, and even ice cream. Viewed as a symbol of fertility and creation, lucuma was called the “Gold of the Incas” and was used for a variety of applications. Recent research shows that lucuma may be helpful for supporting skin health, blood sugar, and even cardiovascular health.
Hemlock Reishi
With a distinctive glossy red coat, reishi mushroom can be easily spotted, usually growing on stumps of fallen trees in the temperate forests of every continent. It has been called the “Divine Mushroom of Immortality” because of its legendary list of health benefits in traditional Asian herbal usage, including immunity support. The Species used in mandala Chocolate is Ganoderma, Tsugae, the Hemlock Reishi, and is native to the Southern Appalachian forests. Mandala Chocolate is the only source of Certified Organic g.Tsugae in the world.
Ashwagandha Withania Somnifera
The ashwagandha plant is a small shrub with yellow flowers that’s native to India and North Africa. It is known as an adaptogen and for thousands of years has been used to relieve stress, increase energy levels and improve concentration.
Baobab Adansonia Digitata
Baobab (Adansonia digitata) is a tree native to certain tropical regions in Africa, including South Africa, Botswana, and Mozambique. Baobab trees produce fruit with a powdery pulp found to contain high amounts of vitamin C. Often consumed as a food or added to beverages, baobab fruit is sometimes used for medicinal purposes.
Chaga Inonotus obliquus
The chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) has been used in Siberia and Russia for its medicinal properties since the 16th century. Chaga is a parasitic fungus that grows on hardwood trees – particularly birch trees – in cool climates. It can be found in the forests of Russia, Northern and Eastern Europe, Korea, parts of Canada and in the northern United States. From the family Hymenochaetaceae, chaga has a worldwide reputation as one of the most medicinally valuable fungi. In China, it is called “King of all Plants.” The Siberians call it “Gift from God.” In Japan it is referred to as the “Diamond in the Forest.” Its Norwegian title –”kreff juke”—translates to “cancer polypore.”
Mesquite Prosopis Pallida
The superfood mesquite belongs to the cultural and culinary heritage of Piura, in northern Peru. Its roots can reach down to aquifers, meaning it can dot the most arid landscapes of the north with its towering foliage of up to 65 feet tall. Sweet and highly nutritional, its botanical name is Prosopis pallida.
Pedicularis Canadensis Pedicularis Canadensis
This is one of the plants certified organic for the first time in history by Mandala Chocolate. It is known by a large variety of different common names including Wood Betony, Beefsteak Plant, Canadian Lousewort, High Heal-all, Snaffles and Canada Lousewort, Common Lousewort, lousewort, Betony, Early lousewort, Canada wood betony, Early Wood Lousewort and Head betony. It has been loved and utilized traditionally by native peoples for untold generations who ate it as a vegetable crop, a salad green and utilized it as a multipurpose medicine. Its uses included stomachaches, diarrhea, anemia and heart trouble and made a poultice for swellings, tumors and sore muscles. As a nervine and non-narcotic muscle relaxer pedicularis is regaining the attention it deserves. It can help relieve pain in muscles when applied topically or taken as a tincture.
Licorice Root Glycyrrhiza glabra
Deriving it’s name from the Greek word ‘glukurrhiza’ which means “sweet root”. It is one of the most widely consumed herbs across the world and has been in used for thousands of years. It contains glycyrrhizin , which is 30-50 times sweeter tasting than sugar but doesn’t cause any increase in blood glucose levels or trigger insulin release. In addition to it’s use as a natural sugar free sweetener, it includes a host of other health benefits including anti-viral properties for chronic viral infections like herpes (cold-sores and shingles) [1] and Hepatitis [2] and a wide range of uses across cultures for millennia [3].
Yacon Polymnia Sonchifolia
Yacon is a tuber similar to the potato or jicama that is native to the Andean region of South America. Yacon is gaining attention around the world for its numerous health benefits, but it has long been consumed by the indigenous people of South America. Yacon, Polymnia sonchifolia, also known as Peruvian ground apple is a relative of the sunflower. It produces juicy, edible tubers, from which its name, translated as “watery root,” is derived.
Tulsi (Holy Basil) Ocimum tenuiflorum
Tulsi or Holy Basil, native to India, is revered and widely used in Ayurvedic medicine [1]. But it’s not just those from it’s native bioregion that has found it useful! It is used in Chinese medicine, and it’s reverence and use extends to modern herbalists in addition to being researched clinically for a variety of uses
Ginger Zingiber officinale
Ginger is not only common kitchen spice, but that has been traded across the world for millenia for its medicinal properties. It was valued enough that in the second century AD the Roman Empire was levying taxes on ginger imports, among a short list of other items. The Latin Zingiber, and many present day names for the herb in European languages, were derived from ancient Tamil Ingiver. It’s medicinal values are currently
Cacao Theobroma Cacao
Science has long recognized cacao; the foundation of all chocolate as a superfood; even giving it the name ‘theobroma’ which literally means ‘food of the gods’. So how does this unique and beautiful tropical fruit, native to Central and South America, gain such a reputation?
Our Wilderness HQ & Wildcraftory
Mandala Springs is 65 acres of forest, boulders, cliffs and streams surrounded by Pisgah National forest in western North Carolina.
Besides being home to our beloved Wildcraftory, Mandala Springs is being mindfully crafted into a Human Empowerment & Ecological Retreat Center, Biodiversity Conservation Reserve and Educational Forest Farm where we nurture wild plants that we use in our chocolate.
Mandala Springs in certified organic and is a paradise to behold.
Read Rob's Story of becoming an "expert chocolatier"
How It Began
“20 years ago, my backcountry expedition almost ran out of food after a month in the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming. Luckily, we found a lost packet of brownie mix…”
Read Rob's Story of becoming an "expert chocolatier"
Our Wilderness HQ & Wildcraftory
Mandala Springs is 65 acres of forest, boulders, cliffs and streams surrounded by Pisgah National forest in western North Carolina.
Besides being home to our beloved Wildcraftory, Mandala Springs is being mindfully crafted into a Human Empowerment & Ecological Retreat Center, Biodiversity Conservation Reserve and Educational Forest Farm where we nurture wild plants that we use in our chocolate.
Mandala Springs in certified organic and is a paradise to behold.