How to prepare cacao?

My name is Lea. Founder of Aroes cacao. I’m 28, originally from Ukraine, trained as a dentist, and today I work with ceremonial cacao.

This path was not planned.

For most of my early life, I was a very ordinary Eastern European girl. I grew up, studied hard, and followed a clear, logical direction. I spent eight years studying dentistry in Romania, learning discipline, precision, responsibility — how to care for people in a structured, scientific world.

After graduating, I decided to travel. The plan was simple: six months of backpacking through Central America, starting in Mexico and ending in Panama.

Reality was different.

After a few weeks, I realized that constant traveling wasn’t giving me what everyone promised it would. I felt tired, disconnected, and confused about why this lifestyle was supposed to be the answer. Then I arrived in Guatemala — and something shifted immediately.

I fell in love with the country the moment I arrived. With the land. The people. The pace of life. The depth of culture. What was meant to be a short stop became over a year of living there — not as a tourist, but as part of a community. I volunteered, lived by the lake, learned from local people, and slowly reconnected with myself through nature and simplicity.

This is where cacao entered my life.

Before Guatemala, cacao meant nothing to me. I was a coffee person. If you had asked me about cacao, I probably would have thought of industrial chocolate brands. Ceremonial cacao, rituals, plant wisdom — it all sounded distant and abstract.