Eats & Beats: The Power of Cacao

interview with Mavis Salazar

One of the Americas greatest gifts to the world is the cacao plant.  The ancient and extremely complex process of developing the plant is a work of spiritual dimensions, says Mavis Salazar, an herbalist who runs Grandma’s House of Herbs and Cures in Denver.

Salazar explains, “The cacao is a fruit, part of a giant plant – hard on the outside.  The meat of the fruit is pretty think.  Inside that meat are seeds coated with a white gel that is so full of antibiotics, vitamins and nutrition.  The seeds are coated with a light dress.  It’s a sacred seed, used as money, food, medicine, and in ceremonies.” 

Salazar leads tours to Guatemala to study the spirituality around the cacao plant.   Salazar is lecturing on “The Power of Cacao” Thursday night, May 22, 2014 at Museo de las Americas, 861 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, C) 80204 .

Music on this feature is the title track from the Dave Valentin CD Pure Imagination, which was part of the soundtrack to the film “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”  Chocolate.  It’s everywhere.