Khaldoun is ceremonial cacao, made for ritual, presence and inner work.
Grown in the volcanic earth of Bali, Indonesia.
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Fermented, sun-dried and stone-ground. One ingredient, single origin. Nothing else.
Bali is a volcanic island. It sits on the Sunda Arc, part of the Ring of Fire and one of the most volcanically active places on earth. A powerful geology, with dark and mineral-rich soil.
Most widely available ceremonial cacao comes from three or four countries. We want to bring the unique cacao grown here to the world.
The cacao tree's botanical name is Theobroma cacao. From the Greek theos and broma — food of the gods. Bali has been called the Island of the Gods for about as long as anyone has been writing things down.
We would not build a brand on a coincidence. But we did notice.
Bali gives cacao something nowhere else can. That is what is in the cup.
Tri Hita Karana
Balinese life is organised around Tri Hita Karana — three harmonies: with the divine, with each other, and with the land. Farming is not held apart from any of it. It was here long before we were.
The land and the customs that tend it do most of the work. Our part is not getting in the way.
Here is what people report when they sit with cacao. Some of it we can measure, some of it we cannot.
Warmth spreading through the chest. A tightness you had stopped noticing letting go. Grief that had been sitting in you for years, finally moving. People weep. People laugh. People sit up afterwards and say they had not felt that in a long time.
Cacao opens the door, walking through it is your part.
Cacao has been sat with in ceremony for thousands of years. People have profound experiences with it, whether or not anyone can explain them.
Water and one ingredient. That is all that is in the cup.
The measurable amounts are small yet people who have worked with cacao for years will tell you the quantity was never the point.
People describe colours and visualisations behind closed eyes. A sense of being met. Universal understanding and oneness that arrives whole rather than assembled. Profound insights, healing, energy movements and more.
We cannot quantify it, yet we experience and believe it to be real.
Why does Khaldoun retain its natural potency? Because of everything we refuse to do.
We warm ours to 50°C at most — enough to open the flavour, no further.
Most cacao is roasted at 120°C and above. Heat makes a poor quality bean drinkable and burns off the flavanols and aromatics along with the roughness.
We warm ours to 50°C at most — enough to open the flavour, no further. What's fragile in the bean survives the journey into your cup.
We add no chemicals at any stage. Ours has nothing to correct.
Alkalising is a chemical treatment. Producers use it to darken cacao and mute beans that would otherwise taste harsh. It destroys most of the flavanols along with the harshness.
We add no chemicals at any stage. Ours has nothing to correct.
We leave 100% of the natural butter content in.
Cacao butter has a market of its own, so most producers press it out and sell it on. What's left is powder holding 10 to 12% butter, against the 50-plus percent it started with.
We leave 100% of the natural butter content in. It's the weight and the warmth you feel, and the frost you see is a signature of high butter content.
We grind just enough to make the butter available and the texture drinkable, while preserving what's in the bean.
Grinding is a balance, not a maximum. Too little and the butter stays locked in and never emulsifies. Too much and the heat and friction start destroying things we want to keep. Many brands grind for days to force a smoothness that isn't needed.
We grind just enough to make the butter available and the texture drinkable, while preserving what's in the bean. That's the balance.
Shine is a record of processing, not a mark of quality.
Tempering is a heat-and-cool cycle that sets the butter crystals so chocolate looks glossy and gives it a snap. If your cacao breaks with a clean, glassy face, it's very likely been heavily ground and tempered.
We skip it. Ours is matte and uneven, and it breaks dull. Shine is a record of processing, not a mark of quality.
We have one ingredient, stone-ground and left alone.
Sugar, vanilla, flavourings — most of it is there to cover a bean that needs covering.
We have one ingredient, stone-ground and left alone. Nothing added, nothing taken out, and nothing done to it that it didn't need. That is what the other five are for.
The plant already had the flavour, the body and the compounds. We just stopped removing them.
Fermentation and drying make the bean what it is. Everything after that is a choice someone makes.
Most of those choices are made for speed, for shelf life, for a finish that photographs well. Almost none are made for the person who will eventually sit down and drink it.
Cacao is at its fullest the moment it comes off the drying bed. Every step after that is either protecting what is there or trading it away for something easier to sell — a darker colour, a smoother texture, a gloss, a longer shelf life. Each of those has a price, and it is always paid by the cup.
So we refuse six of them. Every refusal is slower, costs more, and yields less. Every one is why this tastes of the bean rather than of what was done to the bean.
The right amount of bitterness is a hallmark. It comes with the active compounds — the ones creating the very effect you are drinking it for.
Untempered cacao is matte and uneven, with a faint frost where the butter has crystallised on its own.
Smooth and glossy means tempering, days of grinding, usually both. Shine isn't quality. It's a record of what was done to it.
Alkalising darkens cacao on purpose, and roasting does it as a side effect — so heavily processed cacao is dark right through, and evenly. Ours is browner inside, and not the same shade twice.
Mix it with water, nothing else.
It will be bitter. Ours is — that is the bean, not a fault. What you are checking is what comes with it.
Cacao with its butter intact coats your mouth. Creaminess arrives first, bitterness settles underneath, and there is something fruity or earthy behind both. Thin, flat, bitter with nothing else behind it — you have your answer.
Fail both and it's compromised.
There is no certification behind the words ceremonial grade. No agreed standard, no body that audits it, nothing to stop anyone printing it on a label.
That is not a scandal. It is simply how the category grew.
But it does mean you are asked to take the label's word for it — and most people have never tasted a cup that would let them argue.
You don't have to take our word for any of this. There are two tests you can run on any cacao. A minute each, and nothing you don't already own.
A cacao that fails both has been through most of what we refuse — roasted hard, alkalised, pressed, ground for days, tempered to finish. Each is a small subtraction, and the cup is where they add up.
Ceremonial cacao is bitter because of what is in it. Nearly every step of industrial processing exists to take that bitterness away.
If your ceremonial cacao has almost no bitterness, it has likely been processed into something generic on its way to big chocolate.
And if it comes from those same low-quality beans without the processing to cover them — grown and fermented for yield rather than integrity — it will taste harshly bitter, sharp on the tongue and slow to clear.
Given that this is most of what the market offers, it is entirely understandable that people reach for spices and sweeteners. Even for ceremony. Even for meditation.
Good beans. Fermentation at the pace fermentation takes. Never roasted hot, never alkalised, every gram of the butter left in.
None of that adds anything. It is all refusal.
I recommend 30g plus 90ml of hot water — under 80°C, and never boiling. Whisk it; do not blend.
Heat is what the first refusal is there to prevent. It applies at the kettle too.
30g is a standard ceremonial dose. If you want something stronger, use 40g.
It arrives pre-broken, so there is nothing to cut. Weigh out your dose. If the pieces have stuck together in the pouch, give them a knock to separate them.
Add the water and whisk by hand until it comes together and a light foam sits on top. That foam is the butter emulsifying.
Into a cup you like. Then sit down with it.
5.0· 634 reviews on Google
From guests at our cacao bar in Bali, Indonesia, as of October 2026.
A lovely ceremonial cacao spot in Bali with truly high-quality cacao. The drink is rich, smooth, and grounding—clearly pure and not overly sweet. …
I’m a cacao purest and find it hard to find places that prepare ceremonial cacao without additional things such sugar & milk. They accommodate this, will definitely be coming again!
My favourite place to buy cacao and drink! I love their natural sun dried cacao the most
Magical experience. It’s so nice to take a moment and be present with what you are about to consume. This place makes you do that. The ceremonial cacao itself was divine, the experience was intentional. Highly recommend.
First time trying cacao here and I really liked it. The cacao tasted rich and high quality. Nice place to slow down in Canggu.
A truly heart-opening cacao. Served in a beautiful ceremonial setting. The atmosphere is really loving. I definitely will enjoy much more cacaos here! Thank you
Beautiful atmosphere, exceptional cacao, and such a unique concept. The team made the experience feel warm, intentional, and memorable. A hidden gem in Pererenan!
One of the best ceremonial cacao I ever had and I had to come back for more. …
… sells the best cacao I’ve ever had, not just in Bali but anywhere …
Amazing cacao ceremony. Love the feeling after a little journey to my heart by the magic of cacao. Thank you for serving a high-quality drink at your store.
Yes. Start with the standard 30g, see how it sits with you, and adjust from there.
A small amount. The ceremony and the chemistry, above, covers what you are actually feeling.
Sealed, somewhere cool and dry, out of the sun. It does not need the fridge. The best-before date is printed on every pouch.
Good beans cost more than poor ones, and each of the six refusals is a cheaper step we chose not to take. At 30g, a 500g pouch works out at about a cup.
I put my name on the pouch so there is someone to answer for what is inside.
Shehzad Khaldoun
Nothing added, nothing taken out, and none of the industrial steps that exist to make chocolate. I chose every step for the cup, not the yield.
Not a trend. Not a superfood. It is a practice.
Khaldoun began with my own practice, years before it was a business. Then cacao bars. Then circles I held myself.
What I noticed, across all of it, was how widely the journey varied from one cacao to the next. Same ritual, same intention, entirely different experience.
So I went looking — into the ancestry, the traditions, the agriculture, and the modern production methods.
Many ceremonial brands are offshoots of the mass industrial process, optimised for yield for the global chocolate trade.
Nobody in that chain is thinking about meditation.
Those beans do not need to be good, because roasting and processing turn poor beans into a generic commodity. Roasted hard. Alkalised. The butter pressed out and sold on. Ground for days, and tempered to finish.
What remains is a fraction of the true plant.
Most ceremonial cacao has been through some version of that before it reaches anyone. So most people have never sat with the plant whole.
Cacao carries the land it grew in. We work with volcanic and old rainforest ground, and with growers using traditional methods that were here long before we were.
Fermentation at the pace fermentation takes. No acceleration, no additives.
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