Cacao is a fruit. The pulp inside the pod is light, tropical, and nothing like chocolate. We press the juice from that pulp, add water, and a small amount of potassium and Vitamin C to ensure consistent levels in every bottle. That is cacao water.

Anyone who wants a drink that actually tastes good and has nothing unnecessary in it. It works equally well as a morning drink, an afternoon pick-me-up, or an evening alternative to alcohol.

Taste-wise they’re pretty similar but we think WowCacao tastes better, of course. In terms of sustainability they’re very different. As the popularity of coconut water has risen, vast tracts of rainforest have been cut down to accommodate new palm plantations. The water comes from young green coconuts before the flesh develops so the water is the driver of cultivation. With cacao pulp it’s a different story as the pods are already being harvested for the cocoa beans so we’re just stopping the delicious pulp from going to waste and making the most out of the harvesting process!

We add two things: potassium chloride and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). Both occur naturally in the cacao fruit — we add them to ensure the levels are consistent from bottle to bottle, because natural fruit varies. Everything else comes from the fruit itself. No sugar, no sweeteners, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients.

Cacao is cauliflorous which means it grows outwards from the trunk or branches on tough stalks. Ripe fruits do not fall but have to be cut off with secateurs or machetes. Until now mechanisation has failed to do this as too much damage occurs to the tree bark. Once the pods are open, the pulp must be collected and pressed very promptly as otherwise fermentation begins. Luckily we have a speedy team!

We source from Ecuador in an area that was savannah, not forest, so deforestation is not an issue in our supply chain. The land became agriculturally productive after a network of irrigation canals was built in the 1990s. Every farm we work with is polygon-mapped — GPS-traced and monitored for deforestation. All our sustainability claims are independently audited.  Cocoa globally has a complicated relationship with deforestation, particularly in West Africa. We take that seriously. Our supply chain is designed specifically to avoid it.

Our founders have been working on sustainability in the cocoa industry for over 20 years — not as an add-on, but as a core part of how we source. We regularly speak at leading cocoa trade events and work within supply chains that are independently audited. Our products are also recognised as part of Built by Women, UK.