The Honey Mud, a fun and important ingredient update

Have you ever looked really closely at The Honey Mud?

...if you do now, you're going to see tiny little flecks of goodness reminiscent of the very best vanilla bean ice cream. You may even note a golden caramel swirl in this galaxy of pudding-like goodness. Let me introduce you to the gorgeousness of our new cacao oleoresin! We have a new and very special source of this precious and integral ingredient and I'm telling you, this evolution is something to celebrate.

I believe in cacao as more than just a special sweet treat or even as an ingredient to lend a hunger-inducing scent to the pudding-like yumminess of The Honey Mud. I respect and regard its medicinal value.

There is a reason I include an element of cacao in seven of our eight formulas. If I have a signature, the glory of this bean is certainly a part of it. Cacao is loaded with healthy fats and acids, magnesium, and active nutrients to protect, promote and renew skin cell tissue. A plethora of antioxidants neutralize free radicals, preventing damage to collagen, elastin and other proteins in the skin.

I have spent an entire year seeking a maker who would delicately extract our precious cacao in a way that would preserve and honor its full integrity. What I was looking for seemed impossible. Nearly all of the cacao on the planet is produced for consumption in the massive food and fragrance industries, where the priority is strictly to maximize aromas and flavors with aggressive toasting processes. Unfortunately, the excessive heat used to achieve the characteristic chocolate scent you are accustomed to greatly diminishes the nutritional value of this precious food ingredient. It was an uphill battle to find a producer who is instead dedicated to the gentle extraction and distillation of aromatic raw materials that preserve and honor the bean’s high antioxidant content.

I am committed to ever-increasing my quality standard, taking every challenge as an opportunity to dig deeper into our core values.

After many fruitless months searching the world, testing cacao samples from a zillion vendors, navigating ingredient adulteration and dilution and the underbelly of labeling loopholes that plague our industry, I am welcoming into our family an incredible maker who is now masterfully and exclusively crafting the most amazing RAW cacao oleoresin for us FRESH on demand (unheard of!). I can say without hesitation this is the best of the best. I could do cartwheels over what this means for the enrichment of our favorite multitasker.

Each fleck and swirl you see now contain more of the great healing power of this superfood than ever before.

I've fallen hopelessly in love with the nuanced aroma of our bespoke cacao and how it dances within this iteration of The Honey Mud. The aromatic result of this gentle processing is a true raw cacao scent that develops over time within each unique jar to read as a more subtle, gorgeous honeyed hot chocolate, rather than the sweeter, toasted-liqueur profile of its predecessor.