FAQ
Questions, answered straight
No fine-print energy here. If it's not answered below, write to hello@nude-cacao.com.
What does it actually taste like?
Roasted almond · earthy depth · fresh cream. In hot milk it turns creamy and rounded, with a grown-up, dark-chocolate finish. There's real depth to 100% cacao, just not the harsh kind.
Is it bitter?
There's bitterness, but the pleasant, dark-chocolate kind: low to medium, never sharp or medicinal. Most people add a little honey at first and find they use less over time. Milk rounds it out. A pinch of salt makes it interesting.
How do I make it?
Break off one scored piece (about 20g). Melt it into about 200ml of hot milk or water. Whisk until glossy. Sip. The full walkthrough lives on How to Prepare, and variations on Recipes.
Where do you ship?
The United States, for now. Orders go out within 1 to 3 business days and typically land 3 to 7 business days later. Somewhere else? Join the Founding List at the bottom of any page and tell us where you are. Routes get added where people are waiting.
How much caffeine is in a cup?
About 51mg per 20g cup, roughly half a regular coffee. Cacao's dominant compound is actually theobromine (~156mg per cup), a related molecule.
What's a polyphenol, and why do you print 890mg?
Polyphenols are naturally occurring plant compounds in cacao. We don't attach promises to them. We measure what's in the bar and publish it: 890mg Total Polyphenols per 20g serving, by batch analysis, measured as gallic acid equivalents (GAE). Naturally occurring levels vary by batch. The number lives on the pack, and each batch's analysis lives on Batch Results.
How is this different from coffee or matcha?
Different lead compound, different format. Coffee and matcha are caffeine-led drinks; whole cacao is theobromine-led, with about half a coffee's caffeine per cup. And it's a whole food: the cacao butter and the bean's matrix are still in it, which is why it drinks rich rather than steeped.
Is this just fancy hot chocolate?
No. Hot chocolate is usually sugar plus cocoa powder, the pressed, de-fatted fraction of the bean. NUDE is the whole bean, stone-ground until it melts. Nothing pressed out, nothing added in. One ingredient. (Also, hot chocolate rarely shows you its lab results.)
Is this the "ceremonial cacao" people post about?
Same category of food, different posture. "Ceremonial Cacao" is the honest name for 100% whole cacao prepared as a drink, but you won't find ceremony theatre here. No rituals required, no incense sold separately. Single-origin cacao, stone-ground, batch-tested, with the numbers where you can check them.
Can I drink it every day?
It's food: 100% cacao, about 51mg of caffeine per cup. Many people drink it most days. If you're caffeine-sensitive, budget for it the way you'd budget half a coffee.
Can I drink it in the evening?
A 20g cup carries about 51mg of caffeine, roughly half a regular coffee, alongside ~156mg of theobromine, caffeine's gentler and slower-clearing relative. Plenty of people make it the 9pm cup. If caffeine keeps you up, budget it like half a coffee and keep it to the afternoon.
What about calories and sugar?
A 20g cup runs 100 kcal, with zero added sugar: there's simply no sugar in it. What is in it: the bean's own cacao butter, ~3.4g of fibre, and magnesium (58mg, 15% DV, a good source). Facts, not promises.
Why does it cost what it costs?
One bar is ten cups, so the bar price is really the price of ten cups. Each one is single-origin cacao from one forest in Borneo, stone-ground on granite for around three days, independently tested every batch, with the results published. One ingredient, done properly, costs what it costs.
Is this a subscription?
No. One bar, one charge. Subscribe & Save exists if you want the standing order, and it works the way it should: skip, pause or cancel anytime, no lock-in.
Is it psychoactive?
Honest answer: cacao has carried a big reputation for a very long time, and its lead compound, theobromine, is a mild relative of caffeine. At drinking doses, the evidence for anything beyond what a rich, half-a-coffee's-worth cup feels like is weak. Not an altered state. Anyone promising more is selling the incense, not the cacao.
Pregnancy, nursing, or caffeine-sensitive?
Each cup carries about 51mg of caffeine. If you're pregnant, nursing, or sensitive to caffeine, check with your healthcare provider on how it fits your caffeine budget. We make cacao, not medical calls.
Allergens?
The bar is one ingredient: cacao. It's made in a facility that also handles milk, tree nuts, and sesame on separate equipment.
What if it melts on the way to me?
Cacao butter softens in heat: that changes the look, not the quality. Let it re-set at room temperature. If your order arrives damaged, contact hello@nude-cacao.com; the Refund policy covers transit damage.
How do I know it's actually tested?
Every batch is tested by third-party labs for heavy metals, mycotoxins, and pesticides, plus composition analysis and microbiological screening, and every batch gets a public page. Start with Batch Results: origin, process, composition, testing. Nothing to hide.
