ᴅɪᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴀᴛ...

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓

Cacao, as in most of the indigenous groups in southern Costa Rica and northern Panama, has a special meaning in the Bribri culture. For them, the cocoa tree used to be a woman and Sibu (God) became a tree. Cacao branches are never used as firewood and only women are allowed to prepare and serve the sacred drink. Cocoa is used on special occasions, ceremonies and in certain rites of passage. Today there are several Bribri women's associations that produce handmade organic chocolate to help them earn a living.

┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛