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North West Cacao Brand Builds UK Growth with Founders Based 5,000 Miles Apart

A North West-based ceremonial cacao company is growing its UK presence, with one founder based in Formby and the other working directly with indigenous cacao-growing communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon, more than 5,000 miles away.

Pachakuti Cacao is led by Steve Gravener, who runs the UK side of the business, and Roman Belkowski, who has been based in Ecuador since 2016. While Steve oversees sales and distribution in the UK, Roman spends extended periods in the Amazon, overseeing harvesting, fermentation and drying, and maintaining long-standing relationships at source.

The business began by supplying cacao on a wholesale basis, with retail introduced later once sourcing, production and quality control were firmly established. It now sells ceremonial-grade cacao made from heirloom Arriba Nacional beans, available in a range of sizes for regular or occasional use, alongside traditionally sourced guayusa tea and palo santo.

Steve said: “We’d already been supplying cacao before we ever put it in front of customers directly. By the time we launched online, we knew what we had because we’d seen how it performed, how consistent it was and how people responded to it.

“The early response through our website and Amazon has backed that up. It gives us confidence to grow, because it isn’t built on guesswork.”

The cacao is sold as a pure product made from 100 per cent cacao and is typically prepared as a warm drink rather than eaten as chocolate, often used in wellness and ritual settings. It is grown using chakra farming, an indigenous agroforestry system that combines cacao with fruit trees, medicinal plants and native vegetation rather than single-crop planting. This influences both yield and seasonality and is one of the reasons supply remains closely managed.

Since launching its retail offer through its website and Amazon UK, Pachakuti Cacao has seen early uptake, including repeat orders from customers across the UK, while still in the early stages of trading on the platform.

Roman said: “Being present in Ecuador allows us to retain control over quality in a way that isn’t possible through intermediaries.

“Once middlemen get involved, quality drops fast. Being here means we oversee the process from harvest through fermentation and drying, and we work with the same associations year after year. That limits how much we can produce, but it also means we know exactly what’s in every batch.”

Looking ahead, the founders said growth will continue to be shaped by what they have already learned on the ground and in the UK.

Steve added: “We’re not trying to prove the product now. That work has been done over time. The focus is on making it easier for people to find us in the UK, while keeping the same standards that got us here in the first place.”

Pachakuti Cacao sells its products online, with ceremonial cacao priced from £6 for sample sizes and £14 for standard blocks, rising to £60 for one-kilo formats. 

Products are available at www.pachakuticacao.com and via Amazon UK.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Oliver Thomas .