Our story

Kokoleka started with a cup of hot chocolate, a cross-continent travel adventure and a love story.

Krystal had her first traditional cacao drink in 2014 , before the world exploded with cacao bubbles.

She was absolutely floored by the psychoactive effects of this potion. From that moment on, she recognized that everything she thought she knew about chocolate, was not the story. That it was a medicine.
So she went on a mission to study and learn about cacao, that led her to Guatemala in 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2022. Guatemala is where she met her teacher, Keith, and her Mayan teachers, Izaias and Ana Maria.
As she dove deep into the history, science, culture and alchemy of cacao, she always dreamed of opening a traditional chocolate house where she would teach the world the real history of cacao, and how it can be a medicine, and how the Mayan’s know it to be the medicine of the rebirth of humanity.
Then, after living in Thailand and Portugal, a vision in a meditation led her to sell all her belongings and return to Guatemala on a spiritual quest. It was there, on her first day in town on Lake Atitlan, that she met her now husband and co-founder of Kokoleka, Carlos. She recalls hearing a voice as she approached him on the streets of San Marcos that said “this is your husband”.
The rest, they say, is history.

Carlos came across cacao in Chiapas on a soul purpose quest journey

It all started with the question “what’s my greatest purpose for the planet right now?” in 2018 that led Carlos to a cross-continent adventure from San Francisco south in a 1998 Chevy Astro van and one of his best friends. He spent the next 3 months chasing waves in Mexico, vision questing, going on silent retreats and visiting friends.
Eventually he met Lorena who introduce him to cacao. They ended up living together in Tapachula for some time. One day she invited him to visit a wise elder, who told him that soon he was going to meet “a great guide”. She described him as an old tall man with long hair and grey beard.
Upon his arrival on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, he found his teacher, Keith Wilson, who identically matched the image of the man he saw in his visions. Two months into his journey on Lake Atitlan, he met Krystal on the streets of San Marcos on one fateful day.

And then there were two.

From the moment Krystal & Carlos met in 2018, they were deeply in love and also deeply committed to learning more about cacao, studying with their teacher, Keith, and healing their hearts through their union.

After working quite intensely with Keith to clean up their vehicles, heal and unite with the cacao spirit, they recognized it was time to go share this with the world.

So, Carlos invited Krystal back to Kaua’i, where he had spent the last 3 years living. On one of the first days they were there, the foundations of Kokoleka Collective started to move through them.

In one beautiful and brief blur, they created Kokoleka Collective, got guidance on how to best share this medicine with the modern “Matrix” world, developed their ceremonial cacao blend products, and started sharing them at farmer’s markets and at ceremonies.

Over the last 3 years we’ve had a blast working with the communities in Mexico, Guatemala and Kaua’i on a mission to share the ancestral wisdom of cacao with the modern world to empower a collective awakening into love.

We truly feel blessed to share cacao with the world through ceremonies, events, markets, weddings, tours, retreats, trainings we’ve had and held over these last 3 years. We look forward to deepening this path and having more fun every step of the way.