Blog archive: June 2010

Robert Williams spends a substantial amount of time in Ecuador’s Amazon Basin. He’s a cacao hunter. He finds the purest, richest sources of cacao beans on Earth, which is the Criollo Arriba Nacional Fino De Aroma variety and offers them through his company, Ultimate Superfoods. He insists on heirloom beans, and only offers one variety: the criollo bean. Criollos are the original and best cacao beans, as all the other kinds were developed with practical considerations in mind, like high yield. Heirloom criollo beans are all about flavor, and flavor is based on the wide profile of micronutrients naturally in the beans. Robert oversees harvesting and production in South America for Ultimate Superfoods, so you can imagine, he has a rich knowledge of all things cacao.

Robert also sources other extraordinary ingredients, including the only agave nectar I eat. Offered under the company’s Ojio brand, Robert’s agave nectar is the only agave that I trust is totally organic, raw and unadulterated agave. They squish pulp and bottle it in glass. Nothing refined, nothing hidden. You can taste the difference immediately. I hate the flavor of every brand of agave except Robert’s.

So, every day around 4 p.m. I give my afternoon a little lift by enjoying a delicious superfood smoothie using my friend Robert’s incredible ingredients. The recipe and quantities vary, but the general recipe is this:

1 tablespoon ground cacao
1/2 tablespoon cacao nibs
1 tablespoon agave nectar
2 tablespoons mesquite powder
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon flax seeds
1 tablespoon hemp seeds
1/4 teaspoon shilajit powder
1/4 teaspoon amla powder
1/4 teaspoon powdered reishi
1/2 teaspoon local bee pollen
1 banana
4 cups / 1 liter good cold water

Then I’ll throw in something else, like 1/4 vanilla bean pod, some soaked gojis or half a dozen fresh, ripe berries. Other brands of cacao taste nice, but Ultimate Superfoods cacao tastes better. Hit the blender and you’re set to enjoy the ultimate superfood smoothie!