Rakas Kakaw Family
How this women-founded, family-owned, ethical & earth-loving small business got started...
Established in 2023, here is a slice of our her-story:
Rakas Kakaw Founder Nicole Flora Cramer first encountered ceremonial cacao during her 200-hour yoga teacher training in Costa Rica at the beginning of 2018. By the time she moved to a small island in South-West Finland in 2020, she had guided more cacao "ceremonies" than yoga classes.
Living deep in the Finnish wilderness, her connection with cacao deepened.
However, she could not find high-quality, ethically sourced Mayan ceremonial cacao for sale in Finland.
At the end of 2022, after Nicole committed to deepening her studies of cacao & indigenous Mayan culture - in partnership with the owners of The Mayan Wisdom Project; the possibility of starting a business in Finland centered around Mayan ceremonial cacao began to gain momentum.
For this dream to materialize, she knew she needed a business partner. Her Co-Founding Partner, Emmi von Zweygberk, was an obvious heart-choice. Emmi's design background & technological skills perfectly complemented Nicole’s medical education, somatic training, lived wisdom, and experience as a facilitator.
In 2023, they agreed to harness the magic of their relationship and combined skills to create and birth something new, in alignment with both of their hearts and souls.
Thus, Rakas Kakaw was born in August 2023 - with the encouraging support of a start-up grant from the Finnish Employment & Economic Development Office, awarded to both Nicole and Emmi.
The journey of life took Emmi in a different direction at the start of 2024.
Her energy remains with us, however, via the beautiful branding & website she created.
In March 2024, we welcomed a new cacao lover to our team: Lauri Ovaska - Nicole's beloved.
Lauri is offering enormous support to Nicole during this transitional time. As we begin to offer more in-person cacao circles & retreat offerings, Lauri will contribute his skills as a professional chef with over 20 years experience crafting delicious food and as the curator of music for our Cacao & Dance events.
Now, the sky is the limit for what we are envisioning to co-create in harmony with the earth, with spirit and with our communities - at home in the Turku Archipelago, throughout Finland, and abroad.
With love & gratitude,
The Rakas Kakaw Family
Rakas Family Founders
As of Spring 2024, Emmi will no longer be working with Rakas Kakaw; however, we would like to honour her contributions to creating this company for a few more weeks as we work to make this change formal.
Here is a slice of her story:
I am a creative feminine soul, learning to live life through my heart. I am a woman rewilding back into my natural nature.
In my childhood I experienced a lot of loneliness and isolation. The way that I grew up was very disconnected from emotions and lacking in having a sense of self. I grew up confused without even knowing it and by the time I was 16 I got severely depressed. Not knowing how to deal with my depression I tried to escape my reality by moving to London. This move was not enough to help me heal but an initiation took place for my soul to come back into my body.
Through each experience I went through, my heart was screaming louder for me to hear it. And eventually in 2018 I had a breakthrough; my passed-away grandfather whom I have never met in life showed me his presence through the spirit-world. Never before had I experienced anything like this. A shift happened in me, and my journey of spiritual awakening began. My soul was coming back to me slowly but surely.
Being in this space, between my old self and my new self, I was navigating what life would look like for me. I was still at university, studying to become an interior designer but it did not feel like the place for me anymore. I began studying spirituality in my spare time, working at the Astrology Shop in London and took a course in life coaching. I felt a calling; drawing me into my true self.
2020 came around, and I moved back to Finland and realised I wanted to stay. In the following years I have continued deepening into myself, what I need and what my values are. I've gotten to work at a day-care, experience growing in my romantic relationships and birthed my daughter. Her existence brings me deeper into my wild woman self than I ever could have done on my own. But I did not know what was next in my path, or how I could create what I dreamt of on my own. Turned out I was not meant to do it alone.
Then Nicole came along and asked me to co-create Rakas Kakaw with her. And here we are.
I was born & raised in NYC. Descendant of European-Jews forced to flee home during the Holocaust; I am still coming to terms with my ancestral trauma. My teenage dream of becoming a doctor turned into a nightmare of health issues that led me to withdraw from medical school half-way through my studies. Feeling like a failure, I fell deeper into suicidal depression. I was heavily medicated, supported by therapists & hospitalized twice. DBT as well as reading as many self-help & neuroscience books as possible helped; yet, still, I was labeled as “treatment resistant” after a suicide attempt in 2016.
The silver lining of those darkest years of my life: the birth of a mission to improve my mental & emotional health by whatever means possible. Slowly, I began to question the Western approach to health. Under medical supervision, I detoxed from mood “stabilizing” pharmaceutical drugs. I began to recover & regain a healthy sense of self free from prescription pill “side effects.”
Becoming a yoga teacher was my gateway drug to holistic health & wellness. I was introduced to communal healing rituals & ceremonial cacao. From there, I developed interests in Shamanism, plant medicine & ancient indigenous approaches to human health & healing.
Eventually, I grew to understand that numbing is not healing; & began to learn how to face my pain & trauma. I discovered that modern allopathic medicine works best alongside traditional healing modalities & began to apply a combination of Western science & Traditional Healing to my health choices. As my health habits improved, so did my emotional & mental stability, as well as my relationships. Slowly, I began to offer support to others in their healing journeys.
In June 2020, I moved with my partner to Finland. As social distancing measures eased, I began to share cacao in small circles with new friends. The more I shared cacao, the more I began to receive requests for more circles & more cacao. Thus, my vision for Rakas Kakaw was conceived.
Education & Training:
B.A. - Georgetown University; Washington, DC
26 months of M.D. studies, Downstate College of Medicine
200-hour Yoga Teacher Training, Sacred Paths Yoga
25-hour Yoga Nidra Training, Lotus University
40-hour Aerial Yoga Teacher Training, Om Factory
5-month Sacred Facilitator Training, The Global Sisterhood
Official Partner, The Mayan Wisdom Project