Case Study · My Own Brand
Volcano Spirit Cacao: from blank page to sold out
Volcano Spirit Cacao is my own ceremonial cacao brand, grown in the volcanic forests of Guatemala and sourced directly from the family farmers who've kept this tradition alive for generations. When it was time to bring it online, I didn't just need a website, I needed a brand that felt as rooted and intentional as the cacao itself.
The Challenge
Before launch, Volcano Spirit Cacao had no website, no shop, and no visual identity, just a product I believed in and a story worth telling. I needed a site that did three things at once: look as grounded and considered as the cacao itself, actually get found by the people searching for ceremonial cacao, and make buying effortless enough to turn a first-time visitor into a customer.
The approach
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Website Design: A fully custom-coded site, no templates, built to feel as rooted and intentional as the cacao itself, and mapped around the real buyer journey from "why ceremonial cacao" to "shop now."
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Shop & E-Commerce: A complete online shop built around the product, from product pages to checkout to wholesale inquiries, designed so buying never gets in the way of the story.
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Brand Identity: Logo, color palette, typography, and photography direction that reflects where the cacao actually comes from, the forests, the farmers, and the ritual of drinking it.
Beautiful and Findable
A beautiful website that nobody finds is just an expensive business card. So alongside the design, I built the site with SEO foundations in place from day one, clean structure, fast load times, and content written for the people actually searching for ceremonial cacao, not just for the brand itself.
The result is a site that does double duty: it's the first thing a new visitor falls in love with, and it's working quietly in the background to bring the next one in.
See it live
A peek at the finished site, custom-coded, desktop and mobile.
Homepage, Desktop
The homepage leads with real photography and a clear story, built to load fast and turn new visitors into first-time buyers.
Shop Page, Mobile
The shop page is fully optimized for mobile, since that's where most ceremonial cacao customers actually discover and buy.
Why I Built This
A brand rooted in ritual, not just retail.
Ceremonial cacao has been grown and honored in Guatemala for thousands of years. I wanted Volcano Spirit Cacao to carry that forward, sourced directly from small-scale family farms, grown in biodiverse forests without chemicals, and shared the way it was meant to be: as a ritual, not just a product.
Building the website myself meant every detail, from the photography to the checkout flow, could stay true to that story instead of getting flattened into a generic template.
Visit Volcano Spirit Cacao →
From blank page to sold out in under 2 months
A fully custom-coded website, a complete online shop, and a brand identity, built from the ground up and designed to be found, not just admired. The first batch of ceremonial cacao sold out within 2 months of launch, and the site keeps working quietly in the background for the next one.
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