Hundreds of people are packed into a bumping basement club in downtown Berlin, dancing for hours on end in a free-wheeling rave. The substance of choice hails from the exotic tropics. It’s said to impart a brain-boosting rush and tons of energy, enough to transform its users into raging Energizer bunnies. This drug can be ingested, drunk and even snorted. You’re probably familiar with its common name: cacao. 
 
 Say, um, “hi” to the sweetest party drug there is. In recent months, cacao has transcended its already lofty status as a superfood and vaulted into the realm of party drugs. In this latest incarnation, cacao powder is taking the place of alcohol and illicit substances like Molly and ecstasy in parts of Western Europe. Lucid, a monthly cacao-fueled dance party in Berlin, fixes bitter Balinese cacao into partygoers’ drinks. Morning Gloryville, a rise-and-shine rave company that organizes dance parties from London to New York, stocks its bar with cacao drinks and cacao pills. And in perhaps the strangest form, Belgian chocolatier Dominique Persoone invented a special $50 snorting device so you can huff your chocolate in powdered form, much like cocaine. 
 
 Never mind that this is the same raw powder you can find at the corner Vitamin Shoppe or processed in your favorite candy bar — or that cacao is perfectly legal in all the jurisdictions we found. Proponents say that raw, virgin cacao is far more potent than you ever imagined. First comes a surge of endorphins into your bloodstream, which increases acuity and fuels you with feelings of euphoria. Then there’s the flood of magnesium, which relaxes your muscles and de-tenses your body. Raw cacao is also chock-full of flavanols that increase blood circulation and stimulate brain power, according to a recent study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 
 
 And, of course, cacao can be downright delicious. Lucid’s pixie-like party organizer, Ruby May, isn’t a purist when it comes to the stuff: She spikes the 18 pounds of cacao per party with sweet hints of honey, agave syrup and cinnamon, and the celebrations go on for six hours. “It’s like a smooth, sensual hug in a cup,” says the 36-year old. And as far as the sniffing chocolate goes, Persoone mixes the powder with ginger, raspberry and mint for his patrons in Belgium. Chili pepper was tried, he says, but was “not a good idea.” Color us surprised. 
 
 To be clear, cacao is not going to distort your reality. Under the beats of house, hip-hop, funk and electronic music, cacao “amplifies” the experience, rather than dims it with alcohol or drugs, says May. In fact, she doesn’t allow booze inside. The mood-boosting effects of cacao are “subtle,” she says, and it’s not like tripping on acid. Even pure cacao is not actually a drug. While it does contain certain mood-enhancing compounds such as anandamide and phenylethylamine, the bitter reality is that the amount is much too low to have any direct influence on mood, says Dr. Catherine Kwik-Uribe, the director of research and development for Mars Symbioscience, a scientific division of Mars, Incorporated. Which is to say that all of this alleged chocoholism is probably a placebo effect. 
 
 If it sounds like G-rated fun, well, it is; these are parties where virtue handily wins over vice. 
 
 All of these concoctions come courtesy of the “conscious dance movement,” which evolved from an underground movement into morning raves and lunchtime dance parties, often attended by millennial office workers. It seeks to create a positive — and healthy — environment, in which participants can unhinge themselves from negative thoughts and social inhibitions. Alcohol is usually a no-no, as are illegal drugs. Self-actualization, communal bonding and calorie-burning are key. If it sounds like G-rated fun, well, it is; these are parties where virtue handily wins over vice. (Indeed, a kindergartner’s birthday party, with ice cream and cake, hits more deadly sins than this.) 
 
 But such events have found an audience. One of Lucid’s attendees was 51-year-old Réka Komáromi, an ethnobotanist based in Canterbury. She says the raves help her to overcome the sorrow of her daughter’s untimely cancer — to “get rid of the sadness” and “allow me to access my anger.” Now that she’s fully steeped into this scene, she can’t get enough of cacao or its mellowing effects, especially for such “psychologically hard” times in her life. 
 
 The use of cacao was pioneered in millennia past by Mesoamerican civilizations. As early as 1900 B.C., archaeologists believe, the Mokaya people in what is now Mexico were fermenting cacao beans into liquid chocolate. The Aztecs, it seems, valued cacao so highly they would trade the beans as a form of currency. Today, the very ethically conscious may have a beef with chocolate, protesting that appropriating cacao from its Mexican origins for Eurotrash-like dance parties rings a wee bit colonial. 
 
 Skepticism aside, cacao can act as a “catalyst for having more life,” says May, rather than “numbing ourselves with beer.” And “in all my years in research, I have never seen a person not smile when enjoying a piece of chocolate,” adds Kwik-Uribe. Admittedly, she has a vested interest — but on the other hand, we can’t imagine a party that can’t be improved by chocolate. ||||| Published on Feb 9, 2015 
 
 Belgian chocolatier Dominique Persoone created a chocolate-sniffing device for a Rolling Stones party in 2007, bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase "nose candy". Several years later, he has sold 25,000 of them. 
 
 
 
 The Chocolate Shooters sell for €45 (£33.48) each. The packaging bears a warning against excessive sniffing but Persoone insists it is safe. ||||| (Photo: Getty) 
 
 Forget cocaine, there's a new kind of nose candy lighting up clubgoers from Europe to L.A.– raw cacao. 
 
 Yeah, we know, cacao is the main ingredient in chocolate, and it's used in sweet treats like brownies, and brownies sure as hell don’t get you high (unless it’s a special kind of brownie *wink wink*). So you might be thinking, how the hell can something so deliciously innocent be used as a party drug? 
 
 Apparently, when ingested, cacao releases a flood of serotonin and endorphins in your brain, making you feel energetic and euphoric, while the magnesium it contains relaxes your muscles and relieves tension, for a delightful full-body “high.” Well, that certainly explains a lot about Willy Wonka. 
 
 “Raw cacao is also chock-full of flavanols that increase blood circulation and stimulate brain power, according to a recent study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,” says an article in OZY. So yeah, who needs molly when you can just get tanked from snorting cocoa powder? 
 
 In fact, cacao as a party drug is so popular in Western Europe, that it’s a common substitute for alcohol and illegal drugs like ecstasy and ketamine, and there’s even a monthly dance party in Berlin called Lucid, that’s dedicated to getting partygoers high AF off that chocolatey goodness. 
 
 At Lucid, you won’t find any alcohol, but instead you’ll find cacao drinks mixed with honey, agave syrup and cinnamon, which Lucid’s party organizer Ruby May describes as a “smooth, sensual hug in a cup.” Yeah, a delicious hug that gets you high – legally. 
 
 Over in Belgium, chocolatier Dominique Persoone created something called the Chocolate Shooter as a birthday present for Ron Wood and Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, and it does exactly what you think it does. It blasts a fancy scoop of cocoa powder up your nose. Watch it here: 
 
 And guess what – cacao as a drug is coming stateside, where early arrival guests at Lightning in a Bottle, a transformational festival in Los Angeles, will get to attend a cacao ceremony and inhale/snort/drink/take a dust bath in as much cocoa powder as they want. 
 
 Maybe one day cacao will be a pretty popular party drug in America, too, so don’t be surprised if you see a photo of Leonardo DiCaprio vaping cocoa beans at 1OAK in the near future. ||||| An unusual new craze has been hitting dance floors across the world over the past couple of years – and no, we’re not talking about twerking. In an attempt to get high without breaking any laws or putting dangerous substances into their bodies, revelers have turned to snorting chocolate, or snocolate, as we’re calling it. 
 
 The trend appears to have originated in Berlin, where raw cacao has been served at events like Lucid in place of alcohol or more conventional illicit drugs. More recently, a number of rave venues across Europe and the US have begun offering the substance in the form of powder, pills or as a drink. 
 
 You could argue, of course, that the craze actually started way before the German capital established itself as the hipster capital of the world, as cacao is well known to have been widely used by pre-Columbian civilizations like the Aztecs and the Mayans. 
 
 Considered to have divine properties, the seeds of the cacao tree were often used during rituals and ceremonies in order to elevate participants to a state of ecstasy – which, in many ways, is exactly what it is now once again being used for. 
 
 Exactly how effective cacao is at getting people high has not yet been established, although there are a number of reasons why it might work. For starters, it contains endorphins as well as a chemical called tyrosine, which is a precursor to dopamine. Since both endorphins and dopamine are natural neurotransmitters known to induce feelings of pleasure, it’s unsurprising that people have been reporting that snocolate helps to elevate their mood.
– Partiers at dance clubs and raves around the world are snorting a new drug to get their high: the chocolate ingredient cacao. You read that right. Raw cacao's rise as the hot new party drug started in Berlin—which IFL Science calls the "hipster capital of the world." There, Ozy reports, an alcohol-free dance party called Lucid has been serving it as a drink. The organizer of Lucid calls it a "smooth, sensual hug in a cup." But drinking it wasn't enough: A major rave organizer started offering cacao in pill form, and a Belgian chocolatier crafted a $50 device that allows partiers to snort cacao powder like it's cocaine chocolate. You can see video of it here. According to Maxim, the device was invented as a birthday gift for members of the Rolling Stones. IFL Science explains that cacao was used by the Aztecs and Mayans "during rituals and ceremonies in order to elevate participants to a state of ecstasy." It contains endorphins; an amino acid that plays a role in the production of dopamine; blood-flow boosting antioxidants; and magnesium, which Ozy describes as having "de-tensing" characteristics. A number of studies have shown cacao improves cognitive function, the Independent adds. But a chocolate scientist tells Ozy there's not enough of any of those compounds in cacao to actually alter people's moods, meaning the trendy millennials rolling on cacao at the club are probably enjoying a placebo effect. Plus, just because it's safe to eat, doesn't mean it's safe to stick up your nose, notes IFL Science. (During WWII, Nazis turned chocolate bars into secret weapons.)