Velvet Bean (Mucuna) Powder.

Half a teaspoon of near-black powder whisked into warm plant milk, a dusting of cinnamon on top. Velvet bean has a rich, almost cocoa-like smell and an old name with an odd little legend behind it.

Mucuna pruriens grows a heavy, curling seed pod covered in fine reddish hairs sharp enough to itch on contact, which is why the beans are never handled raw. Ayurveda knows it as kapikacchu, roughly the plant that itches like a monkey, and it has a long history there as a tonic bean, taken since antiquity as part of a vital, steady life. Farmers across India and West Africa have long grown the vine as both a cover crop and a source of these dense, dark beans. This lot is roasted at low temperature to remove the irritant hairs and mellow the raw bean's bitter edge, then stone-ground into a smooth, glossy powder. It is one of the few plants known to naturally contain L-dopa.

Details

• Velvet bean, Mucuna pruriens, seed powder
• Roasted at low temperature, stone-ground
• Naturally contains L-dopa

How to use

Stir half a teaspoon into a morning smoothie or warm plant milk; it blends more easily than it looks like it should. A little cinnamon or cacao softens the bitterness if you are new to it. Because it naturally contains L-dopa, do not use it with Parkinson's medication or MAO inhibitors.

A dark, unassuming powder with a long memory, for the morning cup.