Emica Penklis, founder of Loco Love best chocolates talked to us

From Byron Bay to Europe for the very first time, Loco Love arrives exclusively at Muse and Heroine. More than a wellness brand, founder Emica Penklis has created a true philosophy around pleasure through cacao. Read the interview.

Exclusive to Europe at Muse and Heroine, Loco Love officially lands on the continent with its cult adaptogenic chocolates from Byron Bay. Founded by naturopath and chocolatier Emica Penklis, the brand has become globally renowned for reinventing chocolate through organic cacao, functional ingredients, medicinal mushrooms and a deeply emotional approach to wellbeing. In this exclusive interview, Emica reflects on the healing power of cacao, conscious pleasure, beauty, ritual and the philosophy that transformed Loco Love into one of the most talked-about wellness chocolate brands in the world.

At what moment did you realise chocolate could become something far deeper than food or indulgence?

Honestly Loco Love kind of found me, not the other way around. I'd been working as a naturopath in my early 20s after getting really unwell, and I'd hit this point where I'd done all the "right" things; the diet, the supplements, the protocols; and I still didn't feel well. The thing that actually shifted me was starting to meditate, and weirdly, starting to make chocolate with my hands at the same time. I know that sounds out there!! But my depression lifted during that period and it's never come back, it's been over 13 years now. So for me chocolate isn't a metaphor for something deeper, it literally WAS the deeper thing. Cacao is a heart-opening plant medicine, it contains PEA and anandamide which are bliss chemicals, and I think people feel that whether they have the language for it or not. That's when I knew this wasn't just confectionery.

What does true nourishment mean to you today, both physically and emotionally?

I really believe pleasure in balance is healing, and our souls actually crave it. So nourishment to me is not restriction, it's the opposite. We've been programmed to equate pleasure with guilt and it's just not true, it's our birth right to experience healthy pleasure. Physically of course I care deeply about ingredients; wholefoods, organic, good fats, no inflammatory vegetable oils, sweeteners that haven't been stripped of their minerals; that part is non negotiable. But emotionally, nourishment is being present and grateful while you're eating. There's actual science around how the body absorbs food differently when you're stressed or guilty vs. when you're grateful. So mindfulness is HUGE in the Loco Love experience. Health is the real wealth, but joy is part of health.

“Honestly Loco Love kind of found me, not the other way around.”

What's your vision of beauty?

For me beauty is authenticity, as well as radiant health inside and out… It's not a look. It's that quality you can feel in a person who is connected to themselves and to something bigger; soft, present, real. I think we've all met people who are technically very beautiful and feel like nothing in the room, and people who you can't stop being drawn to because their energy is just so magnetic and unique. That's the beauty I'm interested in.

How do you personally balance science, nutrition and intuition when creating a chocolate?

My background is naturopathy, nutrition and herbal medicine, so the science part is just in me, I can't switch it off. I'm always thinking about the functional side, things like schisandra, ashwagandha, tremella, maca, plant-based collagen, the way these ingredients actually work in the body. We were the first chocolate company in Australia to use adaptogens and medicinal mushrooms in chocolate back when no one was doing it in 2013. But once that knowledge is the foundation, the actual creating bit is really intuitive. I meditate, I get a feeling for what wants to come through and I really listen to all of our customers! Some bars take months because I'm second guessing, some just land in an afternoon. 

“ We've been programmed to equate pleasure with guilt and it's just not true, it's our birth right to experience healthy pleasure.’

Do you think people today are craving a more emotional and sensorial form of wellbeing?

100%. I think people are burnt out from optimising. We've tracked everything, biohacked everything, and a lot of people still don't feel well, and I think they're starting to suspect that all the controlling is part of the problem. What I see from our community is a real hunger for ritual, for slowness, for permission to actually enjoy something. That's why we put so much intention into the Loco Love experience; the packaging, the messaging, the moment of opening a bar. We want it to be a pause, a moment of presence. Wellness doesn't have to be another to-do list, sometimes wellness is sitting down for two minutes and being truly present with one square of chocolate and remembering what a miracle it is to be alive on this earth on this day. The body and soul know the difference.

How much can the intention behind an ingredient actually change the experience of eating it?

Energy is everything, I really do believe this. The cacao we use comes from small organic farms in Peru where the farmers are paid fairly, and our supplier is a genuinely socially responsible company that proves you can do this work ethically and still create something extraordinary. Compare that to commercial cacao from West Africa, where 90% of the original forests have been destroyed by slash-and-burn farming and there's still so much exploitation in the supply chain. You can taste the difference, but more than that you can FEEL it. Food carries the energy of every hand it's been touched by. I notice it even in our own kitchen; a batch made on a calm, joyful day vs. a stressful one lands differently in the body. So when we say high vibe, we actually mean it, it's not a marketing line. Our culture at Loco Love is crucial to delivering this, our team are everything to us and they understand that their energy is subtly felt in our chocolate. We consider the music in the kitchen and ensure the whole company is regularly energetically cleansed. We have big rose quartz and signing bowls to ensure the frequency is high. As well as the purpose of the company this stays at the centre of everything we do.

“I think people are burnt out from optimising. We've tracked everything, biohacked everything, and a lot of people still don't feel well, and I think they're starting to suspect that all the controlling is part of the problem”

Beyond taste and benefits, what do you ultimately hope people feel when they open a Loco Love chocolate?

I want them to feel love. But this isn't romantic love, it's not soft and fluffy; it's living with harmony and full acceptance of the self. It's a connection to something greater than the mind can fathom and living from the heart. The whole brand is built around this idea of living in love everyday, and a Loco Love chocolate is meant to be a small, tangible reminder of that. We get messages from people all the time and the ones that really keep us going are from young women who've been struggling with eating disorders, who say our chocolate was the first food they felt safe and joyful eating again. THAT is the whole point. If our chocolate can be a small moment of permission, of softness, of feeling cared for in a world that doesn't do much of that anymore, then we're doing our job. Pleasure without guilt. Nourishment without restriction. A reminder that they are already whole.

What does it mean to you emotionally to finally launch your creations in Europe with Muse and Heroine?

IT is so EXCITING, I started Loco Love in Bondi in 2013 in a tiny studio kitchen with no real plan, just a feeling that this was my purpose. 13 years later we're a team of over 100 incredibly special people in my home town of Byron Bay, we've grown into a multi-million dollar business without ever cutting corners on what matters, and now European women are about to unwrap one of our bars in their kitchens. I find it really moving. Muse and Heroine felt like the right home for us because they actually care about the same things we do, it's not transactional, they get the soul of it. So this isn't just an export, it feels like Loco Love being welcomed into a part of the world that has such a deep relationship with chocolate, ritual and beauty. I feel incredibly grateful. It really feels like the next chapter is opening at exactly the right time