Something lovely is happening right now. People are reaching for plants again, and to me it feels like a remembering. The flowers were always here, waiting for us to come back.
I want to talk about two of them: blue lotus and kanna. Yes, they're having a moment. What I love is how ancient and storied they are, and how gently they're changing the way we tend our inner world.
Blue lotus (Nymphaea caerulea) is a water lily from the Nile, sacred in ancient Egypt and known today for a relaxed, dreamy calm. Kanna (Sceletium tortuosum) is a South African succulent traditionally used to lift mood and ease tension. Neither is a controlled substance under US federal law, but the rules vary by state and country.
A Pharaoh's Garden, a Traveler's Pouch
In Egyptian painting after painting - banquets, ceremonies, celebrations - there's a blue flower in someone's hand. Held to the nose. Tucked into hair. Woven into garlands. Many believe the Egyptians were doing more than decorating, and that they were recording a relationship with a plant that opened the heart and sweetened the senses.
Its best-studied alkaloid, nuciferine, interacts with dopamine and serotonin receptors in laboratory studies, and researchers are still learning what that means in the body. People usually describe the experience as gentle, like a door opening in a room you thought had no doors. More yourself. More present.
At the other end of the continent, the Khoisan peoples of southern Africa have their own treasured plant. Kanna was traditionally fermented and chewed, carried on long journeys, and shared at gatherings, to lift the mood and take the edge off tension. A social plant - something, tradition says, that made it gentler to be human with other humans.
Dutch colonists wrote about it in their journals, struck by a plant that seemed to lift the spirits of those who chewed it. Science is only beginning to catch up. Kanna's best-known alkaloid, mesembrine, acts on serotonin, the brain's mood messenger, by slowing its reuptake, so more of it stays active in the spaces between your nerve cells.
The Cultural Moment We're In
For a long time, it felt like we had two options for our emotional lives: pharmaceuticals or willpower. For many people, medication is necessary and life-saving, and I honor that completely. If you take medication for your mood, nothing here is a reason to stop or change it.
But there's a whole middle landscape of everyday feeling that neither one quite reaches. The low hum of Sunday evening dread. The way your emotional range narrows after months of overwork, until you're living somewhere between "fine" and "managing." The sense that something in you has gone quiet, and you're not sure how to call it back.
This is where old plant wisdom comes back into the conversation, as a way to tap back into our senses and never as a replacement for real care when you need it. Cultures all over the world have kept relationships with plants for mood and ceremony for millennia. They were paying attention to what the earth offered, and honoring it.
We're in the early hours of paying attention again. And the plants have been so patient with us.
What Makes This Different
People sometimes ask us how blue lotus and kanna differ from stronger substances that work on similar pathways. To me, the answer lives in one word: modulate.
In the small amounts used in food, these plants are known for nudging rather than flooding. People describe a gentle shift in baseline - a softening, a raised emotional floor. You stay yourself. You just have easier access to the tender, open, unhurried version of you that gets buried under the noise of modern life.
It's like a room warming up so slowly that you don't notice the moment you stopped shivering. You just realize your shoulders have dropped and the edges of the day feel softer.
Larger amounts are a different story, which is why we always say: start low, go slow.
Are Blue Lotus and Kanna Legal?
In the United States, kanna isn't a controlled substance under federal law. Blue lotus isn't federally controlled either, though it hasn't been approved by the FDA for consumption.
States can draw their own lines. Louisiana restricts kanna, blue lotus, and damiana, so please check the local rules where you live. Beyond the US, the rules differ from country to country.
And remember, legal isn't the same as approved, or the same as right for you.
Who Should Skip Them
A gentle note on safety. Kanna acts on serotonin, so please never combine it with SSRIs, SNRIs, MAOIs, or other serotonergic medication. If you're pregnant or breastfeeding, skip both kanna and blue lotus. And if you take any prescription medication, ask your doctor first.
Where Blue Lotus and Kanna Meet
Chocolat de Joie, our collaboration with Deer Jade, is where the two come together: blue lotus and kanna with rose petals, in single-origin cacao from Manabí, Ecuador. Cacao brings a chemistry of its own - theobromine, phenylethylamine, and traces of anandamide - and I love the conversation between the chocolate and the botanicals.
Élixir d'Extase is kanna's other home. It carries kanna extract with organic shatavari, damiana, rose, vanilla, and Ceylon cinnamon in raw, unfiltered honey from a regenerative farm in Upstate New York, and honey has been carrying herbs for thousands of years. Letting a spoonful melt slowly on your tongue is a little ceremony all its own.
What the Plants Have Been Saying
We didn't invent any of this. We're continuing a conversation that people along the Nile, across the Cape, and through the cacao forests of the Americas have been having with these plants for centuries. All we've added is our attention, and a lot of love.
If I could put the message of these ancient botanicals into one sentence, it might be this: you were never meant to navigate your inner world alone.
The earth has been growing plant allies for us since long before we had words for them. Flowers that soften the edges of a long day. Roots that remind the body what slowness feels like. Leaves that were always meant to be shared.
A little woo-woo? Maybe. I believe it anyway.
Your body already knows their language. Consider this the introduction, and take your time getting to know them. They've waited this long.
xo, Nana 🦋
Frequently Asked Questions
Is blue lotus psychoactive?
Mildly, by most accounts. Its best-studied alkaloid, nuciferine, is still being researched, and people most often describe a relaxed, dreamy calm. If you're pregnant or breastfeeding, please skip it.
What does kanna feel like?
People most often describe a calm, gently uplifted mood, relaxed without being drowsy. In the small amounts found in food it's subtle and builds slowly, so start low and give it time.
Can you take blue lotus and kanna together?
They're often paired, and they share a tin in Chocolat de Joie. Kanna acts on serotonin, so never combine it with SSRIs, SNRIs, MAOIs, or other serotonergic medication, and skip both if you're pregnant or breastfeeding.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This article is for information only and is not medical advice. Our products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.