Colombia's Indians bank on coca drink becoming the real thing

Sibylla Brodzinsky in Bogotá
Wednesday December 14, 2005
The Guardian


Forget Coca-Cola, a group of Colombian Indians is telling its community, and drink coca instead.

The Paez Indians in south-western Colombia will launch Coca Sek this week, a fizzy drink based on coca leaves consumed for centuries by native Colombian peoples. The Paez, who live in the Calderas reserve, began their efforts to sanitise the use of the coca leaf, the main ingredient in cocaine, by selling crushed dried coca leaves for use as tea.

"People associate coca with cocaine. We wanted to convince people that coca is not the same as the drug and allow indigenous people to be proud of the leaf," said David Curtido, who leads the tea and soft drink projects.
The Paez grow coca legally for traditional uses and Mr Curtido said that with the soft drink and the tea they were seeking to make coca consumption an everyday thing.

"When we made the first taste tests among the community we didn't tell people what was in the bottle. People tasted it and they were fascinated. They immediately recognised it as coca and appreciated that we are giving added value to their much-reviled plant," Mr Curtido said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/colombia/story/0,,1666915,00.html

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo must be racing to be the first to get "Peruvian Flake"

.. . is really a shame. Coca tea is a wonderful beverage that is amazingly healing. Less buzz to it than a cup of coffee, yet quite refreshing. It will help with indigestion, altitude sickness, fatigue, etc. and is not at all addicting.