Bolivian Coca Cola Ripoff Contains Coca Extract

April 15, 2010, 10:27 am 3 Comments

coca colla

Photograph: AP via El Diario MX

Well, this gives new meaning to the idea of Coke "Classic": Bolivian president Evo Morales has approved the production and sale of a soft drink called "Coca Colla," which, apart from being a familiar-looking dark soda with a red label, also contains an extract made from coca leaves, the raw ingredient used to manufacture cocaine. While the recipe for the original Coca-Cola is a famously guarded secret, the original recipe did contain coca extract. Coca-Cola stopped using a full coca extract in the soft drink in 1929, although the product supposedly still contains coca flavoring from which the stimulating aspects have been removed.

—Paula Forbes

Earlier on Eat Me Daily

Tags: Bolivia, Coca Cola, Coca Colla, cocaine

3 Comments

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m

It's an energy drink, not a cola. Also, the term 'Colla' is used to designate Bolivian indigenous people. So, not really a ripoff.

April 16, 2010, 1:39 pm Reply
Tom

An energy drink - you can say that again, M. Cocaine propulsion!

And it is not a rip off at all. Just like Bolivia’s new software company Microsofft and its new retail store Wal-Marrt.

April 30, 2010, 6:48 pm Reply
Juan Carlos Perez

The coca leave consumption is perfectly legal in Bolivia and the same applies obviously to the use of Coca Colla.

But this is very different to the way in which cocaine is consumed in USA and most other countries. There are two basic differences: the dose and the objective.

1.- The dose is much smaller when chewing some some leaves or drinking an infusion instead of consuming the more or less pure substance so you do not get high at all, but enjoy some stimulant effect, much like that of the coffee. When staying 12,000 feet high as many people in the Andes do, this is very helpful specially if you have are not used to it (Some people fall to the ground as soon as they leave the airplane) There are two solutions for this: you either get oxygen, which is not very practical, or coca leaves.

The dose makes all the difference, as in the case of many substances. If you have a high dose of say salt or oxygen (this last under pressure) you die. If you have a small dose of cyanide or botulin toxin (the most toxic substance known to man) it does not harm you. As simple as that.

2.- The objective of consuming leaves is not to get high, while doing that is why people consume cocaine. Is the same difference between the people who drink a glass of wine and those who who swallow a bottle of whiskey every day. Addict do not know the limit so they end up destroying themselves. But they will not drink Coca Colla for doing that.

As for the trade mark Coca Cola tried to obtain exclusivity for the use of "Cola" word by suing Pepsi but they failed.

May 16, 2010, 7:59 pm Reply