Coca Colla: Bolivian soft drink hits the streets

[Judi Lynn]

Coca Colla: Bolivian soft drink hits the streets
Posted April 13, 2010 at 6:11 p.m.

LA PAZ, Bolivia — LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - A company in Bolivia is selling an energy drink made from coca leaves called Coca Colla.

Coca Colla-maker Victor Ledezma says he is distributing about 12,000 bottles of it in La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba. The soft drink is black and comes in a bottle with a red label. A half-liter bottle costs about $1.50.

He said Tuesday the name was chosen by local farmers and comes from the coca leaf and the name of the highland Colla people, who have chewed the leaf for centuries.

Coca leaf is the main ingredient in cocaine, but it also has traditional and medicinal uses among Bolivia's Indians. Coca - chewed as leaves or made into a tea - is used as a mild stimulant or for altitude sickness in the Andes.

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/apr/13/coca-colla-bolivian-soft-drink-hits-the-streets/

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