The Pause that Refreshes

Talk Left has an interesting item up this morning on a new product being marketed in Peru. KDrink reportedly tastes pretty much like any iced-tea drink but contains a trace 0.6 milligrams of coca leaf. That's not enough to get you high folks, but it is enough to fail a drug test so keep that in mind if you're planning to bring any home from your next trip to the southern hemisphere.

The company wants to import the drink into the US, the problem being of course that notwithstanding the popular myth that Coca Cola contains cocaine, even such trace amounts in the ingredients are illegal in this country. Now Coke actually buys 100 metric tons of dried Peruvian coca leaves each year from which their "secret cocaine-free formula" is extracted. Interestingly, Stepan Co. factory in Maywood, N.J., the company that makes the mix also provides legal cocaine for the US pharmaceutical industry. Rumor has it some of that cocaine ends up on the black market.

In any event, the article notes the Peruvian's historic use and the health benefits of this plant.

Thousands of years before the existence of processed cocaine, highland Indians chewed coca to ward off hunger and fatigue. Considered an integral part of Peruvian culture, coca is offered to Andean gods and sold in packaged tea bags in grocery stores.

Silvia Dongo, a pharmaceutical chemist who helped develop Kdrink, says the beverage provides energy from its 15 vitamins and minerals, 12 amino acids and 14 to 16 alkaloids that are found naturally in coca leaves.

"Drinking coca beverages is a way to seek a natural and healthy stimulation," she says.

Thousands of years of use haven't harmed and in fact have helped the Andean people to survive and could be of benefit to Americans as well, being a healthier alternative to coffee. However, as Talk Left notes, "somehow, we think Drug Czar John Walters and AG Ashcroft will find a way to keep it from coming to America."