Somebody from a SubGenius discussion group sent me the following article:
November 23, 2006
COLOMBIA'S ENERGY DRINK
Putting the Coca Back in Cola
By Knut Henkel in Bogotá
Coca products were taboo for a long time in Colombia. Now Colombians can
purchase coca wine, coca tea and coca cookies. The newest product is called
Coca-Sek, an energy drink that is fast developing an international reputation --
much to the irritation of the Coca Cola company.
An ad featuring the slogan "Coca Tea -- the Holy Leaf of the Sun Children" hangs
above a colorful, cloth-draped sales booth in the Santa Barbara shopping mall in
Bogotá. As recently as 10 years ago, any mother would have yanked her child
hastily to the side if they had passed such a stall. But things have changed:
Coca tea, coca wine, coca cookies and a variety of similar products have become
an integral part of every street festival and flea market in the Colombian
capital.Such products are also beginning to become standard on store shelves.
David Curtidor and his wife Fabiola Acchicvé started selling coca tea to
students at Javariana University seven years ago. Their product was such a hit
that marketing and packaging it more professionally seemed the logical next
step. Now, Curtidor can point to the boxes of teabags stacked in the corridors
of the Nasa Esh building -- the headquarters of the company Curtidor and his
wife founded on behalf of the Nasa, one of more than 60 indigenous tribes in
Colombia.
But Curtidor's spacious store room features more than just teabags and crates
full of Mate de Coca: Other boxes contain coca wine and the small company's
latest product, Coca-Sek -- a yellowish cocaine-based soft drink. The
invigorating drink hit the market at the end of last year and has made headlines
far beyond Colombia's borders.
The soft drink has a fresh, slightly sour taste, like lemonade. Curtidor says he
and his wife spent six years developing the flavor. The drink is natural, he
says, just like tea -- and, unlike cocaine, it's completely harmless.
When the product was introduced, Curtidor and his handful of colleagues were
barely able to produce enough to keep up with demand. The first batch of 3,000
bottles of Coca-Sek -- literally "Coca of the Sun" -- was sold out in a rush.
Another 40,000 bottles were sold in the next two months -- mainly in the
southern part of the country.
A US lawsuit
But the glorious start was quickly followed by trouble. First there were
difficulties with the bottling plant in Popayán. Then the supply of large
bottles ran out and couldn't be replaced. "In Colombia one company has a
monopoly on bottle production, and that company stopped supplying us with
bottles," the small man with the square black glasses explains.
For several weeks, the soft drink couldn't be produces as the search was on for
a new company to take care of bottling it. But now Curtidor has a new company in
Bogotá -- and has switched to aluminium cans. "The cans are lighter than
bottles, which lowers our transportation costs," he says. Curtidor hopes soon to
be able to sell the drink nationwide.Several thousand cans are stacked in the
store room of his small office in northern Bogotá. The bottling plant will
deliver another 25,000 cans by the end of November. Then the distribution of the
carbonated energy drink can start again. The stores that sell the drink --
health shops and some supermarkets -- still receive it by personal delivery.
"We're only opening up the market in Bogotá one step at a time, and we have
neither the capacity nor the money to produce large quantities," Curtidor says.
There are other difficulties as well. Almost the moment his product was on the
market, the lawyers of soft drink giant Coca Cola started making life difficult
for him. "We've been charged with violating Coca Cola's rights to the name of
its product. We're not allowed to use the word 'Coca' in the name of our soft
drink -- a word that is more than 5,000 years old and of indigenous origin, and
which refers to a sacred plant. We're going to defend ourselves," Curtidor says.
But it's not just about economic success for Nasa Esh. It's also a question of
improving the coca plant's image. "We want our products to show that coca has as
little to do with cocaine as grapes have with wine."
A diet of coca
"The coca plant has long been systematically demonized in Colombia, and even its
traditional and religious use was hardly accepted any more," Fredy R.C.
Chikangana, a member of the indigenous Yanakona people who belongs to a group
wanting to promote the benefits of coca, explains.
That's not exactly surprising. After all, the devastating cocaine trade -- based
on a drug produced largely on the basis of coca leaves -- has shaped, or rather
destroyed, the entire country. Some 8,000 tons of cocaine are still produced
every year, drug expert Ricardo Vargas estimates. The left-wing guerrilla groups
FARC and ELN finance themselves mainly by selling the white powder, as do
right-wing militias.
But Chikangana's people, the Yanakona, are trying to use their products to draw
attention to the positive effects of the plant. Coca is simply part of his diet
-- and, just like his ancestors, he chews a few coca leaves every day.
The high nutritional value of the demonized shrub, whose leaves curb the
appetite, is widely recognized, Chikangana points out. The green leaves contain
not just calcium, iron and phosphate, but also magnesium and vitamins.
Coca-based shampoo, toothpaste and soap are already on the market in Bolivia and
Peru. The range of products is expanding every year.
Besides coca tea and cookies, Chikangana also sells a coca-based ointment --
called "Kokasana" -- that can be used to treat arthritis, muscle injuries and
rheumatism. The product range will soon be expanded by a juice produced from the
leaves of the coca shrub. The Sol y Serpiente Foundation, which is supported by
the children's rights organization Terres des Hommes, wants to start an
education campaign on coca.
The champions of coca are also concerned with maintaining the traditional
customs in the villages of Colombia. One such custom is mambeo, the chewing of
coca leaves -- a widespread practice in Peru and Bolivia, but limited in
Colombia where indigenous tribes make up the country's smallest minority with
barely 700,000 people.
Not a legal market
Unlike its neighbors Peru and Bolivia, though, Colombia has no legal market for
coca leaves. Cultivation for personal consumption is only allowed in the
resguardos or indigenous reservations, according to the country's 1991
constitution. Nevertheless, says Chikangana, police often raid reservations
looking for the plant.
Transporting the leaves to Bogotá for further processing is also a challenge.
Sometimes the police confiscate the leaves, even though there is no legal basis
for doing so. "Coca cultivation is not punishable under Colombian law," Curtidor
explains. "Only the chemical processing of the leaves to make cocaine is
illegal. But such processing is completely alien to the indigenous culture."
Still the Colombian state refuses to allow the production of coca products --
unlike the governing bodies of the Nasa community, who are constitutionally
entitled to make binding political decisions within the reservations. These
governing bodies have given the Nasa Esh company a license to develop and
distribute coca products.
Until now, the indigenous rights haven't been seriously challenged by the
Colombian government, despite President Alvaro Uribe personally stating that all
coca shrubs in the country will be eliminated. But the authorities are a long
way from realizing that goal. For their part, the indigenous coca producers
consider every coca leaf they process a leaf lost to the drug producers.
Plus, the plant could provide the indigenous community with new prospects, since
the economic outlook for Coca-Sek and related products seems promising. The
energy drink could even become a serious rival other drinks such as Gatorade.
One of the slim 200 milliliter (6.8 ounce) cans contains more calcium than one
liter (0.26 gallons) of milk and more phosphorus than a serving of fish -- and
the iron content tops that of a plate of spinach.
Curtidor has another set of potential customers amongst those who refuse to
drink Coca Cola because the company has been accused of persecuting trade
unionists in Colombia.
He hasn't considered exporting his unusual soft drink yet. The two coca
entrepreneurs lack the raw materials necessary for large-scale production. Coca
is only cultivated in small quantities in the Colombian reservations --
quantities sufficient to keep production going, but too small to allow for big
profits. But the two have gone a long way towards realizing their goal of giving
the plant a new image: Little tea bags filled with ground coca leaves are
already making an appearance in the country's parliament.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1 ... 72,00.html