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Bolivia to introduce Coca Colla carbonated coca-leaf drink
Bolivian president Evo Morales has announced that his government is launching a carbonated drink called Coca Colla, made from coca leaves.
Presented as an energy drink, Coca Colla’s packaging draws on a somewhat familiar red, black and white palette, while its name is obviously intended to challenge the global cola leader, Coca-Cola.
Bolivia’s new constitution recognises coca as “a cultural heritage, a natural and renewable resource of biodiversity in Bolivia and a factor of social cohesion”.
The drink is part of a campaign to expand coca production from 12,000 hectares to 20,000. Morales hopes to produce the drink in a joint venture with a private company.
Morales began his career as a union leader for coca growers and is the first president to openly chew the leaves in meetings with the United Nations.
The Coca-Cola Company is used to challenges in Latin America. From the Ajegroup launch of Kola Real in Peru in 1988 – now available in Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Mexico and Colombia – to last summer’s banning of the Coca-Cola brand in Venezuela by renowned anti-capitalist president Hugo Chávez.
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Your comments (1)
Sadaou said on 19 Jan, 2010:
It sounds like it, but to challenge the cola world’s leader sounds like a very big deal. Let me explain to the readers where this Coca Colla name comes from. In a line of Spanish language, ‘colla’ sounds different from cola when you pronounce it (something like colia), but here’s the funny thing besides the one-letter difference, that ‘colla’ happens to be an adjective for a person native or belonging to an indigenous ethnic group living in Bolivia mainly, and some border areas of Argentina, Chile and Peru.
So this is the word game held in the brand Coca Colla. Even more, the ‘Colla(s)’ are the owners of the coca leaves who plant and sell them, for nutritional cultural purposes and other uses as well. — JSD
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