The Real Thing? Bolivia’s Coca-Colla Hits Shelves

The long-awaited alternative to American-born Coca-Cola has arrived on supermarket shelves this week in Bolivia. Named for the indigenous Colla people from the country’s mountain regions, Bolivian president Evo Morales recently approved the production and sale of a soft drink called “Coca Colla,” which contains extracts from coca leaves, the raw ingredient used to manufacture cocaine.

Many in the political realm have seen this slight move as “a socialist-tinged affront to western imperialism,” although the ingredient has long been used as a recreational stimulant, medicine, and ritual drug in the country’s Andean culture.

As many may know, the original recipe for Coca-Cola also contained the coca extract, but was removed from the company’s product in 1929.

[via The Guardian]