Not what you think: Coca leaf gets flavorful makeover to chew

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (AFP) : Traditionally sold untreated and chopped, bitter and harsh coca leaves chewed throughout the South American Andes for thousands of years as a natural pick-me-up have been getting a delicious makeover in Bolivia with several small businesses now bruising the foliage to make it softer and adding flavors such as strawberry, mango or coffee.

What started as an experiment about a decade ago has taken off, especially in Bolivia’s economic capital of Santa Cruz – a city of 3.4 million people.

“The flavoring is like adding seasoning to food. Normally flavors such as bubblegum and banana are used, and it adds a special something,” consumer Isaac Salazar, 21, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “They come already crushed, soft, with a savory or sweet flavor added, which makes it perfect for passing the time.”

The practice of chewing coca has its verb in Bolivia’s Indigenous Aymara language: “pijcheo.” It means to masticate the leaves, like chewing gum, without swallowing.

The leaf – from the same plant that cocaine is manufactured from – has been ascribed with the wide-ranging properties of quelling hunger, inhibiting stress, and imparting an energy boost.

Coca is also consumed in infusions, and in some countries, it is included in the flour used to make special bread and cakes.

Transforming the fibrous leaf into a more easily chewable product is laborious. At the El Dogor factory and store run by 23-year-old Luis Vasquez in Santa Cruz, about 20 workers share the tasks of removing the thorny stems, placing what is left of the foliage into plastic bags, adding flavorings, and pounding away with a mallet.

The flattened end product, labeled Machucada (bruised) Coca El Dogor, is placed in the fridge and sold for $4.30 per unit of 113 grams (4 ounces).

The shop does a brisk business.

“We have a variety of coca leaf products, including fruit-flavored leaves and any other flavor a customer may ask for,” said Vasquez. But, more and more, clients “prefer it mixed with a flavoring,” he said.

Consumer Gary Soleto, 45, said the traditional way of consuming unadulterated coca leaf would never disappear. “But we change and have taken on new habits … to continue consuming and tasting new flavors,” he said.

Official data show that one in three people in a country of 12 million – almost a third of them Indigenous – chew coca or use it for medicinal and ritual purposes. In 2021, there were 30,500 hectares (75,000 acres) of coca plantations in Bolivia, according to a U.N. estimate – up 4% from 2020.

According to a report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, potential coca leaf production was estimated at 44,900 to 56,200 metric tons with an estimated value of $352 million to $431 million.

The Bolivian state authorizes the cultivation of a maximum of 22,000 hectares.

In recent years, there have been clashes between coca leaf producers and police in Bolivia in a dispute over control of the commercialization of the plant.