Bitter, rough and hard, the coca leaf that is chewed in bolivian As a natural energizer, it now comes softer and with a fruit flavor. An initiative changed the ancient texture and taste of the stigmatized plant from the South American Andes.
A decade ago, the crushed and flavored coca leaf was just an experiment. However, Bolivians savored the new recipe and today it is the flagship product of dozens of small businesses in the city of Santa Cruz, the economic capital of Bolivia, with 3.4 million inhabitants.
“Before, ‘pijcheo’ was normal” or chewing the traditional chopped leaf, recalls Luis Vásquez, a 23-year-old businessman who manufactures and markets the flavored leaf in his medium-sized El Dogor plant.
But now customers ask for it crushed and “they prefer it mixed with the sweetener of flavors”, Add.
On the coca leaf, symbol of the indigenous peoples, falls the dishonor of drug trafficking. The raw material for cocaine is extracted from this plant that grows in the Valleys.
Colombia, Peru and Bolivia are the world’s largest producers of this euphoric drug that has been banned since 1971 at the initiative of the United States. With cocaine, extensive and bloodthirsty mafia networks are financed.
“Spiced Coke”
But centuries ago the green leaves with very fine stems were already consumed as a natural energizer in the Andean region.
Although in Bolivia it is chewed rather than digested, there are also green leaf infusions. In other countries, such as Colombia, the kitchen began to experiment with flour from the same plant, with which cakes or cookies can be prepared.
He “pijcheo”“bowling”, “coqueo” either “mambeado” of coca consists of chewing without swallowing the chopped leaf as if it were a large ball of gum. It is believed that “It helps to eliminate hunger, removes stress and gives more strength, gives more courage to work”recalls Vasquez.
In his company, the work to transform the leaf into a kind of flavored gum is arduous.
About twenty young people, several still wearing masks, distribute the tasks: some separate the leaves from the stems and others sift them or are in charge of mixing them with baking soda and artificial sweeteners of lemon, passion fruit, banana, strawberry, mango, pineapple or lemon verbena. .
The sliced and flavored slices are placed in transparent green bags. A dozen employees pound the small sacks on wooden logs with hammers. The pounding is frantic.
At the end, each one imprisons the bags between the belly and the trunks, so that the product remains as thin as possible. Being bruised, it “soften the leaf”explains the businessman.
El Dogor crushed coca is on display in three large windows for retail sale: $4.3 for each 4-ounce unit (about 113 grams).
“It’s like putting a seasoning on food”says Isaac Salazar, a 21-year-old meat vendor, as he munches on the chopped, flavored leaves.
I used to come “A little dry, a little hard, a little rough, so when you crush it, the coca softens and that’s what it does” that it dissolves better in the mouth, he adds.
Official statistics indicate that one in three Bolivians chews coca or uses it for medicinal and ritual purposes.
Until last year, in this country of 12 million inhabitants, 32.5% indigenous, there were 30,500 hectares of coca, according to a United Nations estimate.
The State authorizes the cultivation of a maximum of 22,000 hectares for the uses described. The surplus, in theory, would feed drug trafficking.
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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