Tasting Coca Sek

About 10 months after I wrote about it, I get tons of hits on my post about Coca Sek, the Colombian drink made from coca leaves. Now, finally, news from someone who has tried it--Adam Isacson at Plan Colombia and Beyond.

How to describe the taste? If you grew up in a temperate climate, did you ever jump into a pile of newly raked autumn leaves, only to get a bunch of dead, dried leaves in your mouth? The taste is sort of reminiscent of that, only with lots of added sugar.

Obviously, you would need a better ad campaign than that. So why would anyone drink it?

Not only did it keep me awake, it also made it a bit easier to string words together in Spanish.
If given a drug test, however, right now I would produce a big, huge "positive."

So don't start looking on the shelves of your local mini-mart or in campus vending machines just yet...