So I was in Beverages & More yesterday and saw this: Agwa, the Coca Herbal Liquer. Really, it’s made with coca leaves!
Online reviews seem to confirm that, yes, as you would expect, it makes you tweaky. Also, they describe the taste as
say you eat a big prune pie and wash it down with a can of Moxie, then swish it all away with Listerine. That’s the flavor you’ll have in your mouth after you drink it.
I’m amazed this is (semi?) legal. Does anyone know what loophole in US drug laws they’re navigating through?
FWIW, it’s not an entirely novel concept. Several popes were fans of Vin Mariani, wine spike with cocaine (and Pope Leo XIII showed signs of being addicted to it); later some American chemists had the idea of removing the booze and invented Coca Cola.
Also, I’d take any self-reporting of “making you tweaky” with a grain of salt. Studies have shown that if you tell something contains alcohol, they’ll act drunk, even if it is non-alcoholic.
I’m just saying that that is more likely than the product actually contains cocaine. In fact, I’d wager that it, like Coca Cola, is made from “a cocaine-free extract of the coca leaf”.
