Coca Sek is a carbonated beverage that the

Páez people The Páez people, also known as the Nasa, are a Native American people who live in the southwestern highlands of Colombia, especially in the Cauca Department, but also the Caquetá Department lowlands and Tierradentro.

of south-western Colombia began producing and selling in December 2005. The drink is based on

coca Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. The plant is grown as a cash crop in the Argentine Northwest, Bolivia, ...

leaves, which native Colombian peoples have been consuming for centuries to adapt to high altitudes and aid in manual labor. The drink is cider-colored and smells like

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

. Its taste is described as a mixture of

lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored beverage. There are varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In North America and South Asia, cloudy still lemonade is the most common variety. There it is traditionally a homemade drink using ...

and

ginger ale Ginger ale is a carbonated soft drink flavoured with ginger. It is consumed on its own or used as a mixer, often with spirit-based drinks. There are two main types of ginger ale. The golden style is credited to the Irish doctor Thomas Joseph ...

. In May 2007, the government of Colombia started to remove Coca Sek forcibly from supermarket shelves, although it can still be found in health food stores.Coca-Cola Vs Coca Sek in Colombia - By SERGIO DE LEON, May 10, 2007

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

References

Colombian cuisine Carbonated drinks {{soft-drink-stub