Not Your Average Green Tea
I remember the first time I drank coca tea. I was in Cuzco, Peru at an elevation of 11,152 ft. and an angry looking but very lively man at the front desk of the hostel stared straight at me as he pointed to a tea station at the corner of the courtyard. I guessed he saw me shiver from the cold and demanded that I go warm up.
While I waited to check in I prepared myself a cup. When the warm green liquid touched my tongue, it was needless to say that it was most certainly not the average green tea. It tastes extremely earthy, like the smell of dew early in the morning.
Because of the high elevation coca tea is supposed to settle the body and make it easier to be at high altitude. I, on the other hand, felt absolutely nothing, although everyone did tell me that I might be completely messed up and dizzy throughout the trip or I will be just fine. I was just fine and I took a little too much pride in that small statement.
The moment the elevation started affecting me wasn’t a day into my trip it was around lunchtime when my friend and I decided to buy a beer in celebration of finishing another year at SCAD. Halfway through the beer, we were drunk. It wasn’t the average classy drunk either. We could not hold ourselves properly nor could we take any sentence anyone told us seriously. Never have I been so giddy and drunk in my life. We decided to drink tea to try and calm down, as our friends got ready to go walking around.
Six cups later we noticed that our skin had a subtle, yet very pretty, glow. We didn’t know if it was that we were drunk or if it was the tea so we decided upon the latter and let it be. Although we felt drunk, we were energized for a short hike through the narrow, and extremely inclined, streets of Cuzco.
I looked up the benefits of coca tea the day after our small adventure and although it does not contain caffeine, there are certain compounds in the leaves that act just like caffeine to the body when ingested.
Benefits of caffeine AND glowy skin. WIN!