Beverage company Babco Europe created a new liqueur with a curious choice of ingredients. Coca Blue, a new blue alcoholic drink contains coca leaf, the raw substance that is used to make cocaine.
The drink will not be released in the UK until November and is being marketed to coincide with the end of the Mayan calender on December 21, 2012, which some conspiracy theorists believe will be the end of the world. Sounds like a cheerful drink.
While liqueur might be a new territory for the coco leaves, they have been used to make other types of drinks for centuries. For example, many indigenous Andean people use the tea leaves for medicinal purposes to help alleviate tourists of altitude sickness. The taste of the leaves is slightly bitter and is said to be similar to the flavor of green tea.
To make Coca Blue, the leaves are picked out in the Andes and then shipped to Amsterdam where they undergo several processes to remove the active ingredient found in cocaine. So no worries, if you choose to indulge in this drink you will not be consuming any hard drugs.
Only about 100 cases will go on the market in the UK costing around $450 each. To keep with the end of times theme, there will be a global apocalypse-themed party circuit including cities like Las Vegas, London, Amsterdam, Seoul, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Auckland and Sydney so drinkers can party like it’s the end of the world.