Colanut

One of the most important specialty foods from Africa.

The cola nut tree, which is native to Central and West Africa, can grow up to 25 m high and bears a resemblance to the Central European horse chestnut.

The cola nut is one of the most important specialty foods from Africa and it is also of special importance culturally. There is a myth that says the cola nut was originally reserved for the gods. When visiting Earth, the gods forgot a nut and a man found it and swallowed it, but it became stuck in his throat. Since then, men have had an Adam’s apple and humankind have received the divine fruit of the gods. In West Africa, the nuts had such a value that they were also considered a form of currency. To this day, the entire life is strongly influenced by the cola nut. In all social and religious events, these stimulating nuts are taken collectively. Political meetings and discussions are initiated with the chewing of cola nuts. Folk medicine uses the cola nut as a tonic for the treatment of fever, vomiting, exhaustion and migraines. Their use for aphrodisiac purposes is also familiar. The nuts are generally chewed or ground to a powder and mixed into drinks.

Cola nuts contain high levels of caffeine and theobromine making them extremely stimulating, and providing alertness and a general strengthening of concentration within individuals. Cola nut can be combined particularly well with the guarana seeds, which also contain caffeine; while cola works comparatively quickly, the longer lasting guarana effect stabilizes the stimulating effect. Cola nut extract, along with coca extract, was also a primal ingredient of Coca Cola, the most famous soft drink in the world.

Cola nitida - Illustration

Because of their versatile and stimulating properties, we use cola nuts in our Kokmok, Venuswave, Satyr and Amazonic Jungle Tonic liqueurs as well as in the Herbal Bitters Aphrodite and Cerebrotonic.