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The Onset Was Gradual
Coca
by Bob
Citation:   Bob. "The Onset Was Gradual: An Experience with Coca (exp111411)". Erowid.org. Jan 15, 2018. erowid.org/exp/111411

 
DOSE:
2 cups oral Coca (tea)
    oral Coca (daily)
BODY WEIGHT: 180 lb
Peruvian Coca Tea

My wife is from Peru and I have spent considerable time over there. Peruvians consider Coca an herb not a drug but will throw you in jail for possessing cocaine. After drinking quite a bit of the tea it is totally understandable to me because the effects are the same but totally different.

The first few times I drank it I didn't feel any effect but on one of the visits my wife told me there was a cafe which sold very good coca tea so I asked her to bring me there. I ordered some, it came out in a big cup of hot water with all the leaves in a metal ball which held the leaves so they would not get in the water although the water could circulate around the leaves. I opened the ball thinking that if I put the leaves in the hot water the substance would enter the water more quickly.

I drank the tea over probably a ten minute period of time and just sat back in this cafe which was on the second floor of a mall with no ceiling. I was looking out at the sky (grey, blah day) thinking I love this place! I have never been so happy in my life! etc., feeling absolutely wonderful. This feeling stayed with me for at least an hour, but gradually it dawned on me that it was the tea not the city that made me feel that way although I do love Lima, haha! It reminded me of doing a line of cocaine except that the onset was more gradual, in fact it was downright sneaky. I did not know I was under the influence of a drug until it started wearing off.

I have been there many times since then for months at a time and usually drink one or two cups per day and the onset is usually like that, it gives me energy, cuts down my hunger and just makes me feel all around great. When I return to the US I feel no cravings at all except my appetite returns. I have been there twice for 6 months each time and my intake never increased over 2-3 cups a day. When drunk as tea the effect usually lasts about 3-4 hrs and it very gradually wears off so that I may want to lie down and take a little nap but there is never any negative crashed feeling at all from it. All in all I could find no negative effect from it at all and because there is no rush (very fast onset) at all from it. I don't feel a need to do it again and again like most pharmaceutically compounded and altered drugs. We have bought shopping bags full of leaves a few times and it lasts one or two months. I have a tea pot which I fill with hot water and then stuff it full of leaves and wait 10-15 minutes. A lot of times though I will just go to the local supermarket and buy a box of ready made tea bags which looks just like a box of Lipton or Red Rose tea except it's called Mate De Coca. It is very cheap either way, costs maybe 2-3 dollars a box and tastes very good with sugar and will last maybe a week, week and a half drinking it twice a day, I think there are 25 bags in a box. It can be found at most of the better restaurants in the city (Lima) and bigger supermarkets and of course the open air markets which is where we get the raw leaves.

I am retired now and we are moving there next month. Coca Tea is just one of many attractive things about Peru.

Exp Year: 2003-2017ExpID: 111411
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: 64
Published: Jan 15, 2018Views: 2,316
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Coca (158) : Various (28), Glowing Experiences (4), Preparation / Recipes (30), Retrospective / Summary (11)

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