Experiences - Coca experiences (Erythroxylum Coca)

[catfish_groid]

Hi-
afoaf and I had some coca tea (simple leaf) from peru, and we tried several things with it:
chewing leaf, 1-2 bags at a time, with and w/o lime. It was slow to come on, and wasn't real intense, even with the lime (which tastes really bad), unless one used 2 bags and chewed the crap out of it after al hte "gree" taste was gone then rolled over in hte mouth to the other side and chewed again squeezing all the juice out.
That resulted in my whole head going numb, but no "rush" like insufflated purified cocaine. It was still pleasant, and stimulating, but much in hte same way that the first cup of coffee in hte morning is, nothing spectacular.
Also, we tried smoking a bit (~150 mg) of the leaf with soem nugz, which was interesting, but not exceptoinally so. It definitley came on quicker than just chewing, and kept me awake for a good 4 hours, even though i wanted to sleep.
Somewhat of a "geek" quality to it...no peeking out the windows or anything, but a nrevous energy of sorts, becoming unpleasant with time (after ~ 2 hours).
In short, the tea is much likje coffeee, and has a great flavor, but is not recreational...just good for energy.
Now, when the "trashbag" (1 gX1000 bags) comes, I will be posting an extraction...hopefully better results!
-cfg

Reputation Comments on this post:

interesting report on coca

[Alfa]

Please post your experiences with coca leaf and coca tea here.

[stoneinfocus]

Tea- def. stronger when mixed with sdium - or potassiumcarbonate.

tea gives a dry mouth and sems to even out the mood, swim doesn´t get a high, seems to be a good thing if one had some circulation probs or a bad stomach.

With the tea bag and KCO3 hold in the cheeks it´s for some short time like feeling the effects of real cocaine also with a base the eyes seem to look like to be more under the influence of a drug.

[Nagognog2]

NO! NO! NO!!!

Do not use sodium or potassium carbonate! You'll burn the living piss out of the soft tissue in your mouth/stomach/everywhere!

Sodium Bicarbonate is what is used. That's Baking Soda. NaHCO3.

[darkglobe]

Monkey was a chemist's son,
But monkey is no more,
For what he thought was H2O,
Was H2SO4.

Co-incidence he was happy and free,
But co-incidence is no more,
For what he thought was NaHCO3,
Was really K2CO3.

It doesn't have quite the same ring to it, but you get the idea.

[stoneinfocus]

Next time I´ll use the common names, and yes, I really meant potassiumbicarbonate ;D the native south american do use burned plantmatter with coka, so it´s K2CO3 (missed the 2)-funny rhyme though^^

But, yes, rather use baking soda, which gives a decent effect and is much cheaper.

[Nagognog2]

Try:

Didn't use the Hydrogen-ester,

The Carbonate made his mouth bubble-up and fester.

[Benga]

sodium bicarb is also the safest, not carcinogenic and less irritant than the burnt platain / quinoa / seashell ashes. Another option is (edible) limestone paste, the kind sold for betel chewing in asian super market, but it's much harsher on the mouth lining. The aim is the same, raise pH (ideal being 9 or 10 so they say, but that would be slightly...)
glad co-incidence didn't end up with holes in his cheeks...

b

[electrum_io]

My friend reports to me that he has acquired a goodly supply of coca leaves directly from Bolivia. He has begun to experiment with their use.

He writes that he uses a fair sized amount of the leaves, an amount that can be comfortably put into his mouth. He then waits a few minutes for the leaves to get wet from his mouth's saliva. Then he adds to this "quid" a small amount of sodium bicarbonate, this amount being about the size, if made into a pill, of two-three aspirin ground. This "bico" produces a surge of saliva, which he endeavors to keep in the mouth and not to swallow.

A few minutes following this, my friend reports that his tongue and parts of his mouth go numb. He assumes that this numbness means that he has done something right.

And yet (and this is the real question he wishes you all to answer) he finds that despite the numbness, etc. he does not experience any accompanying effects such as clarity of thought, increased energy, suppression of appetite, and all of the other well-known reported effects of using coca leaves.

Why does he not get these effects even though he assumes that the numbed mouth indicates proper usage of the leaves?

[Benga]

maybe he does not keep the saliva in the mouth long enough for absorption, or has some kind of stimulant tolerance, or just simply very weak leaves. leaved are bulky. friends should try shredding them in a blender or just breaking them with fingers and then weighing out a 3 gram amount. place that in a teabag, or cut up coffee filter and add the bico. then pop this in the mouth and wait for at least 15 minutes from when the numbness begins. this is a pretty fool-proof way to test out leaves.
when using whole leaves, one should gently break the fibers with the teeth before placing the ball between cheek and gum

b

[electrum_io]

Dear Benga, thanks for your comments. I will tell my friend that your main point seems to relate to increasing the surface area of the leaves by chewing them a bit or breaking them up a bit. Also, is it the thought that he might add some sodium bicarbonate to the leaves before putting in mouth? My friend says again that the leaves appear to be good because of the numbness. If he didn't get numb fairly quickly, he wonders, why would the leaves not be good enough for the other effects?

He also wonders (still) how much "bico"? And with re: to the liquid saliva/bico, he states that one can only hold so much saliva in one's mouth, and that only for a limited amount of time. He does his best but eventually has to swallow it or spit it out.

[Benga]

adding bico to the quid is good. it's more complicated with whole leaves. traditionally the quinoa ash is added to the leaf quid once it's fairly wet. with ground up leaves placed in a teabag which swim feels works better than whole leaves, the sodium bicarbonate is added to the crude leaf powder, mixed and the teabag quid is then placed directly between gum and cheek.
as for the amount of sodium bicarbonate, swim uses roughly half a small expresso spoon per gram of leaves.
the bolivian leaves swim has tried were weaker than peruvian coca so far.

b

[kenbo]

Firstly I'd like to say hello to everyone I have been reading a lot on the site but this is my first post and I look forward to learning more.

SWIM had their first experience with chewing coca tea bags after reading so much about it on the site. SWIM found it quite interesting at the time and chewed a total of 5 bags over 2 hours. However about an hour after SWIM had very bad headaches that not even a good pain killer could clear. Then a very sore throat. When SWIM went to bed he began to burn up with a fever which lasted most of the night. SWIM got up in the morning a few pounds lighter! but feeling a little better. SWIM then took a drop in health again and began shivering heavily and again began lashing with sweat. This cleared and SWIM was left with a raging sore throat with red spots the inside of it and pounding headache for another whole day. SWIM then awoke to find his hands and feet covered in little red spots. SWIM went to the doctor to see what the problem was to be told SWIM was suffering from what seemed to be the child form of hand, mouth and foot virus (not the deadly one related to livestock in the UK!). SWIM didn't mention the chewing of tea bags to the doc.

SWIM was wondering if this happened to be a bad freak coincidence or has anyone ever had a bad reaction to chewing tea bags or are there ever any question marks over the quality/sterility of production of these products. I know specific brand discussion isn't permitted on the forum but any input would be welcome by SWIM. SWIM is a little cautious of trying again. Thanks in advance.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good use of SWIM in post

[Mona Lisa]

Originally Posted by kenbo

Firstly I'd like to say hello to everyone I have been reading a lot on the site but this is my first post and I look forward to learning more.

SWIM had their first experience with chewing coca tea bags after reading so much about it on the site. SWIM found it quite interesting at the time and chewed a total of 5 bags over 2 hours. However about an hour after SWIM had very bad headaches that not even a good pain killer could clear. Then a very sore throat. When SWIM went to bed he began to burn up with a fever which lasted most of the night. SWIM got up in the morning a few pounds lighter! but feeling a little better. SWIM then took a drop in health again and began shivering heavily and again began lashing with sweat. This cleared and SWIM was left with a raging sore throat with red spots the inside of it and pounding headache for another whole day. SWIM then awoke to find his hands and feet covered in little red spots. SWIM went to the doctor to see what the problem was to be told SWIM was suffering from what seemed to be the child form of hand, mouth and foot virus (not the deadly one related to livestock in the UK!). SWIM didn't mention the chewing of tea bags to the doc.

SWIM was wondering if this happened to be a bad freak coincidence or has anyone ever had a bad reaction to chewing tea bags or are there ever any question marks over the quality/sterility of production of these products. I know specific brand discussion isn't permitted on the forum but any input would be welcome by SWIM. SWIM is a little cautious of trying again. Thanks in advance.

Sounds really nasty but possible the leaves were infected

[Benga]

yes this is most likely unrelated to coca leaves.
It could be due due to some kind of oddball contamination - yet this is quite unlikely as although producing countries ( mate de coca would be either Peru or Bolivia) don't meet european standards for hygiene they *do* control food products, and mate de coca is very commonly used, even if this is mostly for tea brewing only. Contamination would be problematic in Lima as well as in the U.K....

swim has never heard of such a transmission related to coca leaves, drunk or chewed.

If the doctor is right, then one can probably rule out coca leave as source of the contamination as hand foot and mouth disease has an incubation
period (ie time between actual infection and onset of symptoms) which is from 3 to 7 days, and not a couple of hours.

b

[kenbo]

Thank you for helping put some reason back into my head! Swim will endevour to try again once he has fully recuperated from his little illness. Thanks!

[Nesthead]

My cat, Pease, has been chewing coca leaf for quite awhile.
She told me she had a disagreement with her coca supplier, so she got a shipment directly from Peru which arrived yesterday. In the evening I saw her holding her paws to her snout with a displeased expression, so I asked what was the matter. She said that the leaves she had obtained were uber-fresh, and there were some balls of llipta, and they were also fresh--not like anything she had ever seen before. She decided to use some of this llipta--she said it had obviously been rolled up by an Andean peasant woman not a week ago--in the way she usually does. But she burned the shit out of her poor kitty mouth. Some of the llipta escaped to places in her mouth she didn't even know existed, and she spent the whole night bitching about it. Wouldn't even eat her dry food, I had to go out and buy soft canned food for her so she could eat!
In the past she was wont to carve off a small pile of powder (humans might use a knife, but she just uses her claws) and place it on the first wad of leaves which she would then put into her mouth. Then she would chew it a bit to get it to "work," so she said, and she would gradually add more leaves until she had a decent-size quid, and sometimes she would add more llipta and it would all be good. She even read an online account by a traveler who said that that was how he chewed coca, he would wrap a small piece of llipta inside some coca leaves and put them in his mouth, and he never complained about burns. But this new llipta was so fresh, there was no need to use her claws, it just broke apart when she squeezed it with her paws! And now Pease is afraid to use her llipta. She's well versed in using bicarbonate of soda, but she's got ten balls of what seems to be very potent llipta, and she feels it would be a shame to let them go to waste. She asked me to see if anyone here has ever heard a story about anyone having problems like this and what the people in the story did.
Thanks!

[BumpBump]

use less? PH test and compare with bicard to get the desired level?

[Lady Codone]

SWIM tried coca tea while in college after reading about it on a site similar to this

She ordered a box of 100 bags from a Bolivian vendor for VERY cheap. On her first go round, she brewed 2 bags into a strong tea and found that the effects were more sedating than she'd expected, but pleasant nonetheless. She also noticed some stomach discomfort--a gnawing pain--that went away as soon as she ate something.

On her second try, she decided to do like the natives and chew a bag with some baking soda. This gave her a much more intense experience! She felt somewhat jittery and energized with slight vision changes (happens to swim on ALL drugs). She spent the next hour playing on Microsoft Paint and made some pretty cool pics that look nothing like anything she usually draws/creates. Lots of intricate lines and bright colors and such. SWIM believes coca is great for inspiring creativity for this reason.

SWIM worked at a gas station during this time and would start each day with a bag in the cheek. She never felt "addicted" as she did with other stimulants like ephedra and found it a pleasant way to start the day, as caffeine just makes her feel crappy. Soon after this she moved to Utah, where altitude sickness was a daily companion the entire summer. She found that coca was actually a really effective remedy in most instances, and even got her "pot only" roommate to try some (she liked it!).

Overall, SWIM finds the coca experience to be very mild and subtle, even moreso than yerba mate, and doesn't understand its current illegal status in the U.S.