Well, after two years of the absence of Coca Tea, it’s back, and so are we.

May Mama Coca smile on us all for a long time.

Missing our life-giving tea only made our hearts grown even fonder of this precious, healthful herb, and we’re determined not to take it for granted ever again.

We’ve gone to work developing new ways to use the tea and get maximum benefits from it’s many positive effects, so look out for new recipes soon.

For now, shop’s open, and your shopkeeps Terry and Mike welcome old and new customers alike 🙂

P.S. Long-awaited Delisse coca tea powder coming soon

Dear friends, old and new alike.

I hope this finds you well, all things considered.

It’s coming up to one whole year since we were able to provide the good people of our country with this amazing, restorative, and in some cases, life-saving tea.

This is definitely the post I never wanted to write.

Our attempts to restart the importation of our highly-missed Delisse Coca Tea have until this point failed, and, sadly, rather spectacularly.

After waiting many months for Peru to reopen their freight routes out of their country, which we thought would be the end of our problems, we were hit with Customs seizures and lost several large shipments.

☹

Our old “magic system”, which worked beautifully for years is, for the moment, no longer viable.

Accordingly, it is with great regret that we must advise that our tea *possibly* won’t coming back anytime soon. If you are disappointed, we feel you.

But, have we given up?

NEVER!

We are continuing to work with our esteemed supplier in Peru, who has been with us through thick and thin over these years. If it wasn’t for him, and his efforts in his home country, we never would have been able to offer this amazing gift of nature in the first place.

We just want you to know that there are devious minds at work right now, going back to the drawing board and striving to find a way to re-establish our supply lines.

It might take weeks, and perhaps even months, we just can’t say – the pandemic has caused chaos, confusion and tightening of Customs services all over the world.

We will do our best to keep you informed when there is any news to the positive, so do feel free to subscribe to our email list for occasional updates… One day we hope to bring you joyous news.

For our past customers, allow me to take this opportunity to thank you for your support, good will, and in many cases, personal friendship that came about from running Tea for Life USA. If you’ve taken the time to write in the past without response, please accept our apologies.

If you haven’t yet had the chance to try our product – we hope to be able to give you a taste at the earliest possible opportunity!

We fight on!

Stay well,
Mike and Terry the Tea Lovers

Coca is a plant that grows naturally in South America, especially in Peru and Bolivia. In addition to being part of the sacred rituals of the original peoples of the region, the coca leaf has a large amount of nutrients.

The Andean peoples, for centuries, chew the leaves of this plant (chacchado) and drink coca tea, without this causing them, as some people often think, harm to their health. In fact, coca was, for them, a way to quench thirst, hunger, cold and fatigue; a reality with which they live every day.

That people continue to think in this way has more to do with the taboo that exists on the leaf than with properties in themselves.

The coca leaf in its natural form is a mild and harmless stimulant, like coffee. The World Health Organization pointed out that in this state it is beneficial and has nutritional and healing properties.

Why the taboo then? Because one of the alkaloids that its leaves contain is cocaine. But, the amount it contains is between 0.5 and 1%. This amount, in addition to being minimal, has no relation to the effects caused by the processed drug.

What are the Benefits of Coca?

• It is a mild stimulant
• Helps fight hunger and thirst
• Helps alleviate altitude sickness or soroche
• Strengthens the intestinal flora
• Soothes pain (throat, toothache, rheumatic)
• It can be used to heal wounds due to its antiseptic action
• Contains more fiber than some legumes, vegetables, and fruits
• It is rich in vitamins, iron, protein and calcium
• Increase physical endurance
• It is digestive and diuretic
• Stimulates respiratory function
• Helps to eliminate fat
• Improves liver function

What Effect Does Chewing Coca Leaf Produce?

When chewed, the coca leaf acts as a mild stimulant and helps fight hunger, thirst, pain, and fatigue. It also helps to overcome altitude sickness. Every day, millions of people in the Andes chew coca leaves and drink coca tea without experiencing any problems.

What diseases does the coca leaf cure?

It has analgesic properties, so it calms all kinds of pain, such as arthritis or rheumatism. Improves liver function and cleanses the blood of toxins. The consumption of coca leaf helps to eliminate the fat that accumulates in the liver and to convert it into energy.

How to Chew the Coca Leaf?

To ‘chacchar’ the coca, a bolus composed of coca leaves and a paste, llipta or Llucta, made from alkaline ash (Chenopodium quinoa) or from powdered and calcium-rich shells is placed between the cheek and the dental arch.  In countries where these things are difficult to obtain, a pinch of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is used.

How Long Does the Effect of the Coca Leaf Last?

Coca leaf metabolites can show up in a blood or saliva test for up to 2 days after the last use. It can be detected in hair for months to years. Its metabolites can be detected in urine for up to 3 days, but can remain detectable for up to 2 weeks by a frequent user.

Well, it’s been a while since we updated our humble little tea shop website.

When the pandemic first started, we thought we’d have problems getting from for a couple months or so.

Boy did we underestimate how long it would take to get things moving again!

Lately however, we have had some news that has renewed our hope. A short while ago, the government of Peru announced that they would be reopening international shipping links again to the outside world.

It was news that we have been waiting months for.

If all goes according to government plan, shipping will resume in early October.

We won’t know how long after that date that we will receive new stock of our beloved Delisse Coca Tea. The world has changed somewhat this year, and we expect there to be quite a bit of backlog of shipments to clear out of that country.

In the past, our shipments usually take a couple of weeks to get to us, so if I had to hazard a guess, all going well, we will hopefully see some stock start to arrive sometime in early November at the earliest. Please take this estimation with a large grain of salt, as it could easily slip into December, or even beyond.

As more information comes to hand, we will publish updates to this post.

To all our valued customers who have been hanging out for more of our Delisse Coca Tea, we feel you – it has been a long time between drinks even for us.

Stay well,

Mike and Terry
The tea lovers

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