Coka Quina

Produced since 1965, Coka Quina is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by La Cascada in El Alto, Bolivia. It is widely consumed in El Alto and is also found in other parts of Bolivia, with informal distribution extending as far as Colombia, despite it not being officially exported.

La Cascada is a family-owned enterprise founded by José and Angelina de Eid. The company developed the recipe for Coka Quina and introduced the product name. “Quina” refers to cinchona, a plant whose bark has been used for centuries in the Andes in treatments against malaria and which contains quinine.

Coka Quina contains approximately 7 g of sugar per 100 ml. The drink is also available in a sugar-free variant, marketed as Coka Quina Libre. While Coka Quina is commonly perceived by consumers as tasting like cola and is often described as Bolivia’s local equivalent of a cola, neither “cola” nor “cola flavor” is explicitly referenced in its marketing. It is not documented whether kola nut is used as an ingredient in the formulation.

Pett Cola

In addition to Coka Quina, La Cascada produces Pett Cola as part of its broader Cascada range of soft drinks, which also includes various citrus- and fruit-flavored varieties. The earliest readily identifiable online reference to Pett Cola dates from December 2017, and the product appears to have been introduced not long before that. Pett Cola remains in production.