The first traces of coca leaves found in human settlements date from the IV preceramic period (2,500 / 1,800 BC). They were bags of leaves, already prepared, that were buried next to the dead, perhaps to guide and feed them on their journey to the afterlife.
Before the arrival of the Spanish, the use of coca was widespread throughout the Andean area: it reached present-day Venezuela, Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua in the north and northern Argentina in the south.
In the Inca Empire, the coca leaf was used as an instrument of exchange (currency), was given as an expression of friendship, and was used as an offering in religious ceremonies. The coca plant was grown on state plantations for the consumption of officials and public works workers.
Despite the fact that many of the conquerors of Peru (starting with Pizarro himself) were soon fond of chewing coca, the official version of the Spanish administration was that the supposed virtues of coca were no more than a suggestion by the indigenous, a perhaps demon-induced superstition. However, given the good results produced among the indigenous people who consumed it, the Spanish did not hesitate to start cultivating and distributing it.
The coca plantations of the Inca state were distributed among several Spanish settlers and integrated into the colonial economy. At the end of the 16th century, and in Cuzco alone, there were more than 400 Spanish merchants who lived exclusively on the cultivation and commercialization of coca. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, its use spread among the middle classes of the population (creoles and mestizos). Even medicine adopted it as a drug, in the form of inhalations, infusions, or poultices.
Later, Angelo Mariani, a Corsican chemist, was the first to use the coca plant for European consumption. In 1863 he launched a wine made from coca extract called Vin Mariani to the market.
The wine won awards and medals throughout Europe; In addition, it was the favorite drink of many personalities of the time: Emilio Zolá, Julio Verne, Tomas A. Edison, Ulisses Grant, Alejandro Dumas, the Popes Leo XIII and Pius X, as well as numerous members of the art world and the aristocracy European. In 1895, a Georgia pharmacist released a bad imitation of Vin Mariani and Coca Cordial.
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