What Coca Tea Is: The Plant, the Leaf, and the Evidence

Most Americans meet the coca leaf only through cocaine headlines, which makes a plain description of the plant harder to find than it should be. This explainer sets out what coca tea is, what the leaf contains, and where the published evidence is firm and where it is thin. It draws on a study of Peruvian coca published in the Food and Nutrition Bulletin, together with the World Health Organization’s 2025 critical review and two review papers in PubMed Central.

The Food and Nutrition Bulletin paper, by Mary E. Penny and colleagues, analyzed eight samples of coca leaf grown in different regions of Peru and measured nutrients, absorption inhibitors, and alkaloids. It matters here because it is one of the few modern attempts to put numbers on a claim that circulates widely.

The plant: two species, four cultivated varieties

Coca is a shrub of the genus Erythroxylum. The WHO critical review notes that Kew’s Plants of the World Online listed 270 species as of 2024, but that only two are cultivated as coca: Erythroxylum coca and Erythroxylum novogranatense, each with two varieties.

The WHO report describes leaves that are darker on top than underneath, with two lines running parallel to the midrib — a trait it gives as common across the varieties, though it notes those lines are often faint or absent on Amazonian coca. It also states the geographic origin and cocaine content of each variety, as measured by Plowman and Rivier.

How the leaf is actually used

Two traditional forms dominate. The WHO review describes coca leaf chewing and infusion — coca tea — used in Andean regions for energy, altitude sickness, and digestive complaints.

The travel medicine review in PubMed Central argues that “chewing” is a poor description: leaves are placed in the mouth one at a time, worked into a quid, and held in the cheek while saliva is sucked from it. A small amount of an alkaline additive such as lime or plant ash is often included, and that review states it remains unclear whether this improves flavor, promotes salivation, or releases alkaloids.

• The Penny study reports cocaine as the principal alkaloid in its Peruvian samples, at 0.56 g per 100 g dry weight.
• Jenkins and colleagues, measuring commercial coca tea bags in a 1996 study in Forensic Science International, found an average of 4.86 to 5.11 mg of cocaine per bag by exhaustive extraction, depending on Bolivian or Peruvian origin.
• The PubMed Central review of coca’s history and medical significance states there is no evidence in the literature that habitual whole-coca use produces the addiction or withdrawal physiology seen with cocaine.

Where the sources disagree on nutrition

This is the sharpest split in the material. The Food and Nutrition Bulletin authors report protein at 20.28 g, calcium near 990–1,033 mg, and iron at 29.16 mg per 100 g dry weight — but conclude that two spoonfuls of coca leaf flour would supply less than 10% of dietary intakes for commonly deficient nutrients, and that coca leaves cannot be recommended as a food.

The travel medicine review frames the same terrain differently, noting that findings of no nutritional benefit were disappointing while acknowledging the study allowed for other factors affecting bioavailability, and calling for research free of pro- and anti-coca bias. Both documents are on the record; we are not going to reconcile them here.

From mummies to Schedule I

The PubMed Central history review dates coca use to at least 1000 BC on the evidence of mummified remains from northern Chile, describes ritual and social use under Incan rule, and recounts the failed Spanish attempt to eradicate the practice after 1532. Nineteenth-century European and American enthusiasm followed, then cooled once cocaine was isolated and its harms became clear.

The WHO critical review records that coca leaf sits in Schedule I of the 1961 Single Convention, the category for substances judged an especially serious risk with very limited therapeutic usefulness. Its review was prepared for the 48th Expert Committee on Drug Dependence meeting in Geneva in October 2025, at a Member State’s request. The Committee recommended keeping the leaf in Schedule I, and the Commission on Narcotic Drugs confirmed that at its 69th session in March 2026.

Why this matters

Our view is that the leaf deserves accurate description rather than either celebration or dismissal. The WHO review repeatedly describes clinical evidence for coca leaf as limited, and the strongest honest position is to say so rather than to overclaim.

The nutrition case, on the present evidence, is the weakest argument available to coca’s defenders — and anyone making it should read the Penny findings first. The stronger ground is definitional: cocaine content of well under 1% by dry weight is a fact about the plant, not a talking point.

Context also matters. UNODC reported coca cultivation in Colombia at 253,000 hectares in 2023, with potential cocaine production up 53% over 2022. Any argument about the leaf is made inside that reality, and pretending otherwise persuades nobody.

This article replaces an earlier version published in 2016.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is coca tea made from?

Coca tea is an infusion made from the dried leaf of the coca bush, a shrub of the genus Erythroxylum. The World Health Organization's 2025 critical review on coca leaf describes infusion and leaf chewing as the two main traditional forms of use in Andean regions, taken for energy, altitude sickness, and digestive complaints. The leaves are sold both loose and in individually packaged tea bags.

How much cocaine is in a coca leaf?

The WHO critical review on coca leaf gives cocaine content across the four cultivated varieties as ranging from 0.11% to 1.02% by dry weight, with variety averages between 0.25% and 0.77%. Amazonian coca, Erythroxylum coca var. ipadu, is the lowest at 0.11 to 0.41%. A separate study published in the Food and Nutrition Bulletin measured 0.56 g of cocaine per 100 g dry weight in Peruvian leaf samples.

Which coca species are actually cultivated?

Only two of the more than 250 Erythroxylum species are cultivated as coca: Erythroxylum coca and Erythroxylum novogranatense. Each has two varieties, giving four in total — E. coca var. coca, E. coca var. ipadu, E. novogranatense var. novogranatense, and E. novogranatense var. truxillense. The WHO critical review sets out the geographic origin and cocaine content of each.

Is coca leaf a good source of nutrients?

A study by Mary E. Penny and colleagues in the Food and Nutrition Bulletin analyzed eight Peruvian coca samples and concluded that two spoonfuls of coca leaf flour would supply less than 10% of dietary intakes for commonly deficient nutrients, and that coca leaves cannot be recommended as a food. The same study measured protein at 20.28 g and calcium near 1,000 mg per 100 g dry weight. A travel medicine review in PubMed Central notes that other factors affecting nutrient bioavailability were acknowledged and calls for further unbiased research.

Is coca leaf illegal under international law?

The WHO critical review states that coca leaf is listed under Schedule I of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the category covering substances whose liability to abuse is judged an especially serious risk to public health with very limited therapeutic usefulness. The WHO prepared its 2025 review at a Member State's request for the 48th Expert Committee on Drug Dependence, which met in Geneva in October 2025. The outcome of any scheduling change is not stated in that report.

How long have people been using coca leaf?

A review in PubMed Central on coca's history and medical significance reports that analysis of mummified human remains from northern Chile indicates coca use as early as 1000 BC, establishing more than 3,000 years of use among Andean peoples. The same review describes ritual, social, and physiological use under Incan rule, and the failed Spanish attempt to eradicate the practice after 1532.

How much coca is grown in Colombia?

UNODC reported that coca bush cultivation in Colombia rose 10% in 2023 to 253,000 hectares, with potential cocaine production reaching 2,664 metric tons. That figure represented a potential 53% increase over 2022 and the tenth consecutive annual rise since 2013. Cultivation increased in 16 of the country's 19 coca-producing departments.