Cola is the source of half of that most iconic of brands, Coca-Cola. In fact, it is really kola, but the lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, who drew the original copperplate brand name did not like the letter "k", so kola morphed to cola; also, that i...
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Cola is the source of half of that most iconic of brands, Coca-Cola. In fact, it is really kola, but the lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, who drew the original copperplate brand name did not like the letter "k", so kola morphed to cola; also, that is how the brand is in old fashioned copperplate as that was the original lawyer's handwriting script. Kola nut has a bitter flavour and contains caffeine.
Cola Nuts (or Kola Nuts) are the fruit of the kola tree that is native to the tropical rainforests of Africa, perhaps being originally a native of Nigeria, and related to the cocoa tree that also comes from West Africa. In Sudan they may be called guru or gourou nuts and in the Congo makasso. Nowadays they may be cultivated in Brazil, Indonesia or the West indies. There are 100-125 species in Africa, but the main species are Cola vera, Cola nitida and Cola acuminata - Steenbergs comes from Cola nitida. Kola nut trees are evergreen species of the cocoa family, which grow to 20-25m in height (65-80ft), have long tear-like leaves, yielding its first crop after five years and is full bearing for ten years thereafter. Kola trees blossom with yellow flowers with purple spots and grow a star-shaped fruit that resembles chestnuts. Within the fruit, there are a dozen rounded red seeds in the white outer seed shell. The kola nuts have a sweet, floral (but mild) aroma, but the taste is bitter although this sweetens upon chewing and contains caffeine. For more information on kola nuts, try Wikipedia.
Cola Nuts do contain caffeine and have a slightly bitter flavour. Kola nuts are eaten in West Africa as follows: by breaking them open, cut them into pieces, then chewing the pieces like chewing gum then spitting out the fibrous material. Most people find the taste very bitter, especially at first. The stimulative effect is similar to a strong cup of coffee and it used to be carried around and eaten to keep people going when out and about. It is one of the ingredients in real Cola drinks and Steenbergs sells it for extraction to some flavour houses, from whence it goes into cola drinks in the UK. I like the entry in my old copy of Law's Grocers Manual which says "Kola, combined with coca (or koka), a shrub native to South America, whose leaves are rich in stimulating alkaloids of a different nature from those found in kola, is much used in an effervescent drink extremely popular in the United States of America and Canada called "Coca-Cola"" - you don't say!
Steenbergs Cola Nut Powder (Kola Nut Powder) is part of Steenbergs range of specialist ingredients. In addition, Steenbergs stocks over 400 individual herbs, spices and ingredients, as well as having a huge range of seasonings and ambient products of other brands. For more information, please call us on 01765 640 088, email to enquiries@steenbergs.co.uk, and we will happily do our best to answer your queries and have a general natter about almost anything we do at Steenbergs.