Sunday, July 30, 2006

Kuat

In the fall of 2002 my boyfriend (now husband) and I stopped by a 7-11 outside of Richmond, VA to pick up a cold soda. I'm always on the look out for new and unusual drinks or food products and was immediately drawn to the green soda bottle on the top shelf labeled Kuat. You might be thinking "Kuat? That doesn't sound appetizing!" I can see how you would think that given the name but I had to try it for myself.
The bottle said it was a product of Coca-Cola so we assumed it was brand-new to the market. The label also said that it contained guarana berries which contains guaranine, a substance that is identical to caffeine.
Guarana berries grow in South America and were named "secret eyes" after their appearance. Guarana is the pure seed of the Paullinia Cupana vine - a climbing shrub found in isolated areas of the Amazon rainforest (Guarana Co.).
Guarana Berries


After a few sips of the Guarana soda we were hooked. It is probably an acquired taste but it didn't take long before we liked it. If I remember correctly, Kuat tasted fruity and perhaps a little bitter.

Apparently Kuat is still being sold under different names in other countries like Brazil. What I don't understand is why Coca-Cola didn't market the soda and only tested it in random 7-11's for one to two months. We only saw it that one day and everytime we went back they didn't have Kuat.

So, if you work at Coca-Cola and have any say in the matter, please bring back Kuat! I think it would do really well with the right marketing campaign. As far as I remember it was refreshing, unique, and a good alternative to cola.

If anyone ever sees this soda being sold please let me know!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Guarana is used in many soft and energy drinks, e.g. MountainDew MDX, Josta, Rockstar etc. If you want to order a Guarana based soft drink online you should take a look here:

http://search.store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/nsearch?catalog=soda-pop&query=guarana&.autodone=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popsoda.com%2F

(Antartica Guarana is the original brazilian drink)

or here:

http://www.beveragesdirect.com/detail-376-BAWLS_Guarana_12_Pack.asp