Vegan Products in Bolivia

As mentioned before, most of the things you buy on the marked, even the pasta. But today I found the first supermarket in Bolivia. I went there to buy canned chickpeas, for my laziness, and I found some other stuff. Like these wonderful gluten free quinoa pasta out of black quinoa; for 3.40$ (Of course you don’t have to prepare it with the shrimp). I sadly found out, that the Bolivians don’t eat whole wheat pasta or rice, because I couldn’t find one. There is also no traditional oat, just the instant one… Soy milk is only available as Ades with apple or orange flavour or in powder. I also found other vegetable milk powders such as quinoa, flaxseed, almond, amaranth, sesame, … In another section I found packages with quinoa ready to prepare burgers and other stuff. All packed in hipster design packages. Before leaving the supermarket I suddenly found myself in a dietetic part. Here I found whole wheat pasta, but I already had my quinoa pasta, that I wanted to try out and also other stuff like soy meat or this wonderful sugar free black vegan chocolate; for 4.40$. As supermarkets have different selections I silently mention, that I was in the Solar. If you wonder about the prices, normally it’s cheaper, but these are special products.

BIO XXI

This is a line of the Bolivian brand coronilla, that offers cookies, pasta, cereals & muesli, rice, readymade soup ingredients, readymade quinoa burger ingredients, readymade pancake mixes, … Yes, it’s the so called hipster brand I mentioned before. It’s a completely gluten free line, that works with quinoa as main ingredient. They also use the vegan icon for easier recognition and are therefore further up than other South American health food brands. The main ingredients like quinoa, rice, brown sugar and … are organic. The package has a nice handle. It’s outer part is out of card board, while it’s inner part is translucent plastic with an added metal clamp. I bought some cookies to try. The price was 2.60$.

Note: not all of their products are vegan, but that’s why they have the logo.

Later on I tried some other cookies, coco-canela. They were tasty too. And finally some gluten free rice-amaranth noodles. They were different in bite than normal ones, but besides that they were tasty.

Etnia

Vive etnia cacao is a brand of chocolate I found in La Paz. It has small squares of chocolate. I decided to try out the black 70% cacao chocolate for you. It costs 14 bob/2$ and is made with cacao from wild Amazon cacao from Bolivia. If I knew that before I wouldn’t bought it. I’m sometimes unable to read packages (I only checked the ingredients for non vegan things). Nevertheless it is tasty and has a nice inca design. Unfortunately I ate all at once without being aware of the fact that the cacao was wild. I wonder now if this product is organic or not??? Until then I think it’s better not to buy it.

Pizza Controversy

Beware: In South America the Pizza might be accidentally NOT VEGAN, as sometimes the dough is made with milk or even eggs. Yes, I thought I don’t hear it right, when I heard it the first time, but it is as it is… So make sure to always ask, before ordering a Pizza. It might also be that it only is a Bolivian thing, but I wasn’t aware before. Don’t tell an Italian about this fact or he might commit suicide. Or maybe tell all the Italians so they can come and correct this heavy fault.

Soup attention

I just got told by a chef, that the Bolivian soups, even when it’s vegetable soups mostly contain meat stock.

Coca leaves

Coca leaves are rich in calcium, potassium, phosphorus, vitamins B1, B2, C and E as well as protein and fiber. Traditionally coca leaves are chewed or used to make a tea. They are a stimulant to overcome fatigue, hunger and thirst and are considered to help against altitude sickness. It also helps against pain, headache and rheumatism.

The cocaine content of coca leaves is relatively low under 1%. But compared to the drug the absorption of the alkaloid cocaine takes up to 12 hours, when consumed as tea or chewed. According to studies the consumption in its natural form (leaves) doesn’t have an addictive effect. Nor will one have symptoms of abstinence after longterm use.

Should I consume them or not?

Nevertheless I decided to not consume coca leaves in any form after trying it’s tea, as the tea has a similar effect on me like mate but much stronger (I am not used to caffeine/matein). I prefer to live without stimulants. And after only half a cup of tea I felt negative effects (fast heart beat) rather than positive (none). Therefore I have no reason to consume it.

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