In my telling of the story of Seshat and all things of the star symbol. I feel it appropriate to include my thoughts regarding the Kola nut to this blog. The Kola nut tree has a star shaped fruit, like the apple (knowledge) has when cut in half. In Africa is called Bisi. In May of 2016 at a Nigerian friend's funeral dinner I was fortunate to witness its reverence in modern times and wrote this in my journal. "I'm so excited to witness the presentation of the Kola Nut today. It's a part of African tradition of life giving that was brought over to America through the slave trade and commercialized by Coke-a-Cola (Kola). Because of its transformative nature to the human spirit and medicinal value, as taught and carried over by African-Americans".
I have heard the term "bitch" used in several different ways in my community. However, it most often has a negative connotation to describe a woman who is mean or doing something at that moment that is not liked. While researching the slave trades usage of the cola nut to produce Coca Cola and Pepsi I came across this term used to describe some of the woman on the ship. I was shocked to know that black woman have been called Bichy beyond the hip hop era. The Bichy Tree was actually good for relieving high blood pressure and was a nervous system stimulator! It was used to treat long term exhaustion syndrome.
The Kola nut, still used today in African rituals of divinity, is its shipping name. Masses of the Bichy tree are cultivated in Africa and shipped to an unknown source. Having known the story of Coca Cola and their invention "trade-secret" ingredients this blew the cover for me as just another excuse to not recognize the true inventors of the drink.
The name has several pronunciations. Bişi, Bizzi, Busy, Biche, Besse, Bichy.. In Africa its called Obi. Its main constitution is caffeine. "The trees have yellow flowers with purple spots, and star-shaped fruit. Inside the fruit, about a dozen round or square seeds develop in a white seed-shell. The nut’s aroma is sweet and rose-like. The first taste is bitter, but it sweetens upon chewing."
Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone.
Intellectual piracy. What the Africans brought to America. Beverages. 1 being Coca-Cola. Kola Nut.
"The kola nut is the fruit of the kola tree, a genus (Cola) of trees that are native to the tropical rainforests of Africa. The caffeine-containing fruit of the tree is used as a flavoring ingredient in beverages, and is the origin of the term "cola".
The kola nut has a bitter flavor and contains caffeine. It is chewed in many West African cultures, individually or in a group setting. It is often used ceremonially, presented to chiefs or presented to guests.[3]
Kola nuts are perhaps best known to Western culture as a flavoring ingredient and one of the sources of caffeine in cola and other similarly flavored beverages, although the use of kola (or kola flavoring) in commercial cola drinks has become uncommon. [4]"Kola nuts are an important part of the traditional spiritual practice of culture and religion in West Africa, particularly Niger and Nigeria.[5] The 1970s hit "Goro City", by Manu Dibango, highlights the significance of kola nuts (called "goro" in the Haussa language) to the capital of Niger, Niamey.
Kola nuts are used as a religious object and sacred offering during prayers, ancestor veneration, and significant life events, such as naming ceremonies, weddings, and funerals. They are also used in a traditional divination system called Obi divination. For this use, only kola nuts divided into four lobes are suitable. They are cast upon a special wooden board and the resulting patterns are read by a trained diviner.[6] This ancient practice is currently enjoying increased growth within the United States and Caribbean.
In the 1800s, a pharmacist in Georgia, John Pemberton, took extracts of kola and coca and mixed them with sugar, other ingredients, and carbonated water to invent the first cola soft drink. His accountant tasted it and called it "Coca-Cola". Cocaine (not the other extracts from the Peruvian coca leaf) was prohibited from soft drinks in the U.S. after 1904, and Coca-Cola no longer uses either kola or coca in its original recipe.[7]
the company presents the formula as a closely held trade secret known only to a few employees.
The coca plant remains part of the formula; it is believed that coca leaves are imported from Peru, then treated by US chemical company Stepan, which then sells the de-cocainized residue to Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company declines to comment upon whether or not Coca-Cola contains spent coca leaves, deferring to the secret nature of the formula.
Reed recipe
This recipe is attributed to pharmacist John Reed.
30 lb (14 kg) sugar
2 US gal (7.6 l; 1.7 imp gal) water
1 US qt (950 ml) lime juice
4 oz (110 g) citrate of caffeine
2 oz (57 g) citric acid
1 US fl oz (30 ml) extract of vanilla
3⁄4 US fl oz (22.18 ml) fluid extract of kola nut
3⁄4 US fl oz (22.18 ml) fluid extract of coca
Merory recipe
Recipe is from Food Flavorings: Composition, Manufacture and Use. Makes one 1 US gallon (3.8 l; 0.83 imp gal) of syrup. Yield (used to flavor carbonated water at 1 US fl oz (30 ml) per bottle): 128 bottles, 6.5 US fl oz (190 ml).[24]
Mix 5 lb (2.3 kg) of sugar with just enough water to dissolve the sugar fully. (High-fructose corn syrup may be substituted for half the sugar.)
Add 1 1⁄4 oz (35 g) of caramel, 1⁄10 oz (3 g) caffeine, and 2⁄5 oz (11 g) phosphoric acid.
Extract the cocaine from 5⁄8 drachm (1.1 g) of coca leaf (Truxillo growth of coca preferred) with toluol; discard the cocaine extract.
Soak the coca leaves and kola nuts (both finely powdered); 1⁄5 drachm (0.35 g) in 3⁄4 oz (21 g) of 20% alcohol.
California white wine fortified to 20% strength was used as the soaking solution circa 1909, but Coca-Cola may have switched to a simple water/alcohol mixture.
After soaking, discard the coca and kola and add the liquid to the syrup.
Add 1 oz (28 g) lime juice (a former ingredient, evidently, that Coca-Cola now denies) or a substitute such as a water solution of citric acid and sodium citrate at lime-juice strength.
Mix together
1⁄4 drachm (0.44 g) orange oil,
1⁄10 drachm (0.18 g) cassia (Chinese cinnamon) oil,
1⁄2 drachm (0.89 g) lemon oil, traces of
2⁄5 drachm (0.71 g) nutmeg oil, and, if desired, traces of
coriander,
neroli,
lavender oils.
Add 1⁄10 oz (2.8 g) water to the oil mixture and let stand for twenty-four hours at about 60 °F (16 °C). A cloudy layer will separate.
Take off the clear part of the liquid only and add the syrup.
Add 7⁄10 oz (20 g) glycerine (from vegetable source, not hog fat, so the drink can be sold to Jews and Muslims who observe their respective religion's dietary restrictions) and 3⁄10 drachm (0.53 g) of vanilla extract.
Add water (treated with chlorine) to make a gallon of syrup.
Pembertson's son Woodruff reclaimed the secret formula and returned it to Atlanta and placed it in the Trust Company Bank, now SunTrust Bank, where it remained through 2011.[29] On December 8, 2011, the Coca-Cola Company moved the secret formula to a purpose built vault in a permanent interactive exhibit at the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.
see: Stafford, Leon (December 8, 2011). "Coke hides its secret formula in plain sight in World of Coca-Cola move". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved December 19, 2011.
1700 report: "It comes once a year, is of a harsh, sharp taste, but quenches the thirst, and makes water relish so well, that most of the Blacks carry it about them, wheresoever they go, frequently chewing, and some eat it all day, but forbear at night, believing it hinders their sleeping. The whole country abounds in this Cola, which yields the natives considerable profit, selling it to their neighbours up in the inland; who, as some Blacks told me, sell it again to a sort of white men, who repair to them at a certain time of the year, and take off great quantities of it."
Dyula, also spelled Diula, Dioula, or Jula, people of western Africa who speak a Mande language of the Niger-Congo language family. Most are Muslims, and they have long been noted as commercial traders.
The Dyula were active gold traders as long ago as the time of the ancient African kingdom of Ghana. They flourished under the empire of Mali, when they provided a link between the gold-producing forestlands in the south and the trading network of the western Sudan and North Africa. Kola nuts were another important trade item. The Dyula were also skilled craftsmen. They began to disperse and settle in towns about the 16th century. In the mid-19th century some of these towns expanded into larger states, but they declined by 1900.
Today, the Dyula are settled in towns and villages in Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and parts of Mali and Ghana. Some Dyula communities have become agricultural, but most remain active in commerce, at least during the dry season.
The legend continues for its usage in modern America. The cola seed is a main ingredient in woman's products like Estee Lauders Advanced Night repair
