Cola nuts

Cola nuts — also spelled kola nuts — are the caffeine-rich nuts of Cola nitida and C. acuminata, West African trees in the cacao family. They built the original cola beverages and remain a traditional stimulant, chewed fresh for their bitter, invigorating kick during long work or ceremony. Their high caffeine content made them prized long before soft drinks existed. Today the beverage industry uses extracts rather than whole nuts, but the raw nuts still trade in African markets, where buyers judge them on size, freshness, and freedom from mould.