Drink Pink Jesus

My first brush with Guaraná was at the tender age of 14. A new product was being hyped on the shelves of my local newsagents – Guarana Gum. Apparently this magical green bubble gum would give me an energy ‘buzz’ and there was definitely an implication that perhaps this exotic ingredient from the Amazon might have some kind of narcotic effect. As far as I was concerned this stuff was called “Ger-RAH-ner” and one try was enough to convince me that it was a big disappointment.

Fast forward 20 years and Guaraná is now an everyday soft drink (or refrigerante as they say in Portuguese) and I have learned that it is properly pronounced: gwah-ra-NAH. The drink is very sweet, tasting a bit like bubblegum. The active ingredient of the drink comes from the fruit of a climbing plant native to the Amazon basin. Guaraná fruit have high levels of caffeine (twice that of coffee) and as such can stimulate memory and alertness. There have also been studies that suggest a it may suppress appetite as well as antioxidant, antibacterial and (you guessed it!) aphrodisiac effects.

So that is Guaraná. And this is Guaraná Jesus:

This is Guaraná Jesus. An unusual name for a drink that has an interesting history.

Guaraná Jesus is made in the poor Northeastern state of Maranhão. When I first saw it (not long after I came to Brazil) I was amused and immediately bought a can. I then noticed it was owned/produced by the Coca-Cola Company and I thought “Humph, typical evil Coca-Cola, using a cynical strategy like cashing in on people’s religion to dominate the market”. And whilst that may well be true, the story of Guaraná Jesus is a little more interesting than that.

Back in 1920, a chemist named Jesus Norberto Gomes was trying to create a medicine. I have found no records to indicate whether Sr Gomes was any good at his job but, on this occasion at least, he failed. What he ended up with was a sweet syrup that his grandchildren loved. Again, there are no records explaining why he was feeding his failed medicine  to this grandchildren, but on this occasion he did and suddenly found himself the inventor of a very popular beverage. And our chemist friend was evidently so pleased with himself and his new creation that he named it after himself.

Your attempt to make some medicine fails. What would Jesus do? Feed it to the grandkids of course!

That’s right! It isn’t named after the son of God at all! It is named after a failed chemist from Maranhão! And even better, this particular Jesus was an atheist! Ah, that made me chuckle when I found out. Jesus died in 1963, but his family continued to manufacture his drink until 1980 when they sold the rights to the Companhia Maranhense de Refrigerantes, who in turn sold them on to the Coca-Cola Company in 2001.

In 2008, Coca-Cola launched a campaign to redesign the can:

 Those of you paying attention will see that option 2 was the eventual winner.

 The clip also gives you some great pointers on how to pronounce guaraná and also Maranhão (the last word on the video – not the easiest for the untrained tongue). The campaign was apparently very successful (even winning awards) – in Maranhão, Guaraná Jesus is outsold only by Coca-Cola. In fact they say that if you mention Jesus to a Maranhense (native of Maranhão), they will assume you are talking about the drink. I get the feeling that its atheist inventor would be rather pleased!