Then, you break off about a pea sized chunk of a thick, black, soft, tarry substance called lejia dulce and put it in your mouth, slowly chewing it into the leaf wad. Lejia is the name for the alkali used to activate the coca by changing the pH of your mouth to be more basic, allowing the coca alkaloids to be absorbed. There are several forms of it available, my favorite being this one, lejia dulce (sweet lejia). This lejia is made from an alkali (ashes obtained by burning the grain quinoa) which is mixed with cane sugar and anise. Another popular form of lejia came as hard O-rings about as round as the old U.S. silver dollars, and is made of some black material with a salty and slightly sour taste. A third kind, which I did not try, came as hard white oval rocks, and appeared to be some kind of lime. There were a few other less common varieties at some vendors.

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