Guarana is a climbing plant native to the Amazon basin, and extremely common in Brazil. The plant has large leaves, clusters of flowers, and produces a fruit about the size of a coffee berry. Inside each fruit is one seed that contains approximately five times as much caffeine as a coffee bean.

The use of guarana, which was commercialized in 1958, has become extremely popular in energy drinks and teas in the United States and in sodas in Mexico and Brazil. Recently, companies have also started utilizing the fruit in guarana energy pills. It’s been shown to temporarily increase energy and mental alertness, though it can cause jitters. Guarana holds a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status in the United States, though some disagree as to how safe it is.

Not only does the plant aid in energy, but guarana comes with its own mythology. The fruit is red, and the seed inside is black, surrounded by white. When cracked open, the fruit looks like an eyeball. According to a Satere-Maue tribe myth, guarana was created when a deity killed a village child. To console the villagers, a different god plucked out the child’s left eye and planted it in the forest to create different varieties of guarana; he then plucked out the child’s right eye and planted it in the village to create domesticated guarana.

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