Guaraná

Guaraná (pronounced: gwa-ra-'naa ) is a soft drink that is named after the berry from which it is made. This berry (Paullinia cupana ) originates from the Amazon rainforest but it is more and more grown outside the Amazon basin. The success of this soft drink was that large that both Coca Cola and PepsiCo launched their own guaraná brands (Kuat and Josta). These brands never became as popular as the traditional brands. The most important Brazilian brands are Guaraná Antartica and Guaraná Brahma.

Outside Brazil, guaraná is mainly known as a food supplement. It contains a kind of caffeine -guaranine- and there are many claims about its effects on the human body.