Cola Cao is a sugary

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

drink with vitamins and minerals that originated in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and is now produced and marketed in several countries. The brand is owned by the

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

-based company Idilia Foods (formerly Nutrexpa).

History

In 1945, José María Ventura and José Ignacio Ferrero, two brothers-in-law from the Gràcia neighbourhood of Barcelona, Spain, created a soluble cocoa called Cola Cao. The " Cola Cao song" used to promote the product in 1952 is a nostalgia item. In 1962, they began to broadcast their first advertisements on television, which adapted the radio tune to some cartoons. In 1972, Cola Cao was associated for the first time with the slogan "Olympic food", after becoming a sponsor of the Spanish Olympic team at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games. In the 1980s, "Cola Cao VIT" was produced, an instant and enriched version with vitamins of the classic Cola Cao. It went out of production in the late 1980s. In 1988, in a connection with the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

scheduled for

Cola Cao began sponsoring the

Spanish Olympic Committee The Spanish Olympic Committee (, COE) is responsible body for Spain's participation in the Olympic Games. Members of the committee are 35 sports federations, which elect the Executive Council composed of the president and 23 members. History ...

through the ADO Programme, an alliance that continues until today. Along the same lines and to promote urban sports, the brand installed what are popularly known as "Cola Cao Circuits" in green areas of a large number of Spanish cities, such as

Esplugues de Llobregat Esplugues de Llobregat () is a municipality of the Barcelona metropolitan area. Formerly in the ''Barcelonès'', since 1990 it has been part of the Comarques of Catalonia, comarca of Baix Llobregat. During recent decades Esplugues has evolved fro ...

and Córdoba, among others. In the mid-nineties, with the slogan the same flavour of Cola Cao with half the calories, a version of Cola Cao without sugar and with sweeteners called "Cola Cao Low in Calories" was launched, which in the mid-2000s was renamed "Cola Cao Light".

Ingredients

Cola Cao is prepared using sugar, processed cocoa, wheat flour and cola nut, and is enriched with vitamins, calcium and phosphorus.

Preparation

Cola Cao comes in a powder form which is intended to be mixed with

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

, but can also be mixed with

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

soya milk Soy milk (or soymilk), also known as soya milk, is a plant-based milk produced by soaking and grinding soybeans, boiling the mixture, and filtering out remaining particulates. It is a stable emulsion of oil, water, and protein. Its original ...

. It can also be added to breakfast cereal or used as a baking ingredient. In Spain in particular, Cola Cao is a popular accompaniment to breakfast, or dinner.

Advertising

In Spain, since the late 80's, Cola Cao has been marketed in association with the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

and other sporting events.

Distribution

Cola Cao in powder form is sold in containers of various sizes, and it is also produced in liquid form that is purveyed in plastic bottles.

Marketing

Cola Cao is exported to various countries such as

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

, and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(where is known as 高乐高 Gao-le-Gao). It was introduced to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

(under the name コラカオ),

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

(under the name Кола Као) and

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

in early 1990s only to be discontinued a few years later. However, since 2007, "Cola Cao Chocolate Roll Cakes" manufactured in China are sold at dollar stores. Cola Cao factories have production lines unique to each region: *

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an market: Factory in

** Cola Cao Original, Light, Turbo, Fiber, Energy, Complete and more. *

South American South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

market: Factory in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

** Cola Cao Original, Light ** Cola Cao Cereal *

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

n market: Factory in

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

** Cola Cao Original, Fruit Flavor ** Cola Cao Roll Cake ** Cola Cao Spread

Public image

The companies Nesquik and Cola Cao have been closely compared to each other online. However on March 31, 2016 a

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

Cola Cao Twitter page sparked an argument with a parody Spanish

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

page. Cola Cao said about how they "have a song" but questioned what Nesquik has instead, "a talking rabbit". The Nesquik account later swore and commented on the signature ''bits.'' This resulted in the official pages of the two brands along with companies like

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

clarifying the correct and verified company pages. The , a member organization of Euroconsumers, compared the two brands to help to close the arguments online directed at which brand is better. They compared the cocoa contents and added fibers of the two brands and the OCU concluded that, although other companies provided higher quality chocolate sources, Cola Cao placed 4th: higher than Nesquik. People on Twitter and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

argue about which is better and try to bring everyday evidence to suggest that one company has a new product which makes it better than the other; and this has quickly spread onto the local news. For example, on July 6, 2020

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

released the Cola Cao McFlurry which people have used as arguments against Nesquik, questioning if the company has this or not.

Footnotes

External links

Official website

Official Twitter Page
{{Hot cocoa Energy drinks Chocolate drinks Spanish brands Products introduced in 1946