Best New Product of 2009

Anyone who has traveled in Peru knows about Inca Kola, the strangely phosphorescent carbonated drink that tastes like melted bubblegum. You may not know, of course, that Inca Kola has its own Facebook fan page with 2,790 fans, as well as a Facebook group, Inca Kola Lovers, with — I am not making this up — 10,475 members. There is also a diet version, Inca Kola Light, without sugar, which I must confess I have never tried. For me, the intense sugar rush of the original Inca Kola is part of its mystique.

Peruvians have a deep emotional attachment to Inca Kola. They drink it with everything, including el chifa, Chinese food, and it is served in the fanciest restaurants. It is considered a cultural heritage, and is often named as the one thing Peruvians miss most when living abroad. The slogan Es Nuestra!, It's Ours!, captures some sense of the national pride in a home-grown drink that outsells Coca-Cola in Peru.

Therefore, I think it is important for everyone to know that there is now an Inca Kola ice cream. It took more than nine months of negotiations, but the D'Onofrio ice cream company and Inca Kola agreed to invest $5 million in the new popsicle, which is to cost 1.20 soles. The news release states that the two companies agreed there was no competition on the market for this flavor of ice cream. I think that is entirely correct.

No, I don't know where to get Inca Kola ice cream in the United States.