Humans have been known to snort weird things over the years. From bath salts to condoms to plant fertilizer, people are really branching out past drugs these days. And now, if you'd like to snort fancy chocolate, you CAN.
"At first, I was like, 'Is this a hoax?,' " 29-year-old Nick Anderson, the founder of snortable chocolate Coco Loko, told The Washington Post. "And then I tried it and it was like, okay, this is the future right here."
Anderson's company, Legal Lean (yes, that is an herbal alternative to the popular cough syrup cocktail often called "lean" or "purple"), sells $24.99, 10-serving tins of Coco Loko, which is made with raw cacao powder as well as energy supplements gingko biloba, taurine and guarana. Like the bath salt craze, Legal Lean is based in Florida.
"There's definitely a buzz going around about this," said Alex P., who distributes the powder nationwide through Atlanta-based Exclusive Distributors. "It's not flying off the shelves or anything, but people are definitely curious."
Smoke shops and liquor stores have been buying it, he said, adding that people are becoming increasingly interested in all-natural substances.
Anderson said he first heard about snorting chocolate in Europe and started playing around with different formulas from there. Eventually, he said he settled on a version that went down smooth without burning too much, had a pleasant color and provided the perfect "energy-drink feeling, like you're euphoric but also motivated to get things done."
Indeed, snorting chocolate has been a thing since at least 2007, when Belgian chocolatier Dominique Persoone first created a gadget for that very purpose for a Rolling Stones party. Since then, he has 25,000 "chocolate shooters," notes Eater.
"Life is boring," Persoone told Eater when asked if he's promoting drug use. "Let's have fun."
Experts told The Post that chocolate is not likely a "gateway" drug and is preferable to something like cocaine, although there is a chance that any solid or pasty substance could block your nasal passages. Otherwise, there's not much data on it.