Correspondence from Upper East:

There is a craze for bitter cola in Bolgatanga, in the Upper East Region. The nuts are purchased by both men and women, old and young, for varied purposes.

They are usually placed on wooden tables and sold in the market. Some consumers buy them in bits since they easily dry up, whiles others buy them, blend and store them in refrigerators for preservation.

An interesting thing to note is that most of the people who sell bitter cola are also consumers of it, so they consume them as they sell

GhanaWeb's Upper East Regional Correspondent, Sarah Dubure, engaged some bitter cola consumers to find out what exactly the nut did for them.

A singer in one of the churches in the region, who is a regular consumer of bitter cola, told GhanaWeb on condition of anonymity that anytime his voice cracked in the course of singing, he bit on it in bits, after the choir retired to their seats.

He explained that this helped him to regain the needed comfort in his voice to sing on when they mounted the stage again; adding that anytime he got heartburn, he took just a nut, and the condition ceased.

He added that anytime he felt tired and chewed it and drank water, it energized him and gave him a soothing feeling.

"Sometimes I can sleep and wake up and feel like I am tired, so when I take it, I become natural and when l drink water, I feel smooth", he elaborated.

Charles Amogere, an ardent consumer of bitter cola, said he usually took a bite of bitter cola after every meal, after which he drank water, to facilitate free bowels.

Pregnant Grace Anaba said she only started taking bitter cola at a point in her state of pregnancy.

According to her, as pregnancy was characterized by regular spitting, it helped to reduce the frequency at which she spat.

Another consumer of bitter cola, Abdul Salaam Abdulai said he liked it very much because anytime he took it, it enabled him to drink a lot of water, which energized him.

Ghanaweb also spoke to a bitter cola seller in the Bolgatanga market.

At Mohamed Abane's vendoring stand was an almost empty table, due to high patronage. He said patronage was very good, as customers knew the benefits of the nuts.

Mr. Abane said bitter cola had a lot of health benefits and sang praises of them.

He recalled that he was once selling the cola nuts when all of a sudden, his lips started to twist towards one side.

He said he immediately chewed one nut and within an hour, he felt better and went to the hospital, where he was told that he had high blood pressure.

He noted that the nuts were potent at treating high blood pressure.