A bright bubblegum-pink guaraná soda from Maranhão, faintly perfumed with clove and cinnamon and sweeter than the amber national brand. It was created in São Luís in 1920 by a pharmacist named Jesus, who put his own name on it. Though Coca-Cola now owns the brand, Guaraná Jesus stays a fiercely local icon — sold mostly within Maranhão, where it reportedly outsells Coca-Cola itself. It is a regional cousin, not a competitor, to the pan-Brazilian amber Guaraná Antarctica.
Guaraná Jesus was formulated in 1920 in São Luís, capital of Maranhão, by the pharmacist Jesus Norberto Gomes. Accounts hold that he stumbled on it while compounding a syrup to settle his wife Raimunda's digestion, sweetening a guaraná base with essences of clove and cinnamon; the result pleased the family so much he bottled it under his own first name. He sold the formula around 1980 to the Companhia Maranhense de Refrigerantes, a Coca-Cola franchise bottler, and Coca-Cola took full ownership of the brand in 2001. Even so it has stayed a Maranhense emblem, its pink color and clove-cinnamon profile unchanged, and is distinct from Guaraná Antarctica, the amber soda created in 1921 by Companhia Antarctica Paulista that became Brazil's national guaraná.
Loud pink in the glass, fizzy and very sweet, with a soft floral-spice top note — clove and cinnamon hovering over the earthy, slightly tannic guaraná. It drinks cold and candy-like, less bitter and more aromatic than the amber Antarctica. In Maranhão it is the default soda at lunch counters and beach kiosks, often the first thing a homesick maranhense asks for.
It is a standard carbonated soft drink: a flavored sugar syrup diluted with water and charged with carbon dioxide under pressure. The base carries guaraná extract from the Amazonian seed, which contributes the earthy, faintly tannic backbone and a mild caffeine lift; clove and cinnamon essences supply the aromatic top notes, and the signature pink comes from added coloring rather than the guaraná itself. The full recipe is a trade secret, popularly said to run to 17 ingredients. Dissolved CO2 forms a little carbonic acid, lending the prickle and a slight tartness that keeps the heavy sweetness from cloying.
Variations
The standard is the regular pink soda; a Zero/diet version with sweeteners in place of sugar is also sold. For years it was nearly impossible to find outside Maranhão, which made it a prized souvenir; distribution has since widened to other states, though it remains strongest at home. It is a fixture of São Luís street food, drunk alongside local snacks like pastel and the city's signature arrumadinho.
On the Palate
Where Guaraná Jesus sits in the Brazilian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
5 steps · 25 min active + 15 min waiting
- 18 min
Make a guaraná syrup: simmer water with sugar until fully dissolved, then stir in guaraná extract or syrup off the heat.
- 27 min
Infuse the spice: add a few cloves and a piece of cinnamon (or a drop of clove and cinnamon essence) and steep until fragrant, then strain out the whole spices.
Watch outSteep the clove and cinnamon only until fragrant, then strain them out — left in, the spices turn the syrup harsh and medicinal.
- 310 min
Tint to the signature pink with a little food coloring and cool the syrup completely.
- 43 min
Dilute the cooled syrup with chilled carbonated water to taste, keeping it sweet and lightly spiced.
- 52 min
Serve at once over ice, very cold, so the carbonation stays lively.
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