Taking the Kick Out of Coke
by Susan Scharfman
The Coca-Cola Company's marketing genius over the past century has given birth to an American myth, a horse and buggy Gilded Age saga formulated in a laboratory and shrouded in secrecy equal to that of the National Security Agency. The company would have us believe that a little known folksy pharmacist, Dr. John Stith Pemberton, while poring over his steaming cauldrons, created the mystery syrup in 1886 to which carbonated water was added and presto! The most famous soda fountain drink in the history of the world was born.
History’s Mystery
The real life John Pemberton was a highly respected Atlanta businessman with a genius for medical chemistry. He emulated a French 'coca wine' formula originally cooked up by a European chemist. Referring to it as an "invigorator of the brain," Pemberton claimed it could cure a variety of ailments from indigestion to nervous disorders and sexual dysfunction. When the city of Atlanta introduced Prohibition in 1886, Pemberton substituted sugar syrup for the alcoholic wine and called it Coca-Cola. When Atlanta's prohibition ended in 1887, he put the kick back in Coke and called it "French Wine Coca."
With due respect to Dr. Pemberton, a severely wounded Civil War veteran addicted to morphine whose bones rest in a Columbus, Georgia cemetery, if you exhume a Corsican fellow by the name of Angelo Mariani, you will uncover another chemist whose lifelong interests lay in various mind altering concoctions. Dig deeper and you will discover the truth about Coke, the birth and evolution of which the Coca-Cola Company has given its own very different sworn testimony.
Though Angelo Mariani came from the mountainous island of Corsica, that uncut French emerald in the Mediterranean, he decided to make Paris his home; and it is there the seeds of Coca Cola were born and nurtured. He experimented with different coca leaves which he imported from South America, and green-housed thousands of plants for his research right there in Paris.
Reincarnation of the Pause That Refreshes
In the course of many drug-induced mind journeys, Mariani discovered that steeping the purest coca leaves in Bordeaux wine disguised the bitterness of the leaf, and produced an elixir he named "Vin Mariani." The wine became the most popular 'tonic' of Europe's royals and aristocracy for three decades. From the salons of Europe to the drawing rooms of America’s wealthy, even President Ulysses S. Grant imported it. And no wonder since it also contained pure Kola nut caffeine, which enhanced the effects of the cocaine. Hence, Mr. Mariani became a very rich man.
Unfortunately for Mr. Pemberton, bad health and bad luck followed him to his grave. Prior to his death in 1888, he had engaged in some fuzzy maneuvering with a renowned entrepreneur who purchased the recipe for a mere $200. When the United States Eighteenth Amendment went into effect in 1920, national Prohibition nixed the use of alcohol and it was again removed from the formula. But the cocaine remained. In copying Mariani's brainchild, John Pemberton had produced the soda fountain beverage that bears no resemblance to the gallons guzzled by the millions today.
The original wine ingredients had always been a secret, and so too were those of Coca-Cola. If you ask the company when exactly the cocaine was removed (early in the 20th century), they will tell you it never existed. Where did the name come from? As for phosphoric acid content, I remember my father using Coke to clean the car battery. You'd have to be a Kola nut to believe company hyperbole, or hire multiple lawyers to challenge it and lose. Yet, because of its storybook mystique and widespread presence in the remotest backwaters of the planet, Coca-Cola remains today the most valuable liquid gold on earth. Love it or leave it, most of us were weaned on it.
The Coca-Cola Company's marketing genius over the past century has given birth to an American myth, a horse and buggy Gilded Age saga formulated in a laboratory and shrouded in secrecy equal to that of the National Security Agency. The company would have us believe that a little known folksy pharmacist, Dr. John Stith Pemberton, while poring over his steaming cauldrons, created the mystery syrup in 1886 to which carbonated water was added and presto! The most famous soda fountain drink in the history of the world was born.
History’s Mystery
The real life John Pemberton was a highly respected Atlanta businessman with a genius for medical chemistry. He emulated a French 'coca wine' formula originally cooked up by a European chemist. Referring to it as an "invigorator of the brain," Pemberton claimed it could cure a variety of ailments from indigestion to nervous disorders and sexual dysfunction. When the city of Atlanta introduced Prohibition in 1886, Pemberton substituted sugar syrup for the alcoholic wine and called it Coca-Cola. When Atlanta's prohibition ended in 1887, he put the kick back in Coke and called it "French Wine Coca."
With due respect to Dr. Pemberton, a severely wounded Civil War veteran addicted to morphine whose bones rest in a Columbus, Georgia cemetery, if you exhume a Corsican fellow by the name of Angelo Mariani, you will uncover another chemist whose lifelong interests lay in various mind altering concoctions. Dig deeper and you will discover the truth about Coke, the birth and evolution of which the Coca-Cola Company has given its own very different sworn testimony.
Though Angelo Mariani came from the mountainous island of Corsica, that uncut French emerald in the Mediterranean, he decided to make Paris his home; and it is there the seeds of Coca Cola were born and nurtured. He experimented with different coca leaves which he imported from South America, and green-housed thousands of plants for his research right there in Paris.
Reincarnation of the Pause That Refreshes
In the course of many drug-induced mind journeys, Mariani discovered that steeping the purest coca leaves in Bordeaux wine disguised the bitterness of the leaf, and produced an elixir he named "Vin Mariani." The wine became the most popular 'tonic' of Europe's royals and aristocracy for three decades. From the salons of Europe to the drawing rooms of America’s wealthy, even President Ulysses S. Grant imported it. And no wonder since it also contained pure Kola nut caffeine, which enhanced the effects of the cocaine. Hence, Mr. Mariani became a very rich man.
Unfortunately for Mr. Pemberton, bad health and bad luck followed him to his grave. Prior to his death in 1888, he had engaged in some fuzzy maneuvering with a renowned entrepreneur who purchased the recipe for a mere $200. When the United States Eighteenth Amendment went into effect in 1920, national Prohibition nixed the use of alcohol and it was again removed from the formula. But the cocaine remained. In copying Mariani's brainchild, John Pemberton had produced the soda fountain beverage that bears no resemblance to the gallons guzzled by the millions today.
The original wine ingredients had always been a secret, and so too were those of Coca-Cola. If you ask the company when exactly the cocaine was removed (early in the 20th century), they will tell you it never existed. Where did the name come from? As for phosphoric acid content, I remember my father using Coke to clean the car battery. You'd have to be a Kola nut to believe company hyperbole, or hire multiple lawyers to challenge it and lose. Yet, because of its storybook mystique and widespread presence in the remotest backwaters of the planet, Coca-Cola remains today the most valuable liquid gold on earth. Love it or leave it, most of us were weaned on it.