Coca-Cola: From a Cocaine Tonic to an Empire That Sold Sweetness

In 1886, pharmacist John Stith Pemberton sold a syrup in Atlanta as a tonic for the nerves and stomach. Its early recipe used coca-leaf extract and kola nut. Coca leaves still contained cocaine, while kola supplied caffeine. Customers were not buying a harmless soft drink. They were buying stimulation wrapped in a promise of medical benefit.

Pemberton had been wounded during the American Civil War and became dependent on morphine for pain. He looked for a substitute, followed the success of the European coca wine Vin Mariani, and mixed coca with sweet ingredients. When the drink appeared in 1886, the name Coca-Cola came from the two ingredients used to sell it: coca and kola. In its first years, the beverage was marketed as a patented medicine.