The Crazy Story of How Coca-Cola Originally Had 37 Grams of Cocaine per Litre of Syrup
How a cocaine-fuelled wonder drug that was supposed to be a magic cure for everything became the world’s favourite soft drink
It’s amazing how many of our most popular food and drink brands started as wonder cures. I talked the other week about how the popular soft drink 7-Up was originally an antidepressant, the week before I told the story of how tomato ketchup was originally sold as a wonder cure for everything.
This week, it’s Coca-Cola’s turn, and the story of the rise of Coca-Cola is a fascinating one. It started with Confederate Colonel, John Pemberton, and his suffering as a result of the American Civil War.
Pemberton suffered a sabre wound in the Civil War and, as a result, like many of his fellow veterans of the time, had become addicted to morphine. This led him to begin a quest to find a substitute for his addiction.
He had two advantages in this quest: the first was that he had a medical degree; the second was that he owned a drugstore in Columbus, Georgia…
