Sometimes fairytales are dark
The tragic story of Coca Cola
Behind the story of our beloved Coca Cola is a pharmacist who was struggling with his addiction to morphine! Yes, you didn’t get that wrong! But before the barrage of questions, that I’m sure you all have, structs; let’s look at the story from its beginning.
John Pemberton was born in Georgia, USA in 1831. His family was not wealthy, but he was able to get a good education, graduating from the Reform Medical College of Georgia in 1848. Two years later he received his pharmacist’s license.
His life was going smoothly, he fell in love and married Annie Elise Clifford Lewis and a year later they had a son, whom they named Charles Ney Pemberton.
But in 1861, with the outbreak of the Civil War, Pemberton was drafted into the Georgia National Guard and fought with the Confederacy, where he was seriously wounded in one battle.
He was initially given morphine for the pain, but when the war ended in 1865 and Pemberton returned to his normal life, something had changed: He had become addicted to morphine!
Knowing full well that his addiction was dangerous, the pharmacist began experimenting with non-opiate preparations in an attempt to combat his addiction. And when another doctor told him he could cure opiate addiction with cocaine, Pemberton made his own recipe with coca leaves, kola tree nuts (which contain caffeine) and wine, which he called “French coca wine.” (french wine coca).
With Prohibition in 1886, Pemberton was forced to remove alcohol from his recipe. He added sugar and thus, Coca Cola was born.
Pemberton’s partner and accountant, Frank Robinson, is the creator of the famous brand, as he thought that the two ‘C’s of Coca Cola would work better than Coca Kola (the kola plant is spelled with a ‘K’ in English). Robinson was the one who also designed the first logo of the soft drink.
Somehow, Pemberton began selling his syrup to drugstores, where it was then mixed with sparkling water to make a soft drink advertised as “delicious and refreshing.”
In the first year, sales were low, averaging nine sodas a day.
Thus, his addiction to morphine prevented Pemberton from benefiting from the subsequent success of his creation. As his health deteriorated, he began selling pieces of the company to various partners to raise funds. Shortly before his death in 1888, he sold his remaining interest to Atlanta businessman Asa Candler. His wife lived the rest of her life in poverty, while his son died in 1894 from drugs.
As for Coca Cola, it contained cocaine until the early 1900s. The substance was removed from the soft drink’s recipe when fear spread in the American South that black men were using the substance before raping white women.
And this is real life. Success means nothing if you can’t appreciate yourself, your abilities and the people that love you.
If you like our work, be the first to read it for free by subscribing here! Also, medium permits you to read 3 articles per month for free. If you wish to have unlimited access to our articles and thousands of pieces from other favorite authors, don’t hesitate to get a membership for $5 per month by clicking this link!
