Why The Confederate Pharmacist Who Invented Coca-Cola Put Cocaine In It

It's a fun yet familiar fact that Coca-Cola, one of America's oldest soft drinks, contained actual cocaine in it until 1904. Dr. John Stith Pemberton was the entrepreneurial pharmacist who dreamed up the combination of cocaine and a sweet drink, but he certainly wasn't the first medical professional to promote it. In the late 19th century, cocaine was widely used in medicinal tonics and patent medicines, as it was thought to have pain-relieving and mood-enhancing properties. Dr. Pemberton was one of those who believed the hype. Like many Civil War veterans, Pemberton was wounded severely during the war and developed an addiction to morphine to help with his persistent pain. Desperate for relief, he and many others ended up replacing their morphine addiction with another drug: cocaine.

As a pharmacist, Pemberton was always on the lookout for marketable pain relievers, which is how he discovered Vin Mariani, a "coca wine" developed by a French chemist. Its testimonials and endorsements ranged from the Pope to Ulysses S. Grant to Thomas Edison. Pemberton was inspired. In his Georgia pharmacy, he concocted his own take on the cure-all drink, calling it "Pemberton's French Wine Coca." The pharmacist also threw in the extra ingredient of the African kola nut for a caffeinated boost. All was going swimmingly until Atlanta introduced temperance laws in 1886, thereby banning all alcohol. Pemberton was in need of a new recipe, but he was determined to keep the addictive coca leaf in.

The tonic was quickly reformulated without alcohol and released in 1886. This version marketed itself as an energizing soda fountain drink, keeping the kola nut extract and coca leaf while adding sugar and caramel coloring. This time Pemberton hammered home the mental benefits in his advertising, calling it an "ideal brain tonic" that "relieves fatigue." The name and branding also changed: his bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, came up with the name "Coca-Cola" and its now-iconic script logo.  Though he was able to sell the syrup to soda fountains in Atlanta briefly, due to his declining health and financial struggles, he soon sold off his formula to various investors. 

Shortly before Pemberton died in 1888, he sold his remaining interests to Asa Candler for a couple of thousand dollars. Candler in turn founded the Coca-Cola Company in 1892, followed by trademarking the brand and distributing dividends to the company's first shareholders. Why Candler eventually removed cocaine from the recipe comes down to public attitudes about the drug and racism. Cocaine was all well and good among the affluent white middle class, but once the drug became a popular recreational drug in southern Black neighborhoods, hypocrisy and prejudice in the business world reared its ugly head. In 1901, cola leaf extract was officially removed from the recipe, adding more sugar and caffeine to replace it. Today, Coke is now the most valuable non-alcoholic drink in the world — even without the cocaine.