Explore the captivating saga of Coca-Cola, a brand that transcends cultures and geographies, in our latest video, “Coca-Cola: A Journey from Quack Medicine to Global Icon.” This video delves deep into the history of Coca-Cola, revealing its transformation from a concoction of cocaine and alcohol to one of the most recognized beverages worldwide.
馃イ Origin Story: Discover how John Stith Pemberton, a Civil War veteran and chemist, created the first iteration of Coca-Cola in an attempt to cure his morphine addiction, blending alcohol with coca leaf.
馃毇 Prohibition and Innovation: Learn how the Temperance movement and alcohol prohibition laws forced Pemberton to reformulate Coca-Cola into a non-alcoholic beverage, inadvertently leading to the birth of the modern soda.
馃摐 Brand Evolution: Trace the journey of Coca-Cola’s name and formula, from the early days of ‘French Wine Coca’ to the iconic ‘Coca-Cola’ brand we know today.
馃さ Asa Candler’s Era: Uncover the role of Asa Candler in transforming Coca-Cola from a niche product to a household name, amidst allegations of corporate maneuvering and legal battles.
馃實 Coca-Cola’s Global Dominance: Witness the rise of Coca-Cola as a global powerhouse, its involvement in world politics, and its eventual removal of cocaine from the recipe.
馃毇 New Coke Controversy: Reflect on Coca-Cola’s rare misstep with the introduction of “New Coke” and its swift return to the original formula due to public demand.
馃専 Modern Coca-Cola: Today, Coca-Cola stands as a symbol of American culture and corporate success, widely enjoyed across the globe, albeit with concerns about its health impacts.
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[Disclaimer: This video aims to provide entertaining insight into the history of Coca Cola. All information is based on publicly available records and information. Viewer discretion is advised for discussions of substance abuse]
Coca-Cola has been around so long it is more of a household name than Mickey Mouse it is so recognizable that you can buy them anywhere without knowing the local language from the fast food restaurants of America to the ULU of Kenya you can ask anyone for a Coke and
They’ll know exactly what you mean the company is so powerful that they ended up playing both sides of World War II and they even took everyone’s beloved Santa Claus and made him wear red instead of green just to sells more coke the drink itself came from not so humble
Beginnings and the company that has taken it from crack medicine to Global Dominator has done more than its fair share of villon along the way the recipe itself supposedly a closely guarded secret has actually undergone a few changes over the century and a half that Coca-Cola has existed this is the story
Of Coca-Cola its trials its tribulations the various people who had their hands taken it from crack Medicine of cocaine mixed with alcohol into the to dissolve in soda of today the broken soldier in the late 1860s after the American Civil War had ended many veterans of both sides were left wounded and Afflicted
With horrendous mental and physical scars the prevailing Medical Practice of the time was essentially to numb the pain of substance abuse one such veteran was John Stith pton formerly a lieutenant colonel of the Georgia state guard Third calval Battalion during his time in the war he had been grievously
Wounded at the Battle of col like most wounded veterans pton developed a morphine addiction while recovering from the saber slash he’d received across his chest but being the chemist that he was he endeavored to find a morphine free alternative working out of his backyard he started by mixing together two different widely abused
Substances using alcohol toxic plants and cocoa Leaf the main ingredient of cocaine he came up with his first recipe as any Wall Street executive will tell you mixing booze and cocaine is a hell of a way to get euphorically high it’s also a great way to ruin your life so
Don’t do it but back in the good old days cocaine was perfectly legal to sell and use as more and more consumer products were being developed in the mid to late 19th century regulation hadn’t caught up it was perfectly legal to had Mercury and lead to stuff and sell it as
Medicine something that pton definitely did in the original Coca-Cola now half crazy on the drugs wine and toxic chemicals he’d halfhazard thrown together pton perfected his first drink called French wine Coco he marketed it as a medicine that could cure everything from morphine addiction indigestion nerve disorders headaches and impotence
It’s worth noting here that despite these claims pton could never shake his morphine addiction and it plagued him for the rest of his life pton wasn’t the first to produce what were known as cocoa wines but his drink was unique for what the recipe would go on to be with
Public concern for War veterans turning to alcoholism an addiction at the time marketing a drink that was alcoholic and full of cocaine wasn’t seen as suitable it instead found a market among depressed Southern ladies suffering from northia if that sounds like a madeup disease it’s because it is men of the
Age believe that women locked up in their plantations as subservient trophies became prone to a weakness of the nerves some men thought that the best solution to this wave of female Depression was to do alcohol and cocaine indeed these were enlightened times medic Cola after years of getting people’s
Wives boardroom buzzed to save off lives of being locked up on a plantation pton hit a stumbling block America was undergoing a societal shift and a new movement was sweeping the country although alcohol prohibition is something we usually associate with the 1920s it originated in the late 1800s
With the temperance movement you have to understand that Americans of the time were taking drinking to the next level insane amounts of booze were being consumed right before breakfast for most American men and being chased with even more throughout their days and this wasn’t Beer and Ale either this was hard
Stuff brewed with little thought to flavor quality or even being safe to drink as the American experiment of unbridled capitalism settled the final Western Frontiers men drank Lakes of hard whiskey every morning and only lived to their late teens we are of course being a little dramatic still
It’s essential to realize just how much of a public epidemic alcoholism was becoming in the eyes of the public wives initially formed groups calling for the full scale Banning of alcohol as prohibition reached pton was forced to rethink his recipe and come up with something alcohol free obviously with
The cocaine still in it though he couldn’t keep calling it medicine without that Colombian marching powder the temperance legislation passed in fton County passed laws against a sale of alcohol effectively outlawing his French wine cocoa he worked with an Atlanta drugstore owner Willis e Venable to test and perfect his new formula
Through a long process of trial and error venal and pton tried to make a palatable beverage that could still get you pretty buzzed pton entirely by accident Blended the base syrup with carbonated water when he tried to make an interation of the new beverage at the time carbonation was a new exciting
Thing people believed that carbonating drinks would do everything from improving The Taste to adding various health benefits all from some bubbles pton sipped his brown fizzy beverage and had his Eureka moment thus Coca-Cola was born drop the medicine keep the coke at this point pton was struck with the
Genius idea carbonating the beverage meant he could Market it as a fountain drink rather than a medicinal product he wasn’t the first to call it Coca-Cola though Frank Mason Robinson created the titular alliterative sound to describe the two main ingredients of popular cocoa wines of the day to put it into
Perspective the term was used like we use Soda as an umbrella term for soft drinks but after Robinson penned the original script for the bottles the name was was trademarked and owned exclusively by pton and the Coca-Cola Company even though pton had stopped pretending that giving people carbonated
Coke was medicine it didn’t stop him from making outrageous claims about his product Coca-Cola was touted as quote valuable brain tonic that could cure headaches relieve exhaustion and calm nerves you could tell they were getting a little high on their own Supply from the words they used to Market it
Delicious refreshing pure joy exhilarating and invigorating were all used to describe it to potential customers Coca-Cola was a huge hit the big drug deal almost immediately after Coca-Cola hit the market pton fell ill sick desperate and facing bankruptcy he started to sell off the formula rights to his business partners in Atlanta a
Large part of his reason for parceling off his business was due to his ongoing and expensive morphine addiction the thing he’d ironically set out to cure despite this pton believed that eventually Coca-Cola would be a national drink so so in an effort to retain the beverage within his family he kept some
Ownership of the formula and the rights to the name Coca-Cola itself but pemberton’s Son charlie who was also unfortunately hooked on morphine wanted money so together with his father they sold the very last bit of the formula to an Atlanta chemist named ASA Griggs canler only $50 down and 5 in30 days on
August 16th of 1888 John Stith pton doctor Soldier and chemist succumbed to stomach cancer at the age of 5 7 sick destitute and penniless he left his legacy to his son who owned only the name Coca-Cola it’s all in the name in the year of the senior pemberton’s death
The recipe for Coca-Cola was being sold by three separate businesses under three different names all due to pton selling off the rights to whomever he wanted after John pton died his son Charlie was the only thing standing in the way of getting the name Asa Candler maneuvered
Quickly to get it he made Moves to force all of the other competitors pton had sold sold rights to out of the business so that he could monopolize the drink precisely when Margaret Dozer and her brother wolf Hulk Walker the brother and sister combo had been early investors in
Pemberton’s Coca-Cola company they had purchased limited rights to produce the recipe when pton began selling it off had a co-ownership in the company and held a competing stake to Candler now this is where things get gray messy and weird Charlie pton was an alcoholic and opium addict he was a thorn in kendler
Side and one he needed to get rid of to take the title to the Coca-Cola name for himself one of several stories is that he approached Charlie’s mother at his dad’s funeral and offered her $300 cash for it but this is just one of several accounts either way what we do know
Comes from a book written by none other than candler’s own son Charlie Howard Candler in 1950 according to Charles’s book on the 30th of August 1888 weeks after John pemberton’s death Asa Candler became the sole proprietor of Coca-Cola evidence of this was shown on letterheads invoices and advertising
Copy but things might not be quite what they seem although ASA kendler had purchased half of the ownership stake that Walker and Dozer had in April 1888 for $750 all parties supposedly agreed that he would pay 1,000 over a specified time to purchase the Rest by May of 1889
Candler claimed full ownership of the beverage and its name total investment of about $2,300 on his part in 1892 he Incorporated a second caola company which is a company as it exists today after this things start to get really fishy candler’s Checkmate on June 23rd 1894 Charlie pton was found with a stick
Of opium at his side he died 10 days later at the age of 40 kendler had Consolidated his position over the Coca-Cola brand in 1910 kendler had the earliest documents from the original Coca-Cola company destroyed claiming that they had been lost when moving Corporate Offices at the time no one
Really gave it much thought until an old rival appeared in 1914 Margaret Dozer co-owner of the original Coca-Cola company in 1888 claimed that her signature on the original bill of sale had been forged when the documents were examined it appeared that John pton signature had also likely been forged
Unfortunately all signs pointed to pemberton’s Son charlie as the culprit nevertheless Candler had everything to gain in propagating this forgery with the speed with which he moved to acquire the company it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together without the earliest documents from the original Coca-Cola company the original founder
And his son dead there wasn’t enough evidence to conclusively say that Candler had koled his way to stealing the company with war brewing in Europe the matter was lost and forgotten on September 12th 1919 Coca-Cola company was sold to a group of investors for $25 million a vast return on the original
$2,300 investment from kendler a man who had neither formulated the recipe nor even come up with the name the rest is history the beverage company would go on to become a global dominating Force getting tangled up in global politics and some very nasty Shady stuff they did eventually stop using cocaine in the
Recipe by 1923 Coca-Cola was utterly free of cocaine and has remained so since despite a brief experiment with new Coke in the late 80s the recipe hasn’t undergone any significant revisions you can go out and happily enjoy a Coke so long as you aren’t too worried about tooth decay