It was all kicked off on May 8, 1886. In Georgia’s curious Atlanta, a pharmacist named John Stise Pemberton has stirred up a caramel-colored formula that hijacks global tastes for generations. He sold it in 5-cent glass at Jacob’s pharmacy.
At the time it was a carbonated tonic with a cocaine splash and caffeine hint. It was basically a legal high with bubbles.
Coke wasn’t always about smiling at Santa Claus and polar bears. The original blend was billed as a brain and nerve tonic because of the wild marketing of the 1880s. It was more of a pharmacy experiment than a soft drink revolution, and no one in its soda fountain had any clue, sipping on what would become the most iconic brand in human history.
The Coca-Cola Company was born
In 1888, just before his death, Dr. Pemberton sold most of his Coca-Cola rights to a successful Atlanta businessman named Atlanta Candler. Coca-Cola sales exploded, and in 1893 the Soda Coca-Cola Company we know today was born.
Candler believes in the importance of advertising, and while many found it difficult to believe, for decades, he spent more money on advertising around the world than any other company, which has become a well-known name. Today, Amazon spends more than they do, but coke remains the largest advertising derivative of soft drink producers.
In 1919, Candler sold the company to a new owner. Robert Woodruff, the new president of Coca-Cola Company, believed that bottling was the company’s future. The advertising effort focuses on the idea of bringing Coca-Cola home in an attractive way.
As a result, Coca-Cola has created a six-pack carton selling soda bottles, as well as a metal cooler for selling cold drinks. It is also the predecessor of fountain drinks.
The caffeine in the coke was not cocaine, it was my first concern
In 1909, the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed, allowing the US government to seize 40 barrels and 20 barrels of Coca-Cola syrup. Oddly, the attacks are not due to opioids in it, but because health officials considered the caffeine added to the drink to be a harmful ingredient. One of Coca-Cola’s first well-known criticisms was that it produced severe mental and motor disorders, and that their effects were more likely to be due to cocaine than caffeine.
Since 1929, popular drinks have become completely free of cocaine as they have increased their general pressure than addictive health concerns. Little did they know that sugar is probably more addictive either.
Sugar is more addictive than cocaine
The US government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) has released a spectacular report on sugar. First, let’s remind you that Coca-Cola is packed with at least 39 grams of sugar per 12 ounces, the company itself revealed.
“Sugar and sweet rewards can be a replacement for addictive drugs like cocaine, and can even be more rewarding and appealing,” the NIH revealed. “On a neurobiological level, sugar and sweet reward neural substrates appear to be more robust than cocaine neural substrates (i.e., resistant due to functional impairment).
Ramsey Health Care UK says, “We are investigating that sugar is more addictive than opioid drugs such as cocaine and that there may be withdrawal symptoms when cut off.”
Going almost 139 years ago, Coca-Cola is sold in over 200 countries. That’s more places than there are members at the United Nations.
Approximately 2 billion Coca-Cola servings every day!
Soda Giant on that website say, “We enjoy more than 1.9 billion drinks in over 200 countries every day, and we have 700,000 people employed by Coca-Cola companies and over 225 bottling partners that can help us provide refreshment around the world.”
Certainly, it has its critics. Health nuts and environmentalists have been waving red flags for decades. But whether you love or hate it, cola is more than just a drink. It’s bottle pop culture, politics, capitalism. From Cold War diplomacy to Super Bowl ads, the brand has fallen into all the rifts of global life.
The next time I open the can, I raise the toast to Pemberton, the man who accidentally invented the Sugar Water Empire. Cheers, doc. You made history…and perhaps some hollows too.
