The History of Coca-Cola
By: Erick Streit
Long before the world's most famous and loved soft drink, Coca Cola was available in every corner store, it had very humble and perhaps corrupt beginnings. It first originated as an alcoholic beverage – cocawine – by John Pemberton in 1885. Shortly thereafter, the city of Atlanta, Georgia passed a legislation on prohibition, which prohibited the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages. Pemberton now had this great product, but sales were stopped in its tracks, so he came up with a non-alcoholic version which he called Coca Cola. He marketed his carbonated beverage at soda fountains for five cents a glass claiming it had medicinal properties. The beverage was purported to cure everything from a headache to impotence, so it became popular quickly, especially since he advertised in the newspaper.
A couple of years later, in 1888, there became some debate as to who actually owned the name “Coca Cola” and to whom the recipe belonged since there were then three people involved in the product. Asa Candler purchased a stake in Pemberton's business and named his portion the Coca Cola Company. Unfortunately, Pemberton suffered from an addiction to morphine and ended up selling the stake again to four other businessmen. Plus, Pemberton's alcoholic son started manufacturing the product using the same recipe. Eventually, Candler purchased all the remaining rights from all interested parties so that his competition would be put out of business. In the midst of all this confusion, there were accusations of forged signatures, but eventually Candler came out the winner (especially since he had all original documents burned in 1910) and incorporated The Coca Cola Company in 1892.
Candler then focused on a heavy marketing and advertising campaign which helped to launch it to the worldwide product we know today. By Coca Cola's 50th birthday, it had become a United States icon and was even declared kosher by a rabbi so all people could enjoy it.
Coca Cola was first bottled for mass distribution in 1894 in glass bottles with the shape we know so well, but even earlier, in 1891, the Biedenharn Candy Company bottled it in their own style of bottle, which if found today, could be worth a lot of money. Besides bottling the ready-made drink, it was also sold to drug stores in concentrate form as cures for an upset stomach. Today, the company only produces Coca Cola concentrate which is then sent to bottling companies who add sugar and water, or sent to restaurants for fountain drinks.