How an addict made Coca-Cola



Let's go back in time to 1886. The hero of our story is John Pemberton, a wounded veteran who tried to make a cocktail as part of an experiment to find a substitute for his morphine addiction. He used caffeine-rich kola nuts with small amounts of morphine to produce a tonic at his pharmacy. And that’s how Coca-Cola was invented by mixing this drug with sugary syrup. Asa Candler, a different pharmacist, paid $2,300 for it and added soda to it to create more bubbles. By the late 1890s, Coca-Cola had become the nation's favorite soda.

Well, this is the story of an addict and how his addiction led him to invent the most famous brand of a soft drink named ‘coca cola’.Who would have guessed that this unintentional discovery holds a 286 billion dollar multinational beverage company?



How an addict made Coca-Cola

The Agony:

John Pemberton’s life was quite eventful. He received his medical training when he was nineteen years old, in 1850. His strongest skill was chemistry. Pemberton first worked as a doctor and surgeon before opening a pharmacy in Columbus.

He was in the Third Cavalry Battalion of the Georgia State Guard, which at the time was a part of the Confederate Army, during the American Civil War. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

During the Battle of Columbus in April 1865, he received a blade wound that left him suffering. He soon became dependent on the morphine that was given to him to make him feel better. As a result of his subsequent morphine addiction, he experimented with a number of poisons and painkillers.


Accidental discovery:

Pemberton, a chemical enthusiast, explored a number of opium-free substitute medications and experimented with various other substances and wines before discovering a mixture that contained extracts of cola nut and damiana with a flavor that had never been experienced before. He used lofty language to describe his new creation, calling it "a valuable brain tonic that would treat headaches, relieve fatigue, and calm nerves." He described it as "wonderful, refreshing, pure delight, thrilling and revitalizing" when selling it as medication. He gave his unintentional creation the name "Pemberton's French Wine Coca."

The beverage made famous by Pemberton was produced in Columbus, Georgia, and transported to Atlanta, according to Coca-Cola historian Phil Mooney. The product's advertisements claimed that it could treat everything from chronic illnesses to constipation.


"‘Coca Cola'"-a soft drink:

Pemberton's product was an instant hit, but he was forced to make it non-alcoholic due to rising public anxiety about alcohol addiction. He made a recipe that included combining the base syrup with carbonated water, but this was also an accident. He gave this new creation the name "Coca-Cola," which was derived from the words "Coca" and "cola," two of its main components.

However, following allegations that the "coca" in the product name contains cocaine, the Coca-Cola Company was forced to deny this and modify the name from "a medication" to "a fountain drink" and decided to sell it as a refreshing soft drink.


Bankruptcy:

Pemberton did poorly compared to Coke, which went on to achieve global popularity. Because there is no known way to treat addiction, his morphine addiction came back, which cost him his health and all of his money. It didn't go well when the medicinal elixir was abruptly rebranded as a beverage for refreshment. To survive, Pemberton was compelled to do everything it took to acquire money, including selling. He sold Coca-Cola to Asa Candler, a different pharmacist, due to lengthy stomach cancer and impending bankruptcy. The ingredients for Coca-Cola were described as carbonated water, sugar, caramel, acidifier 338, caffeine, plant extracts, and a key component with the top-secret moniker "7x," which was kept a secret from anybody but his invention's rights to a variety of business associates.

Asa Candler kept the recipe safe in a bank in Atlanta for more than a century, knowing that many businessmen of the time would do anything to get it.


Death:

John Pemberton, who was broke and enslaved by addiction, passed away from stomach cancer in 1888. His only son, Charles, received his entire estate, which at the time was made up solely of his remaining Coca-Cola corporation shares. Only six years after his father, Charles, a morphine addict himself, passed away. It was a pity that the enormous success and popularity that Coca-Cola would experience worldwide were just years away for both the Pembertons.


A New Journey:

Asa Griggs Candler acquired full control of the company in 1891 (for a total monetary investment of $2,300 and the exchange of some proprietary rights), and the following year he founded the Coca-Cola Company. In 1893, the Coca-Cola trademark was registered with the U.S. Patent Office.


Going Global:

Sales of syrup increased under Candler's direction from 9,000 gallons in 1890 to 370,877 gallons in 1900. The establishment of syrup-producing facilities in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia during that decade led to the spread of the product to every U.S. state and territory as well as Canada. The Coca-Cola Company entered into its first contract with an independent bottling firm in 1899, allowing it to purchase the syrup to make, package, and sell the Coca-Cola beverage.

The majority of the American soft drink business today is characterized by the distinctive distribution structure that was built on these licensing agreements. The Coca-Cola Company, which was founded with $100,000 in the capital in 1892, was sold in 1919 for $25 million to a group of investors under the direction of Atlanta industrialist Ernest Woodruff. Robert Winship Woodruff, his son, oversaw the business for more than three decades as president and chairman.

Coca-Cola's packaging was diversified during the post-World War II era, and new products were created or acquired. The "Coke" trademark was first used in advertising in 1941 and was registered in 1945. Later, a soft drink originally created in Germany called Fanta was acquired by the business in 1946. Then, in 1960, we saw the registration of the curved Coca-Cola bottle, which was initially introduced in 1916. The company also released its first diet cola, sugar-free Tab, in 1963, as well as the lemon-lime beverage, Sprite, in 1961. The firm entered the citrus juice sector in 1960 after purchasing Minute Maid Corporation. In 1966, it added the Fresca brand.

A failed launch:

As of 1978, Coca-Cola was the only business permitted to sell chilled bottled beverages in the People's Republic of China. The company debuted their low-calorie, sugar-free soft drink, Diet Coke, in 1982. In April 1985, the firm introduced a new flavor of Coca-Cola using a formula it developed through taste tests in an effort to address its declining market share. But the public did not like this new Coke. Following widespread criticism, Coca-Cola brought back its original flavor in July, branding it as Coca-Cola Classic.

The boom in Business:

The early 1990s saw the opening of new markets for Coca-Cola; the corporation started selling its goods in East Germany in 1990 and India in 1993. 

The company unveiled its first bottle produced partially from recycled plastic in 1992, a significant advancement for the sector at the time. Across the 1990s, Coca-Cola introduced numerous new drinks, such as the bottled water brand Dasani and the children's fruit drink Qoo, which was sold in Asia. 

Additionally, Coca-Cola bought beverages from Cadbury Schweppes that were distributed in more than 120 nations throughout the world. Including Barq's root beer in the US, Inca Kola in Peru, Maaza, Thumbs Up, and Limca in India.

Lawsuit:

In the early 2000s, Coca-Cola faced claims of illegal land and water pollution and significant human rights breaches. In 2001, the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund sued Coca-Cola, Bebidas y Alimentos, and Panamerican Beverages Inc., claiming that the defendants hired "death squads" to intimidate, torture, abduct, and kill union officials in Latin America. Several American universities banned Coca-Cola sales as the controversy gained worldwide attention. Finally, the lawsuit was dropped.

Coca-Cola Zero, a soft drink with no calories but the same great taste as ordinary Coca-Cola, was released by the brand in 2005. Energy Brands, Inc. and its assortment of enhanced waters were purchased by the firm in 2007. Coca-Cola made the announcement that year that it would become a member of the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights, a network of corporations collaborating to create and carry out corporate responses to human rights issues that have an impact on business.

According to Interbrand's "best global brand" research, Coca-Cola ranked as the sixth most valuable brand in the world in 2020. More than 200 nations sold Coca-Cola products in 2013, and each day, consumers drank more than 1.8 billion servings of the brand's beverages. Coca-Cola placed No. 87 on the 2018 Fortune 500 list. Based on its market valuation, Coca-Cola ranks as the 29th most valuable company in the world as of August 2022.




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