http://www.virtualvender.coca-cola.com/ft/index.jsp

The Coca-Cola website tells us that Coca-Cola “is the most popular and biggest–selling soft drink in history.” Coca-Cola tells us that Mr. John Pemberton first created “Coke” as mixable fountain beverage syrup. Coke began selling in 1886; was sold in every state in the US by 1895; and Coca-Cola products are sold today in more than 200 countries. Coca-Cola shares this history with us but they fail to share some other important about the history of their product with us.

Coca-Cola is so named because the original formula contained coca leaves (a source of cocaine) and kola nuts (a source of caffeine). Mr. Pemberton was an herbalist and had experimented for years with coca and kola. It was originally produced it as a patent medicine (a name often referring to a drug that is not registered in order not to expose the various ingredients). What Coke doesn’t tell us on their website is that it contained approximately 9 milligrams of cocaine per glass, until 1903, when cocaine was removed because of the Pure Food and Drugs Act. Still today, Coca-Cola aggressively denies that cocaine was ever found in Coke.

References:

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1854

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/cocaine.asp

http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/coca_cola.htm