A History of Coca-Cola

Dr. John Stith Pemberton, Inventor of Coca-Cola

Any history of Coca-Cola must begin with Dr. John Stith Pemberton. Although Pemberton is best known for his invention of the most popular soft drink on Earth, Coca-Cola, he had already had a distinguished career before creating the drink in May of 1886.

Permberton graduated from medical school at the tender age of 19 in 1850. He also received a graduate degree in pharmacy at an early age. He worked for many years as a druggist in Columbus before moving with his family to Atlanta in 1870.

In Atlanta he served on the first pharmacy licensing board in Georgia. He also created a chemical laboratory which was the first state-run facility to test soil and crop chemicals as well as served as a trustee for the Emory University School of Medicine. During the Civil War he served in the Confederate Army, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel.

It was an aging Pemberton who created Coca-Cola in his laboratory in May of 1886. He already had a product serving as a nerve tonic, stimulant and headache remedy he had put on the market and was sold by most of the druggists in Atlanta: Pemberton's French Wine Coca. The drink was inspired by the popular French concoction, Vin Mariana.

In 1886, however, alcohol became illegal in Atlanta and Pemberton was forced to remove the wine from his recipe. Reworking the formula, he kept the coca but sweetened the drink with sugar instead of wine. His friend and bookkeeper Frank Robinson suggested that he name the product Coca-Cola based on two of its ingredients. Coca leaves as well as the caffeine rich Kola nut.

The first store to sell Coca-Cola was Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta. Unlike today Coca-Cola was not originally sold in bottles but was purely a fountain drink. In that first year of production Pemberton made only $50, yet he had spent over $70 in production and marketing.