THE TIME THAT COCA-COLA WAS USED AS MEDICINE

Amidst post-Civil War struggles, pharmacist John Pemberton brewed Coca-Cola in 1886 as a patent medicine, riding the crest of Victorian health tonics.

Though debuting as a hangover cure and hiccup remedy, controversial cocaine removal and Prohibition's bans paved its pivot to temperance drink and, soon, iconic American refreshment.

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COCA-COLA ORIGINATED AS A PATENT MEDICINE

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The genesis of the globally renowned beverage Coca-Cola traces back to 1886, when Confederate veteran and morphine-addicted pharmacist John Pemberton concocted the original formula as a medical elixir aimed at curing his addiction.

Blended with alcohol and extracts from coca leaves and kola nuts, Pemberton's French Wine Coca was sold as a patent medicine touted to relieve headaches, exhaustion, impotence, and "nervous afflictions"—vague medical complaints of the era.

Containing a significant dose of stimulating cocaine along with caffeine from the kola nut, Coca-Cola's precursor beverages were thus born amidst a popular mania for such proprietary, cure-all "tonics" promising numerous health benefits.

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PEMBERTON'S ORIGINAL DRINK WAS MARKETED AS A "BRAIN TONIC"

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The immediate precursor to Coca-Cola invented by John Pemberton in the 1880s, called French Wine Coca, was aggressively touted in popular print advertisements of the period as a veritable medical cure-all for various vague nervous afflictions said to plague Americans at the time.

Containing alcohol, coca leaf, kola nut, and an array of exotic botanical extracts, French Wine Coca was sold to the public as an invigorating "brain tonic" that could relieve fatigue, headaches, nervous conditions like "neurasthenia," and even sustain male sexual vigor and treat impotence.

Such expansive and overstated medicinal claims about a product that ultimately evolved into the ubiquitous soft drink Coca-Cola reflect patent medicine fads of the late 19th century more than evidence-based science.

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BEFORE 1903, COCA-COLA CONTAINED AROUND 9MG OF COCAINE PER GLASS

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Though hard to fathom today, Coca-Cola as formulated in the late 19th century delivered a non-trivial jolt of cocaine with each serving, incorporating the coca leaf's psychoactive alkaloids.

Rough analyses indicate Pemberton's original 1886 French Wine Coca recipe contained up to nine milligrams of cocaine per glass—far less than the 50 to 75 milligram "lines" commonly abused in modern contexts, yet still a pharmacologically potent dose.

This cocaine content gave Coca-Cola its early kick amidst a fury of cocaine-laced consumer products that, far from illegal, were credulously vaunted as medical panaceas or harmless pleasures.

While cocaine rightfully elicited public alarm by 1903, early Coca-Cola was very much a product of its era, as patent medicines promising addiction cures ironically fueled habits themselves.

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DURING THE 1940S-1950S, MADE PSEUDO-MEDICINAL CLAIMS ABOUT CAFFEINE CONTENT

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As Coca-Cola ascended from ingredient-dense 19th-century medicine to modern global refreshment in the mid-20th century, advertising campaigns perpetuated vestiges of its oddly health-focused origins in more subtle form through caffeine content.

Building on the momentum of its recent victory vanquishing early cocaine stigma, Coca-Cola's 1940s-1950s marketing incongruously touted the drink as a morning eye-opener and wholesome substitute for hot breakfast beverages.

Suggesting a soda could provide the pick-me-up benefits and stimulation of coffee or tea reflects patent medicine-esque claims creeping back despite societal shifts against unproven health assertions.

This "breakfast Coke" push highlighting caffeine as an energizing nutrient showed the brand still subtly trading on its medicinal heritage, even as formulas evolved towards pure refreshment.

Ultimately unsuccessful and abandoned, the campaign underscores the surprisingly enduring legacy of Coca-Cola's initial introduction as an invigorating elixir to remedy all manner of afflictions.