THE TIME THAT COCA-COLA WAS USED AS MEDICINE

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

The famous drink started out as a morphine cure, hangover medicine, and hiccup remedy. Still, it would later be the temperance drink of choice during the Prohibition era.

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COCA-COLA ORIGINATED AS A PATENT MEDICINE

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Coca-Cola traces its lineage back to 1886 when Confederate veteran and morphine-addled pharmacist John Pemberton concocted the original formula as a medical elixir. He claimed it cured his morphine addiction.

He called it Pemberton’s French Wine Coca.

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.

The elixir also contained a significant dose of stimulating cocaine along with caffeine from the kola nut. The cocaine would eventually be taken out of the Coca-Cola recipe.

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

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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 a refreshing “brain tonic.” They advertised that it 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 were quite normal in the late 19th century, before science-based medicine existed.

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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. It made extensive use of 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.

It was 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 unabashedly marketed toward the masses at the time.

It wouldn’t be till 1903 that cocaine started to get the bad publicity that we now see in our modern days. Early Coca-Cola was a product of its era, as patent medicines promising addiction cures ironically fueled habits.

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PSEUDO-MEDICINAL CLAIMS ABOUT CAFFEINE CONTENT

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Coca-Cola eventually took out the cocaine before prohibition. Still, it would subsequently start advertising campaigns showing the health benefits of its caffeine content.

Coca-Cola’s 1940s-1950s marketing touted the drink as a morning eye-opener and wholesome substitute for hot breakfast beverages.

The brand suggested that the cola could provide pick-me-up benefits and stimulate coffee or tea.

This “breakfast Coke” push showed the brand was still willing to promote its drink as a medicinal elixir.

This campaign was eventually abandoned but shows Coca-Cola’s deep history as a medicinal drink.

COCA-COLA’S MODERN USED AS COUGH SYRUP

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In some households today, Coca-Cola has transitioned from a purported cure-all to a niche remedy for upset stomachs and cold remedies.

While no longer promoted as medicine, it retains a place in some households as a soothing agent.

*Note there is no scientific proof that Coca-Cola can be used as medicine in any reliable sense.