The Invention of Coca-Cola: The Story of John Pemberton

The man who invented Coca-Cola was John Pemberton, born in 1833 in Knoxville, Georgia, eighty miles away. Sometimes known as 'Doctor' Pemberton, he settled in Atlanta in 1869.

In 1885, he registered a trademark for something called 'French Wine Coca-Deal' - a nerve and tonic stimulant. A few years later, he recruited the services of a bookkeeper named Frank M. Robinson, who not only had a good head for figures but also an exceptional artistic hand.

In 1886, a year in which Pemberton was experimenting with a new drink, he called it 'Coca-Cola'. It was a modification of his 'French Wine Coca' formula. When the end product tasted awful, he had thrown in some extract of cola nut and a few other oils, blending the mixture in used beer bottles. Robinson, with his glowing bookkeeper’s script, presented a label on which 'Coca-Cola' was written in the fashion that it is still renowned.

Pemberton promoted 'Coca-Cola' as a headache cure, especially for people whose headaches could be traced to overindulgence of the night before. One morning late in 1886, one such victim dragged himself into an Atlanta drugstore and asked for a dose of Coca-Cola. Druggists customarily stirred a teaspoonful of syrup into a glass of water. To the customer’s surprise, the man on duty mixed the syrup with some soda water, which was close at hand. The suffering customer perked up almost at once, and word quickly spread that the best Coca-Cola was a fizzy one.

50. One modification made of the 'French Wine Coca' formula was:

D. Cola nut extract was added to taste.