Overview:
Long before Coca-Cola became one of the most recognizable brands in the world, it began as a medical experiment during America’s patent-medicine era. Created by Civil War veteran and pharmacist John Stith Pemberton, the original formula was developed in the late 19th century while searching for relief from pain, addiction, and nervous disorders.
This article explores Pemberton’s life, his work as a chemist and medical reformer, and how his coca-based tonic evolved—through prohibition laws and changing medical standards—into what would become Coca-Cola.
It is a documented look at how war, medicine, and experimentation shaped one of the most influential products in modern history.
It is difficult to imagine a modern world without Coca-Cola. The brand is so embedded in global culture that it feels timeless—less like an invention and more like a permanent feature of daily life. Yet Coca-Cola did not begin as a soft drink meant for refreshment, celebration, or family gatherings. It began as a medical experiment, born from addiction, war injuries, and the 19th-century American obsession with patent medicines. At the center of that story is John Stith Pemberton, a pharmacist whose life reflected the contradictions of his era.
Pemberton was born on January 8, 1831, in Knoxville, Georgia. Gifted and ambitious, he earned a medical degree at just 19 years old from the Reform Medical College of Georgia in Macon. In his early professional life, he practiced medicine and surgery, later opening his own drug store in Columbus, Georgia. Like many pharmacists of the mid-1800s, Pemberton straddled multiple worlds—medicine, chemistry, commerce, and marketing—at a time when the boundaries between them were loosely defined.
Comment on Presence News Tiktok account: (Unverified)
@Papa D: Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in Columbus Georgia. it’s also where he is buried.
His life, however, would be permanently altered by the American Civil War. Pemberton fought for the Confederacy and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. During the war, he suffered a severe saber wound to the chest. To manage the pain, he was prescribed morphine, a widely used and poorly regulated drug at the time. Like thousands of other wounded veterans, Pemberton became dependent on it. His later work in drug formulation was shaped by a deeply personal goal: finding a substitute for morphine that could ease pain and restore vitality without the same destructive grip.
Post War
After the war, Pemberton relocated to Atlanta, where he founded the Pemberton Chemical Company and began selling a range of patent medicines. These products were marketed as remedies for everything from headaches to nervous disorders and fatigue—claims that were common and largely unchallenged in the late 19th century. One of his most successful creations during this period was Pemberton’s French Wine Coca, a beverage inspired by Vin Mariani, a popular French tonic introduced in 1863 that combined Bordeaux wine with coca leaf extract.
French Wine Coca was advertised as a “nerve tonic,” promoted as a cure for headaches, depression, exhaustion, and even low libido. Its appeal rested on its ingredients: alcohol for relaxation, coca leaf extract for stimulation, and a sophisticated European image that lent it credibility. For Pemberton, it represented both a commercial opportunity and a personal experiment in replacing morphine with something he believed was safer.
That vision was abruptly disrupted in 1885 when Atlanta banned the sale of alcohol. Rather than abandon the product, Pemberton reformulated it. He removed the wine but retained the coca leaf extract and added kola nut extract, a natural source of caffeine. Sweetened with sugar and mixed into a syrup, the beverage was no longer a wine tonic but something new entirely.
Repositioning
In the spring of 1886, Pemberton mixed a batch of this syrup in a brass kettle in his backyard. He brought it to Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, where it was combined with carbonated water and sold at the soda fountain. Marketed as a “brain tonic” and an “ideal temperance drink,” it was positioned not as a pleasure beverage but as medicine. This mixture would soon be known as Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola’s early formulations, including coca leaf extract and alcohol-based tonics, reflect 19th-century medical norms and should be understood in historical context. This article examines documented history and does not promote or endorse substance use.
The name itself came from Pemberton’s bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, who also designed the flowing script logo that remains one of the most recognizable trademarks in the world. Despite these innovations, early sales were modest. Pemberton reportedly sold only a few glasses per day, and he appeared unconvinced that Coca-Cola represented his greatest achievement. When Atlanta relaxed its prohibition laws in 1887, his attention drifted back to French Wine Coca, the product he believed had more promise.
Pemberton’s Health
By this point, Pemberton’s health was failing. His dependence on morphine persisted, his finances were unstable, and he began selling portions of his interest in Coca-Cola to various partners. In 1888, he sold his remaining rights to the formula for approximately $1,750—a decision that would later be regarded as one of the most consequential business miscalculations in American history. Pemberton died on August 16, 1888, largely unaware of what his invention would become.
Ownership of Coca-Cola eventually consolidated under Asa Griggs Candler, another Atlanta pharmacist with a sharp instinct for branding and scale. By 1891, Candler controlled the company outright. He transformed Coca-Cola from a niche medicinal syrup into a mass-market product, investing heavily in advertising and pioneering a franchised bottling system that allowed the drink to spread rapidly across the United States and beyond.
Evolution of the Formula
During these early years, the formula continued to evolve. Until roughly 1905, Coca-Cola contained small amounts of cocaine derived from coca leaves. Amid growing public concern and regulatory pressure, the cocaine was removed and replaced with additional caffeine. The name, however, remained—a linguistic echo of its original ingredients and its unconventional beginnings.
Today, billions of people consume Coca-Cola every day in nearly every nation on earth. The drink is associated with happiness, nostalgia, and global identity. Yet its origins tell a more complicated story—one rooted in 19th-century medicine, addiction, war trauma, and experimentation. Coca-Cola was not created to quench thirst. It was created to heal, to replace one dependency with another, and to survive in a rapidly changing social and legal environment.
John Stith Pemberton’s legacy extends beyond Coca-Cola. He was a trustee of the former Emory University School of Medicine, served on Georgia’s first pharmacy licensing board, and helped establish one of the earliest state-run laboratories for testing soil and agricultural chemicals. That laboratory still operates today under the Georgia Department of Agriculture, a quieter but enduring testament to his contributions to chemistry and public service.
Pemberton’s Mark in History
Pemberton never lived to see Coca-Cola become a global empire. His life ended in relative obscurity, marked by illness and unfulfilled expectations. Yet his story reveals an uncomfortable truth about innovation: many world-changing inventions do not emerge from clarity or comfort, but from struggle, contradiction, and human vulnerability. From Bordeaux wine and coca leaves to carbonated sugar and caffeine, Coca-Cola’s origins are inseparable from the flawed man who created it—a reminder that even the most familiar brands carry shadows of their past.
Editor’s Note: This article is based on historical records and documented sources, including archival materials referenced by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at MIT.
Sources
- Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (MIT)
John Stith Pemberton
https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/john-pemberton - The Coca-Cola Company – Company History
The Birth of a Refreshment
https://www.coca-colacompany.com/company/history/the-birth-of-a-refreshment - For God, Country and Coca-Cola
Mark Pendergrast, For God, Country and Coca-Cola (Scribner)
Widely cited scholarly and journalistic history of Coca-Cola’s origins - National Library of Medicine
Patent Medicines and Coca Wine Tonics in the 19th Century
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/borndigital/patent_medicines.html - Smithsonian Institution
How Coca-Cola Invented the Modern Soft Drink
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-coca-cola-invented-modern-soft-drink-180963399/ - Encyclopaedia Britannica
Coca-Cola | History, Ingredients, & Facts
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Coca-Cola - Atlanta History Center
John Stith Pemberton and 19th-Century Atlanta Pharmacy
https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com - Emory University
History of the Emory School of Medicine
https://med.emory.edu/about/history.html
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