Pemberton, John, (1831-1888), an American pharmacist, invented the soft drink Coca-Cola in 1886. At first, Pemberton did a small business in the beverage in Atlanta , Georgia. Eventually, the drink helped launch the global Coca-Cola Company , officially formed in 1892. The Coca-Cola Company now operates in over 200 countries and ranks as the world’s most popular soft drink firm.
John Stith Pemberton was born in Knoxville, Georgia, on Jan. 8, 1831. He studied medicine at the nearby Southern Botanico Medical College of Georgia. In the 1850’s, Pemberton started a small drugstore in Columbus , Georgia, and became relatively wealthy. He was wounded by Union soldiers in 1865, near the end of the American Civil War . Pemberton became addicted to a drug called morphine, which he used to numb the pain caused by his wounds. He began to search for a remedy for this addiction.
Pemberton moved his business to Atlanta after the war, hoping to make more money in a bigger city. There, he introduced a drink he called Pemberton’s French Wine of Coca. The beverage consisted mostly of red wine mixed with coca leaves from Peru. It also contained powdered kola nuts from West Africa, which contain caffeine . He sold this drink as a kind of medicine for morphine addiction, among other ailments, in part because it contained small quantities of cocaine . Cocaine is a dangerous drug that is today illegal in the United States without a doctor’s prescription. In the late 1800’s, however, cocaine was legal for purchase, and many people took it to help keep awake and alert, among other uses.
When Atlanta outlawed the sale of certain kinds of alcohol in 1886, Pemberton created a nonalcoholic beverage—Coca-Cola. It contained carbonated water instead of wine. Today, Coca-Cola still includes caffeine but not cocaine.
Pemberton did not live to see Coca-Cola become the globally popular beverage that it is today. He died on Aug. 16, 1888. It was not until the Atlanta businessman Asa Candler took over responsibilities for selling the soft drink in the 1890’s that Coca-Cola gained widespread popularity outside of the American South.
