"Looking for Pain Relief, and Finding Coca-Cola Instead" Topic

This is old, but quite interesting.

" Trying to come up with a headache cure and general pain reliever, pharmacist John Pemberton invents the beverage that will become known to the world as Coca-Cola in a backyard kettle.

Pemberton received a medical degree at 19 and worked as a druggist in Columbus, Georgia, before joining the Confederate army during the Civil War. He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel with the Third Georgia Cavalry and was severely wounded in battle.

Trying to control the pain resulting from those wounds, Pemberton became addicted to morphine.

After the war, Pemberton settled in Atlanta, where he began work on a beverage combining coca leaves and cola nuts. His objective was to create a pain reliever but when his lab assistant accidentally mixed the concoction with carbonated water on May 8, 1886, the two men tasted it, liked it, and decided it might make a profitable alternative to ginger ale and root beer.

Pemberton sold the rights to Coca-Cola (twice, actually, but that's another story) as his behavior became more erratic. He died only two years after his accidental invention and only a few months after the Coca Cola Corporation was incorporated.

It's no urban myth: Coca leaves do indeed contain traces of cocaine, which was then believed to help control one's dependence on opiates, including the morphine that helped end Pemberton's life at 57"
From
link

So, Coca Cola exist because of the ACW!.

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

Not only that, but it was invented by a Southerner – and Coca-Cola has conquered the North (and many parts of the world) as it is the preferred cola! So, the South may have lost the battle, but ultimately won the war – at least in the beverage department.

Bah! Personally I'm a fan of Birch Beer and Moxie!

Damon.

If a North-South battle weren't enough, now we're going to have the Coke-Pepsi wars.

Plus, nothing competes with Mt. Dew!

I enjoy a good Coke now and then, but my preferred Civil War era soda is Vernor's.

The original recipe had red wine it as well. I used to work for Coca-Cola.

That explains part of this map rather nicely:

link

For any who havn't seen it, the map is a county-level survey someone did of what parts of the country use the terms soda, coke, and pop. in the South, I note, Coke is pretty much synonymous with carbonated beverage.

I never understood calling every carbonated beverage Coke.

"What would you like to drink?"
"A Coke."
"What kind?"
"A Coke."

Barqs!

evilcartoonist,

Noticed that is a regional thing, for example up in the Pacific Northwest we used to call it "Pop", but when I moved to Arizona no one knew what that meant, and here it is "Soda". Forgot what it was called in New England (not Moxie…. :-)

Between Coke and Jim Beam, the South had no shortage of painkilling beverages!

I go for the Doc-Pepper that is--and theres places it isn't common. The travesty of such a thing.

Another vote for Dr. Pepper.

There is a drink called Mr. Pibb that is very similar to Dr. Pepper.