FOOD & DRINKS
AUGUST 17, 2021
The Invention Of Coca Cola : The Soda Pop culture
The invention of Coca Cola not just marks the birth of soft drink industry but also the start of American icon globalization.
Coca-Cola was invented in the late 19th century by a pharmacist and chemist John Stith Pemberton (1831 – 1888) in 1886 at his Pemberton Chemical Company in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. He started by mixing two Coca leaves and Kola nuts as the ingredients to create the drink. At first it was called Coca-Kola.
The current name came from his bookkeeper, Frank Robinson. He suggested using two “C”s in it and it was also his handwritten that became the logo of Coca-Cola.
The first Coca-Cola drink was first sold in Jacob’s Pharmacy at the soda fountain, Atlanta on May 8, 1886 for five cents a glass. It was sold with marketing gimmick as “Coca-Cola : The temperance drink”. Around nine glasses of Coke were sold everyday in average.
When first launched, Coca-Cola had two main ingredients : cocaine and caffeine. The cocaine was derived from the coca leaf and the caffeine from kola nut which later made the name Coca-Cola. It had varying amounts of Coke from 1886 – 1929. Cocaine was legal and treated as a medicine at the time.
According to thoughtco website while the Coca-Cola Company denies this claim, historical evidence shows that it is likely until 1905, Coca-Cola drink, which was marketed as a tonic, contained extracts of cocaine as well as the caffeine-rich kola nut. But in early 1900’s Asa Candler began removing cocaine from the recipe.
The medium website describes that by 1929 the company was forced to remove all traces of cocaine in their products due to strong public pressure and prohibition against alcohol. Coca-Cola drink then became famous as a “soft drink”.
Before his death in 1888, Pemberton sold his remaining company asset to a businessman Asa Griggs Candler (1851 – 1929) for $2.300. Candler then founded the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta on January 29, 1892 and operated a franchise distribution system since 1889.
Between 1890 and 1900 the Coca-Cola company had tremendous sale by over 4.000 percent of syrup sales. In 1893, the trademark “Coca-Cola” was registered in the US Patent Office.
The distribution system works with a rule that the Coca-Cola Company only produces a syrup concentrate, Then they sell it to bottlers throughout the world, who hold Coca-Cola franchises for one or more geographical areas. This kind of licensing is now the base of a distribution system that formed the basis of the unique American soft-drink industry.
In 1919, the Coca-Cola Company was sold for $25 million to a group of investors led by Ernest Woodruff, a businessman from Atlanta. His son, Robert Winship Woodruff, led the company as president and chairman for more than thirty years (1923–1955).
The invention of Coca-Cola drink moves further in the 21st century. Today the Coca-Cola company create various products for commercial market. One of it is the Coca-Cola Plus that has image as the “healthiest soda”. It is calorie and sugar free just like Diet Coke and Coke Zero but with a dose of additional fiber added to it.
In the consumer market, Pepsi is the Coca-Cola Company’s main rival in the soft drink industry. This primary product of Pepsi Co is usually second to Coke in sales but in some markets they outsells Coca-Cola. The competition between these two soda giants is famously called the Soda War. Other competitors in the business are continuing grow their market share such as RC Cola, Afri-Cola, Kola Real and Cavan Cola.
In 2018, Coca-Cola ranked no. 87 in the Fortune 500 list of the largest US corporations by total revenue with more than $41.3 billion in annual revenue. Their products were sold in over 200 countries worldwide during 2013.
They have 146.200 employees today and each day around 1.8 billion consumers drink their soda all over the globe. The Soda Pop culture is the new global culture along with the fast food industry now.
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