A History of the World in 6 Glasses

In the book’s final section, Standage addresses the only branded beverage in the book: Cocoa-Cola, and its position as emblem of America and all it stands for. He begins Chapter 11 with an account of the development of soft drinks, which was enabled by the discovery, in Manchester, of how to produce soda water—water made fizzy by the addition of carbon dioxide. Once again, the initial interest in soda water was medicinal, although it was also sold mixed with lemon juice and sugar as early as the late eighteenth century. Soda water became popular across Europe in the 1790s and several companies began to produce it, including Schweppes.

Soda water was first produced in America by Benjamin Stillman, a chemistry professor at Yale who discovered the beverage on a trip to America. He began to make batches to give as gifts to friends, but soon the demand was so high he began to make it commercially in New Haven in 1807. In 1809, Joseph Hawkins of Philadelphia invented the soda fountain, in an attempt to cash in on the association between soda water and European spas. This idea proved unpopular but the soda fountain did not.

True to its medicinal origins, soda was primarily sold in pharmacies and, as well being mixed with lemon, by the nineteenth century, was being mixed with wine, to make spritzers. From the 1830s in America, the most popular way to drink soda water was mixed with fruit flavored syrups, the production of which became increasingly industrialized. Soda water was enjoyed by people across all social classes in America and indeed Mary Gay Humphries noted in 1891 that “‘the crowning merit of soda-water, and that which fits it to be the national drink, is its democracy. The millionaire might drink champagne while the poor man drinks beer, but they both drink soda water’” (232).

Coca-Cola was invented by John Pemberton, a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia, in May 1886. Pemberton had a long history of making patent or “quack” medicines, which had become increasingly popular after the Civil War. In fact, by the end of the nineteenth century, patent medicines “accounted for more newspaper advertising than any other product” (234) and contributed to the development of marketing strategies. Pemberton had had both successes and failures with earlier patent medicines and he was keen to cash in on the popularity of an ingredient newly introduced to America: the coca leaf.

The coca leaf releases a small amount of cocaine when chewed, and had used regularly by cultures in South America as a stimulant and appetite suppressant. Pemberton’s first attempt to make use of this new foodstuff produced French Wine Coca, which consisted of wine infused with coca leaf and another fashionable ingredient, kola nut extract. Like the coca leaf in South America, kola nut, indigenous to West Africa, was a familiar part of people’s culinary lives there, where it was valued as a source of caffeine. It was this caffeine that made the kola nut appealing to the inventors of patent medicine. 

Despite using these two fashionable ingredients, the success of Pemberton’s concoction was threatened by the impending prohibition of alcohol in Atlanta from July 1st 1886. As a result, Pemberton transformed the mixture into a temperance drink, using sugar to counteract the bitterness of the key ingredients and dispensing it as medicinal soda water syrup. This product was named Coca-Cola—after the two main ingredients—by Frank Robinson, Pemberton’s business associate and marketing manager. The new drink was launched at the end of May 1886, just before prohibition came into effect. When prohibition in Atlanta ended in November 1887, Coca-Cola was a very popular drink, and even sold in winter—not a good time for soda sales.

Coca-Cola’s popularity made the ownership to the formula more hotly contested and a number of people had a claim on the drink and the profits made from it. Ownership of Coca-Cola was eventually resolved by Asa Candler in 1888, after Pemberton’s death. By the end of 1895, Coca-Cola had become a “national” drink and was available across America. The company’s rapid growth was due in part to the fact that it was only available as a syrup, which was then added to soda water in a soda fountain.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, Coca-Cola was no longer marketed as a medicinal stimulant for harried businessmen, but as a refreshing drink that appealed to a wider audience, including women and children. This marketing shift was well timed as it allowed Coca-Cola to argue—successfully—that their product was not a patent medicine when taxes on patent medicines were introduced in 1898. Around this time, the company began selling bottled Coca-Cola, which made the drink available outside pharmacies.

Concern about the safety and possible side-effects of Coca-Cola—particularly for children—presented significant challenges in the early twentieth century, and the company was taken to court in 1911 after an investigation was launched by Dr. Wiley, who had been the primary force behind the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. While the company won the legal case, the recipe was altered slightly to remove trace amounts of cocaine and to reduce the amount of caffeine. Coca-Cola also agreed not to depict children in their advertising, and held to that until 1986. As a result of the court case, “the sale to children of Coca-Cola, a caffeinated drink, was…legally sanctioned” (245) and advertising to children became a significant part of Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy.

The 1930s saw Coca-Cola face three main challenges: the end of Prohibition; the Great Depression and the rise of a rival company, PepsiCo. However, the end of prohibition didn’t have a huge effect on sales and indeed, Coca-Cola began to replace coffee as a social drink. Similarly, the company’s image of a “happy, carefree world” (247) in its advertising made it appealing during the difficult times of the great Depression. Furthermore, Standage suggests that Coca-Cola’s rivalry with PepsiCo benefitted both companies. According to journalist William Allen White, by the twentieth century, Coca Cola had become the “‘sublimated essence of all that America stands for, a decent thing honestly made, universally distributed, conscientiously improved with the years” (249).