When pharmacist John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in Atlanta in 1886, he wasn't trying to create a soft drink empire. He was mixing up a patent medicine—and one of his key ingredients was coca leaf extract, the same plant that gives us cocaine.

This wasn't scandalous at the time. It was just Tuesday.

The Patent Medicine Era

The late 1800s were the Wild West of pharmaceuticals. Cocaine was legal, unregulated, and considered a wonder drug. Doctors prescribed it for everything from toothaches to depression. You could buy cocaine-laced wines, lozenges, and yes, fizzy beverages.

Pemberton's original formula combined:

Coca leaf extract (the cocaine source)
Kola nut (caffeine)
Sugar and carbonated water
Various oils and flavorings

The "Coca" in Coca-Cola literally refers to the coca plant. The "Cola" comes from the caffeine-rich kola nut. The name was a straightforward description of what was in the bottle.

How Much Cocaine Are We Talking?

Probably not enough to get you wired. Historians estimate a glass contained around 9 milligrams of cocaine—a trace amount compared to recreational doses. You'd feel a mild lift, similar to what the caffeine alone provides today.

But trace amount or not, it was still cocaine. And as the 20th century approached, attitudes were shifting.

The Great Removal of 1903

By the early 1900s, cocaine's darker side was becoming impossible to ignore. Reports of addiction and abuse were mounting. Racial fears about cocaine use (particularly in the South) were stoking public panic. The writing was on the wall.

In 1903, the company quietly reformulated. Out went the cocaine. The coca leaf stayed—but now it was "decocainized," processed to remove the active alkaloid while keeping the flavor compounds.

Here's the weird part: Coca-Cola still uses decocainized coca leaf extract today. The Stepan Company in New Jersey is the only U.S. firm authorized to import coca leaves, and they supply Coca-Cola with cocaine-free extract. The leftover cocaine gets sold to pharmaceutical companies for legitimate medical use.

A Name That Stuck

The company considered changing the name after removing cocaine but decided against it. "Coca-Cola" was already too valuable a brand. So they kept it—a permanent reminder of the drink's pharmaceutical origins.

Next time you crack open a Coke, you're sipping on a recipe that's been continuously tweaked for over 130 years. The cocaine is long gone. The mystery formula they guard in an Atlanta vault? That came later. But the name still tells the original story: coca leaves and kola nuts, mixed up by a pharmacist who had no idea what he was starting.

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