Coca-Cola

Erythroxylum coca var. Coca & Cola acuminata

Folk Names

Coke, Soda, Pop, American Champagne, Is Pepsi Ok?

Energetics & Properties

Energy

"The only way that I could figure they could improve upon Coca-Cola, one of life’s most delightful elixirs, which studies prove will heal the sick and occasionally raise the dead, is to put rum or bourbon in it." - Lewis Grizzard

What Is It?

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink invented over 100 years ago by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. He was a wounded Civil War veteran who developed his own patent medicine to help control his morphine addiction. Patent medicines were drinks advertised as beneficial and medicinal, but due to open laws at the time, they didn't have to provide proof. Coca-Cola's 'healthy tonic' benefits included headache and exhaustion relief.

Pemberton was inspired by Vin Mariani, a French tonic wine and mixture of Bordeaux red wine and cocaine. But the U.S. was entering its prohibition era, so Pemberton made his patent medicine a temperance drink, intended for a dry or sober non-alcoholic bar.

In the late 1800s, Pemberton sold his ownership rights to Asa Griggs Candler for $550. Candler marketed it aggressively, and the drink took off. Today, Coca-Cola is one of the top ten most powerful companies, and cola is an entire category of beverage.

Modern Coca-Cola is a proprietary flavor and top-secret recipe made by The Coca-Cola Company as a concentrate, then sold to licensed Coca-Cola bottlers worldwide. But the drink's name comes from its original ingredients: coca leaves (cocaine) and kola nuts (caffeine).

Coca is a cash crop grown in South and Central America, often illegally. There are four plants (two species with two varieties) in the family, all of which are the psychoactive alkaloid cocaine. Coca-Cola only included a small amount in each glass, but the Coca-Cola company stopped using coca leaf extracts in 1903.

The kola nut is the seed of a plant species in the Cola genus. In the Western hemisphere, it is most popularly known as a flavoring ingredient and source of caffeine, hence 'cola' drinks, but kola nuts have great significance in Western Africa, where it originated. It has a bitter flavor and is chewed for mental stimulation. It has been used religiously and ceremonially as an offering at significant life events, as currency in Mali and Senegal, as a gift to elders, for business negotiations and bride prices. For all of these uses, the only suitable kola nuts are ones divided into four lobes. As of 2016, the cola recipe no longer contained actual kola nut extract.

Listed ingredients of the current Coca-Cola recipe are carbonated water, sugar (sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup depending on country of origin), caffeine, phosphoric acid, caramel color (E150d), and natural flavorings. The recipe also includes cinnamon, neroli (orange tree oil), coriander, and nutmeg oil.

Varieties include: Diet Coke, Zero Sugar, Cherry, Vanilla, Citra, Lime, Raspberry, Ginger, Mango, Coffee, Starlight, Dreamworld, and Caffeine-Free versions of Diet Coke and Coca-Cola. Discontinued varieties include Golden, Lemon, Black Cherry Vanilla, Blāk, Orange Vanilla, and Cinnamon. There is also Coca-Cola Energy, an energy drink with its own flavor and sugar-level variants.

How it Tastes

Coca-Cola's taste has been described as everything from delicious sweetness to battery acid. It is a proprietary recipe created to be distinct and unique: things taste like Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola isn't flavored to taste like something else. It is sugary sweet, slightly sour and tart, and also bitter and astringent. Depending on the variety, it may also have hints of vanilla, citrus, or the other flavors listed above.

Compared to its main competitor Pepsi, Coca-Cola is often described as slightly less sweet and more citrusy.

Coca-Cola's flavor pairs well with umami, barbecue meat, dumplings, nuts, squash, blue cheese, and salty dishes like ramen. For beverages, it pairs well with whiskey, spiced or vanilla rums, vodka, almond, and fruit flavors like cherry, orange, and lemon.

Medicinal Benefits

Coca-Cola is often associated with its health risks, but there are also benefits to drinking this carbonated beverage. It can ease digestion and nausea, as well as provide caffeine to help with focus and energy.

In folk medicine, kola nuts are ground and mixed with honey to aid digestion and coughs, but it should be noted that Coca-Cola no longer contains kola nut extract.

Facts & Fables

Coca-Cola hit many new landmarks for soda brands: first to offer multiple bottle sizes, first Olympic games sponsor, and even the first soft drink consumed in space. It was also an early adopter of multi-packs and bottling its product. When it was first sold, Coca-Cola was found exclusively on drugstore taps, called soda fountains. The rights to bottle the drink were sold to three businessmen in 1899, for the high price of $1.

It's no surprise that Coca-Cola marketing has played a huge factor in its continual success: the company is recognizable globally, from its signature logo, to the 'pause' to take a sip of coke, to the jolly rosy-cheeked Santa Claus and polar bears. Combining Coca-Cola with McDonalds and movie theater popcorn made it even more of a household name.

If you order a soda in an American restaurant, you'll often be told whether they carry Coca-Cola or Pepsi products, which make deals with certain chains to only supply one company's drink brands or the other. Even American college universities make deals with drink company suppliers to exclusively offer Coca-Cola or Pepsi.

Every detail of the brand and its drinks is thoroughly planned. The signature bottle design came from The Root Glass Company, who won the bottle design competition in 1915. The bulbous shape was modeled after a cocoa bean, and the shape has only slightly varied since. The Coca-Cola Company even declared a perfect temperature: between 34°F and 38°F (1°C-3.3°C).

The Coca-Cola Company owns more than 200 brands, including Appletiser, Aquarius, Chivita, Costa Coffee, Dasani, Dr. Pepper, Fanta, Fresca, Fuze, Georgia Coffee, Glacéau (Smartwater and Vitaminwater), Gold Peak, Honest Organic (Kids), Innocent Drinks, Lilt, Minute Maid, Oasis, Powerade, Rose's, Simply, Schweppes, Sprite, and Topo Chico.

⚠ Cautions ⚠

Sugary drinks like Coca-Cola can be significant contributors to health conditions including obesity, type 2 diabetes, tooth decay, and sugar dependency. One can contains 39 grams of sugar, or more than 100% of the suggested daily allowance for adults.

Coca-Cola also includes caffeine, another addictive chemical that can increase blood pressure, cause pupils dilation, and produce dopamine. Drink sugary carbonated beverages in moderation and brush your teeth often.

Cocktails

• Assisted S.

• Attitude Adjuster

• Bartender's Root Beer

• Blackbeard

• Batanga

• Beautiful Beth

• Black Nail #2

• Boston Tea Party

• Bourbon Cherry Coke

• Bulldog

• Caravan

• Cuba Libre

• Cuba Pintada

• Cubata

• Colorado Bulldog

• Cowboy Spritz

• Dracula's Kiss

• Jack in Black

• Kalimotxo

• Lemmy

• Long Island Iced Tea (& variations)

• Lounge Lizard

• Nueva Cuba

• Piscola

• Rocky Mountain Rootbeer

• Roy Rogers (*Non-Alcoholic)

• Rum and Coke

• Texas Tea

• Tokyo Tea

• Vodka Paralyzer

• Whiskey and Coke

• Whiskey Cherry Coke Smash