The Coca-Cola Cocaine Era: What Was Actually Inside America’s Most Famous Drink?

This episode reconstructs Coca-Cola’s early coca history from John Stith Pemberton’s French Wine Coca to the first five-cent Coca-Cola served at Jacobs’ Pharmacy in Atlanta in 1886, then follows the product through changing drug attitudes, Asa Candler’s expansion, the move to decocainized coca around 1903, the 1909 federal seizure of Coca-Cola syrup, the 1916 Supreme Court record describing Merchandise No. 5 with cocaine eliminated, and the later legal coca supply chain involving Maywood Chemical Works and Stepan Company. The episode separates the documented fact that early Coca-Cola used cocaine-bearing coca material from exaggerated claims about exact doses, and explains why modern Coca-Cola should not be described as containing cocaine.

This podcast uses artificial intelligence in its research, writing, production, and narration. Episodes are editorially reviewed before publication.

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YES OR NO: Did Coca-Cola’s shift to decocainized coca preserve part of its original ingredient identity??????