Why Coca-Cola Wouldn’t Exist Without Tennessee

Vintage red brick building with Coca Cola branding in the downtown district in Chattanooga Tennessee (photo by RAUL RODRIGUEZ/iStockphoto.com)

While Atlanta, Georgia will always be Coca-Cola’s home, the company wouldn’t be what it is today with the great state of Tennessee

I realized the other day that I don’t know what the current slogan for Coca-Cola is. There was a time when you couldn’t walk five feet without being blasted by Coke or Pepsi slogans. Ray Charles’ telling me “Can’t Beat the Real Thing” was right up there with “Just Do it” for corporate slogans. Heck, I was raised with hippies singing about buying the world a Coke, a song that remained in the culture much longer than the slogan itself.

Coca Cola’s official slogans

Coke’s brand awareness has been a big part of my pop cultural life. I don’t know when I lost the thread – or more accurately fell out of the Coca-Cola market algorithms. But after I pulled up the list of official slogans, it appears that somewhere around the turn of the century I feel out of the loop.

I have no memory of “The Coke Side of Life” or “Taste the Feeling.” Of course, I remember the polar bears. I know they pop up around Christmas. But “Open Like Never Before”? Never heard it. The current slogan, in case you’re wondering, is “Real Magic.” You could have offered me a million dollars, and I wouldn’t have gotten it.

Coca Cola sign in Arizona on Route 66 (photo by ehrlif/iStockphoto.com)

Of course, “Real Magic” is not bad. In fact, it’s probably one of the better Coke slogans the company has had since the simple and direct “Drink Coca Cola” in 1886. Just for the record, my favorite slogans for Coca-Cola include 1906’s “The Great National Temperance Beverage,” a time when it still contained a tiny amount of cocaine in the syrup.

Other favorites include “The Best Friend Thirst Ever Had” from 1938, “Good to the Last Drop” from 1908 – stolen by Maxwell House Coffee in 1910. But maybe the wordiest slogan ever was “Whoever You Are, Whatever You Do, Wherever You May Be, When You Think of Refreshment Think of Ice Cold Coca-Cola” from 1939.

Still, as we celebrate Coke’s place in our culture, it is important to remember one overwhelming fact. Much like the citizens of Texas and anyone who visits the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, fans of Coca-Cola owe the great state of Tennessee a debt of gratitude for the beverage they love.

John S. Pemberton
John S. Pemberton, date unknown (portrait via the University of TN Library, public domain)

The origins of Coca-Cola

Dr. John S. Pemberton – who looks like a forefather of the Duck Dynasty clan – created the beverage that would become Coca-Cola in 1886.

Dr. Pemberton was a pharmacist by trade and a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate Army. He was stabbed in the chest with a saber in the last month of the war. As a result, Pemberton quickly became addicted to morphine. In an effort to break that addiction, he began experimenting around with painkillers he could use to replace the morphine. He tried mixing alcohol and cocaine, because why have one monkey on your back when you could have two?

He settled on a formula he called Pemberton’s French Wine Cola which he took from Columbus, Georgia to the big city of Atlanta. His “medicine” was thought to help with weakness of the nerves for “high-strung women.” Changing laws in Atlanta, however, necessitated the removal of alcohol from the recipe.

He began working with Atlanta drugstore owner Wille E. Venable for testing. After accidentally mixing in carbonated water, Pemberton decided to market his concoction as a fountain drink instead of a medicine. But he still touted it as a brain tonic that could cure headaches, relieve exhaustion and calm nerves.

1915 Coca Cola Delivery Truck
Coca-Cola delivery truck and driver, Jackson, Tennessee, circa 1915 (photo via the Tennessee Virtual Archives)

Tennessee to the rescue

While his drink was doing well, Pemberton himself wasn’t. He was still addicted to morphine, broke and sick with a stomach cancer that would kill him. He sold rights to his formula while trying to retain some ownership for his son who preferred that his father cash out. The majority interest was sold to another pharmacist for $300 – a little under $10,000 today – and was out of the business. Pemberton died in 1888.

Meanwhile, under the reign of Asa Candler – who now held the majority interest – Coca-Cola began to grow. However, it was limited by the fountain drink formula. A Mississippian named Jose Biedenharn began bottling Coca-Cola on a small-time level in 1894. But things exploded in 1899 when three Chattanooga businessmen secured exclusive bottling rights and sold the in-demand drink for $1.

The three men – Benjamin Thomas, Joseph Whitehead, and John Lupton – established what would become the Coca-Cola Bottling System. And then, facing massive competition in the marketplace, they set out to find a bottle that would stand out from the crowd. So, they created a national contest. The Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana delivered the design that would become world famous.

With the new bottle and bottling system, sales of Coca-Cola syrup skyrocketed. IN 1899, 280,000 gallons of the syrup had been sold. By 1913, that number reached nearly 7 million gallons.

The men from Tennessee had helped turn Coca-Cola from a regional success story to a national and eventually international phenomenon.

An open air venue called “the Social Dove” behind The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro Knoxville Tennessee (photo by J. Michael Jones/iStockphoto.com)

What was the original Coca-Cola like?

It had vanilla and cinnamon flavors with a hint of nutmeg. The early version of the recipe did have cocaine. However, it was removed almost entirely by the turn of the century if not before. According to Snopes, there remained a tiny, trace amount of cocaine in the syrup until 1929 when the company perfected the de-cocainization process.

In 1985, Coca-Cola introduced New Coke to compete with the sweeter Pepsi which was winning blind taste tests aka the Pepsi Challenge. The new recipe didn’t really catch on and the company released Coca-Cola Classic as a return to the original recipe.

If you want to try something that tastes more like the original recipe, many grocery stores now carry the Mexican version of the drink in their Hispanic food section. In about the same time as the introduction of New Coke, the company changed the formula to use high fructose corn syrup. The Mexican Coke version still uses white sugar.

Did you know the history of Coca Cola? What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

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