Top 9 Amazing Facts about Coca-Cola

Facts about Coca-Cola. Photo: Facts.net

Now, let explore 9 Crazy facts about Coca-Cola with Knowinsider.com's experts:

1. Coca-Cola's name comes from the coca plant and the kola nut.

The name Coca-Cola was born out of two components of the drink: cocaine which was derived from the coca plant and caffeine from the kola nut (alliteration was deemed to be more marketable). The logo hasn’t changed much since 1886, aside from a few tweaks. The Spencerian font first used is still evident in today’s design – the most noticeable addition was the wavy underline in 1969. This advert was published in Family Circle magazine, in July 1953, according to Lovefood.

2. Yes, during its early days Coca-Cola did have some cocaine in it.

It’s unclear how much cocaine was in the fizzy drink, but after consumer fears about “cocainism” or a “cocaine habit” were vocalized, Coca-Cola reduced the amount of cocaine in their beverages to a “mere trace,” former Harper’s Magazine editor Frederick Allen previously stated, as said by So Yummy.

See, the original recipe was derived from coca leaves, and that does, in fact, contain small amounts of cocaine.

Founder Asa Griggs Candler and marketer Frank Mason Robinson”were anxious to continue promoting the supposed benefits of the coca leaf, but there was no reason to risk putting more than a tiny bit of coca extract in their syrup.” They removed even the slightest trace of cocaine, and the drug was reportedly removed from the beverage altogether in 1903.

3. A pharmacist invented Coke—and it was advertised as having medical properties.

John Stith Pemberton, a pharmacist in Atlanta, created Coke in 1886, as we mentioned above. But the earliest ads for the soda suggested that it had medical benefits for consumers, too. One early print advertisement bills the soda as "a cure for all nervous affections," including hysteria. Yeah, that's probably not something modern doctors would agree with, according to Eat This, Not That!

4. The original Coke bottle got its shape from a cocoa bean—but there's no cocoa in the soda.

Remember how Coca-Cola created its unique bottle to stand out from the competition? Well, the earlier bottle designs might have led to a lot of confusion. As the company explains, its designers were inspired by "an illustration of a cocoa bean," with the ridges and round shape. But at the time, Coke was made with trace ingredients from the coca plant, not the cocoa plant. Whether or not it was actually a mistake, it's still pretty funny.

5. A Coke employee once got a prison sentence for trying to sell secrets to Pepsi.

This might sound like something that's straight out of a TV drama, but it really happened. In 2007, former Coca-Cola secretary Joya Williams received an eight-year prison sentence for trying to sell company secrets to rival soda maker Pepsi.

Williams allegedly tried to send "confidential documents and samples of products" from Coke to Pepsi, The Associated Press reported at the time.

As AP reported, Pepsi went to the FBI rather than accepting the trade secrets. An undercover investigation led to charges for Williams and two co-defendants.

6. Mexico is the world's top consumer of Coke products.

A 2013 PDF on the Coca-Cola Company's website puts Mexico at the front of its consumption numbers. The average person in Mexico drinks 745 servings of Coke a year, according to the chart; in the United States, that number is 401. That includes all Coca-Cola Company products, not just soda, but it's still a huge figure.

7. Coca-Cola invented coupons.

You may have heard that the first Coke servings were given away for free, but did you know there was a science behind it? As Wired reported, Coke became popular in the late 19th century in part thanks to "tickets" that could be redeemed for free servings. They weren't much different from the coupons shoppers use today.

8. Diet Coke wasn't the company's first diet soda.

Yes, there were decades between Fanta's release and Diet Coke's. But the Coca-Cola Company actually entered the diet soda game in 1963. Tab, which was advertised as having "just one calorie," was launched that year. When Diet Coke was launched, the company used a similar "only one calorie" phrasing to sell the new product.

9. Coca-Cola still uses the script logo that Frank Robinson crafted in 1891.

Robinson was Coke founder John S. Pemberton’s bookkeeper. But it looks like he was quite the artist as well.

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