Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Birth Of A Refreshing Idea


Drink Coca-Cola
Old Coke sign curtosey of Dominic's Pics

The Coca-Cola company started 110 years ago as a small, insignificent one man business. Since then, it has grown into one of the largest companies in the world. The first chairman of the company was Dr. John Pemberton and the current chairman is Roberto Goizueta. The demand for the product has made this company into a 50 billion dollar business.

Coca-Cola was invented by Dr. John Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist. He concocted the formula in a three legged brass kettle in his backyard on May 8, 1886 by mixing lime, cinnamon, coca leaves, and the seeds of a Brazilian shrub. Coca-Cola as he called the beverage, made its debut in Atlanta's largest pharmacy, Jacob's Pharmacy, as a five cent-non carbonated drink. Later on, the carbonated water was added to the syrup to make the beverage that we know today.

Coca-Cola was orginally used as a nerve and brain tonic and a medical elixir.Coca-Cola was named by Frank Robinson, one of Pemberton's close friends, he also penned the famous Coca-Cola logo in unique script. Dr. Pemberton sold a portion of the Coca-Cola company to Asa Candler. He was forced to sell because he was in poor health and in debt. In time, Candler acquired the whole company for $2,300, Candler did a lot during his time as owner. On January 31, 1893, the famous Coca-Cola formula was patented. Dr. Pemberton never realized the potential of the beverage he created, he sold his business prior to his death in 1888.

In 1892 Candler incorporated a second company. The Coca-Cola Company (the current corporation), and in 1910 Candler had the earliest records of the company burned, further obscuring its legal origins. By the time of its 50th anniversary, the drink had reached the status of a national icon for the USA.

Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time on March 12, 1894. The first outdoor wall advertisement was painted in the same year. The first bottling company for Coca-Cola was 1899, the site was Chattanooga, Tennessee. Coke concentrate syrup, was and is sold separately at pharmacies in small quantities, as an over the counter remedy for nausea or mildly upset stomach.

In 1985 the Coca-Cola Company made what has been known as one of the biggest marketing blunders. The company developed a new formula in efforts to produce a diet coke. They invested 4 million dollars into research to come up with a new formula. The decision to change their formula and pull the old coke off the market came about because taste tests showed a distinct preference for the new formula. The new formula was a sweeter variation with less tang, it was also slightly smoother. This was a mistake, consumers jamed the line to coke objecting to the new taste and the company was looseing millions a day. On July 10, 1985, eighty-seven days after the new Coke was introduced, the old coke was brought back in addition to the new one.

The Coca-Cola Company has, on occasion, introduced other cola drinks under the Coke brand name. The most common of these is Diet Coke, Caffeine-Free-Coca-Cola, Diet Coke caffeine-free, Coca-Cola Cherry, Coca-Cola Zero, Coca-Cola Vanilla and special editions with lemon, lime or coffee. The actual production and distribution of Coca-Cola follows a franchising model. The Coca-Cola Company only produces a syrup concentrate, which it sells to bottlers throughout the world who hold Coca-Cola franchises for one or more geographical areas. The bottlers produce the final drink by mixing the syrup with filtered water and sweeteners and then carbonate it before putting it in cans and bottles, which the bottlers then sell and distribute to retail stores, vending machines, restaurants and food service distributors

A few catch ups; After 1904, instead of using fresh leaves, Coca-Cola started using "spent" leaves-the leftovers of the cocaine-extraction process with cocaine trace levels left over at a molecular level, today they use a cocaine-free coca leaf extract. In January 2009, C0ca-Cola stopped printing the word "Classic" on the labels of 16 ounce bottles sold in parts of the USA. 1940's, during the war, 64 bottling plants were set up around the world to supply our troops.

Some slogan over the years; 1886 "Coca-Cola-Delicious-Refreshing, Exhilarating. 1929 "The Pause Thar Refreshes". 1943 "A Taste All It's Own". 1954 "For People On The Go". 1971 "I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke". 1993 "Always Coca-Cola". The Coca-Cola bottling system grew up with roots deeply in local communities. This heritage serves the Company well today as people seek brands that honor local identity and the distinctiveness of local markets. As was true a century ago, strong locally based relationships between Coca-Cola bottlers, customers and communities are the foundation on which the entire business grows.

I really like to research this history, but like all companies it is impossible to write down everything that has gone on. I sure would like to find some of the real old memorabilia, such as coke bottle, advertising items and some of those beautiful old serving trays with those old time gals on them. Have a great summer, get out and enjoy yourselves.


14 comments:

A New Beginning said...

Hey Margaret!This is another very interesting post from your side..I was truely amazed to kw the history of coca cola..it has made it place around the globe.
Enjoy the summer and thanksa lot for the wonderful post!Best wishes!

Puss-in-Boots said...

Who knew something that has been around for as long as Coca Cola would have such an interesting history? Funnily enough, though, it's not a drink I like...even when I was a kid, I never liked Coke. A lot of people just can't understand it...

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Most interesting post Margaret. There was much I didn't know about CocaCola. much research must have gone into such a wonderful read.
Have a good day.

Yvonne.

Patty said...

Coke has always been my favorite, the regular coke. I don't care for the sugar free and I usually never had more than one can of coke a day if I even had one, but when I was told to watch my sugar intake, I figure I could do without coke. I do sometimes have a diet Sprite, which the coke company also makes. And for some reason, don't mind that or the Barqs root bear in diet form. I think the coke company also makes Barq's root beer, at least when coke drinks are on sale at the grocery, Barqs is listed.

On Fridays at work, that was the day I worked 8-4. the other four days I worked 2pm-10pm. Anyway on Fridays I sometimes would have a coke with my lunch and my co-workers claimed they always knew if I had one, I was more animated and talkative. I guess it was the caffeine. I have learned I can't tolerate much caffeine. And I never drink something with caffeine after 6pm, or I would be up all night. LOL

Interesting post. I bet if any of the old type Coca-Cola signs, trays and etc could be found they would cost quite a bit. I know they have a lot of reproductions.

Have a great week-end. Today is grocery shopping day, so I have to get myself ready and out the door.

Doug Cloud said...

Mom, this was a great story. I enjoyed reading it. We have to hit the antique stores and look for some old Coca-Cola stuff.

Merle said...

Dear Margaret ~~ Great post again about a well
known product. We have all had some Coca Cola to
drink at some stage and enjoyed it. Well done on your research my friend.
Thanks for your comments, but the garden is a fictitious one and the joke was how to get someone to water it. Unfortunately I am not going on vacation- that was part of the joke.
Thank you for your good wishes for my health, and also saying you would water the garden if distance wasn't a problem. You are a kind lady.
Take care, Love, Merle.

Joanna Jenkins said...

It's great learning new things Margaret. Thanks for sharing.
And 110 years old! Wow, I had no idea!
Hope you're having a great summer.

Linda said...

Dear Margaret,
This was enjoyable to read and very interesting. I love researching history as well. While we were in Nashville, my daughter spied little old fashioned bottles of Coca Cola (Miniature versions but made the same and on ice ready to drink) at the Apple Barn Cider Mill & General Store and just had to have one so that she could save the bottle after drinking it, as she likes Coca Cola.

Hope you have a blessed weekend,
Linda

DeniseinVA said...

I'm going to show this to my husband Margaret. He doesn't drink quite so much of it these days but he has been a big fan of Coca-Cola his whole life. In fact when they brought in that new formula you talked about and someone from the company called to take a survey, I had picked up the phone and remember saying, "Hold on, I know someone who would love to tell you what he thinks of the new stuff." I had been hearing about it for days. He jumped at the chance to tell them what a big mistake he thought they had made. Great post, thoroughly enjoyed it!

Gigi Ann said...

Enjoyed reading about Coca-Cola over the years.

But, sorry I prefer Pepsi, don't like Coca Cola and only drink it if I need a caffeine fix and Pepsi isn't available.

Becky said...

Wow, I never knew all this info. Thanks so much for posting it. Coke sure does go back a long ways.I remember my Dad using it to remove the corrosion build up around the posts on the car battery.
Have a wonderful day. So far our summer has been cool and wet with very few hot days!
B.

Joseph Pulikotil said...

Hi Margaret:)

Summer always brings Coca Cola to the forefront of every one's mind. I remember when I was young I used to drink three or four Cokes a day. It was very cheap at that time.

In India Coke had problems with the Government and they were asked to close down the operations. As a result small Indian companies Thumps Up, Fanta etc. came up. But Coca Cola has come back to India again and doing great business.

Its rival Pepsi is having an Indian lady, Indra Nooyi, as the CEO.

While you are having summer, we are having having heavy rains.

It is quite interesting to read the history of the great multinational which has a foot hold probably in every country in the world. Many thanks for the well researched write up.

An organization which started as a small stream turned out into a mighty ocean.

Have a lovely summer Margaret:)
Joseph

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Judy said...

This has been so interesting and informative. When I was a teenager we used to love chocolate cokes. The druggist would just squirt some chocolate in a fountain coke. I have always liked coke better than pepsi.

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