DAVID ADAMS looks back at where it all began for Coke…
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AVAILABLE (ALMOST) EVERYWHERE: Coca-Cola sign in Ecuador. PICTURE: Crissie Hardy (www.sxc.hu) |
Coca-Cola, the ubiquitous global softdrink, is this year celebrating what The Coca-Cola Company calls “125 years of sharing happiness”. We know it as the 125th anniversary of the first glass of the drink ever sold.
The story of Coca-Cola goes back to 8th May, 1886, when a US pharmacist, Dr John Pemberton, developed the softdrink, according to Coca-Cola, inspired by “simple curiosity” (others have suggested it was developed in response to the passing of prohibition legislation in Georgia where Dr Pemberton lived).
The new drink combined coca-cola syrup, the caramel coloured liquid developed by Dr Pemberton (and the recipe, Coca-Cola claim, remains a secret to this day), with carbonated water. Contrary to the belief of some, it did not start out life as a medicine.
The first sales (at five cents a glass from a soda fountain) took place at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on 8th May, 1886. The name was the brainchild of Dr Pemberton’s friend, Frank M Robinson, who first wrote it out by hand in the “Spencerian script” that still forms the company logo.
Dr Pemberton, who initially served up just nine glasses of the drink a day, subsequently sold shares in his business and The Coca-Cola Company was created by one of the original investors – Asa Griggs Chandler – in 1892. The first bottles of the drink were sold two years later (originally the bottle had straight side – the iconic contoured bottle was introduced in 1916) but it wasn’t sold in cans until 1955. Diet Coke was introduced in 1982.
Today, The Coca-Cola Company has a range of more than 400 brands, employs more than 92,000 people in more than 200 countries and serves up more than 1.6 billion drinks of Coke a day.
FOR MORE:
The Coca-Cola Company
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