Did Coca-cola used to contain cocaine?

Question

Someone once told me this. If this is true, when was cocaine removed, and why (were lots of people getting high??)

Was that the secret ingredient they always used to go on and on about?

Answer 1

Claim: Coca-Cola used to contain cocaine.

Status: True.

Origins: Coca-Cola was named back in 1885 for its two "medicinal" ingredients: extract of coca leaves and kola nuts. Just how much cocaine was originally in the formulation is hard to determine, but the drink undeniably contained some cocaine in its early days. Frederick Allen describes the public attitude towards cocaine that existed as Coca-Cola's developers worked on perfecting their formula in 1891:
The first stirrings of a national debate had begun over the negative aspects of cocaine, and manufacturers were growing defensive over charges that use of their products might lead to "cocainism" or the "cocaine habit". The full-throated fury against cocaine was still a few years off, and Candler and 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 cut the amount to a mere trace.
Allen also explains that cocaine continued to be an ingredient in the syrup in order to protect the trade name "Coca-Cola":
But neither could Candler take the simple step of eliminating the fluid extract of coca leaves from the formula. Candler believed that his product's name had to be descriptive, and that he must have at least some by-product of the coca leaf in the syrup (along with some kola) to protect his right to the name Coca-Cola. Protecting the name was critical. Candler had no patent on the syrup itself. Anyone could make an imitation. But no one could put the label "Coca-Cola" on an imitation so long as Candler owned the name. The name was the thing of real value, and the registered trademark was its only safeguard. Coca leaves had to stay in the syrup.
How much cocaine was in that "mere trace" is impossible to say, but we do know that by 1902 it was as little as 1/400 of a grain of cocaine per ounce of syrup. Coca-Cola didn't become completely cocaine-free until 1929, but there was scarcely any of the drug left in the drink by then:
By Heath's calculation, the amount of ecgonine [an alkaloid in the coca leaf that could be synthesized to create cocaine] was infinitesimal: no more than one part in 50 million. In an entire year's supply of 25-odd million gallons of Coca-Cola syrup, Heath figured, there might be six-hundredths of an ounce of cocaine.
So, yes, at one time there was cocaine in Coca-Cola. But before you're tempted to run off claiming Coca-Cola turned generations of drinkers into dope addicts, consider the following: back in 1885 it was far from uncommon to use cocaine in patent medicines (which is what Coca-Cola was originally marketed as) and other medical potions. When it first became general knowledge that cocaine could be harmful, the backroom chemists who comprised Coca-Cola at the time (long before it became the huge company we now know) did everything they could with the technology they had available at the time to remove every trace of cocaine from the beverage. What was left behind (until the technology improved enough for it all to be removed) wasn't enough to give a fly a buzz.

Answer 2

Yes it's true. Coca-cola was introduced in 1886 as "a valuable brain-tonic and cure for all nervous afflictions". Coca-cola was promoted as a temperance drink "offering the virtues of coca without the vices of alcohol". The new beverage was invigorating and popular. Until 1903, a typical serving contained around 60mg of cocaine. Sold today, it still contains an extract of coca-leaves. The Coca-Cola Company imports eight tons from South America each year. Nowadays the leaves are used only for flavouring since the drug has been removed.

Answer 3

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RE:
Did Coca-cola used to contain cocaine?
Someone once told me this. If this is true, when was cocaine removed, and why (were lots of people getting high??)

Was that the secret ingredient they always used to go on and on about?

Answer 4

The first Coca-Cola recipe was invented in Covington, Georgia, by John Stith Pemberton, originally as a cocawine called Pemberton's French Wine Coca in 1885.[1][2] He may have been inspired by the formidable success of European Angelo Mariani's cocawine, Vin Mariani.

In 1885, when Atlanta and Fulton County passed Prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing Coca-Cola, essentially a carbonated, non-alcoholic version of French Wine Cola.[3] The beverage was named Coca-Cola because, originally, the stimulant mixed in the beverage was coca leaves from South America. In addition, the drink was flavored using kola nuts, also acting as the beverage's source of caffeine.[4] The first serving in 1886 cost US$0.05.[5] Pemberton called for five ounces of coca leaf per gallon of syrup, a significant dose, whereas, in 1891, Candler claimed his formula (altered extensively from Pemberton's original) contained only a tenth of this amount. Coca-Cola did once contain an estimated nine milligrams of cocaine per glass, but after 1904, Coca-Cola started using, instead of fresh leaves, "spent" leaves - the leftovers of the cocaine-extraction process with cocaine trace levels left over at a molecular level.[6][7] It is speculated that the coca plant reduction produced by Stepan Company's facility (in Maywood New Jersey) is used for Coca-Cola syrup manufacture.In the United States, Stepan Company is only one manufacturing plant authorized by the Federal Government to import and process the coca plant. [8]

Answer 5

Yes coca-cola did use to use Cocaine in their carbonated drinks that is how coca-cola originally got it's name

Answer 6

I think Coca-Cola use to contain cocaine that is why they use "coca"-cola which i think is short for coaicane-Cola and the secret ingrediant is cafiene

Answer 7

It sure did but that was many, many moons ago before cocaine was a banned substance.

Answer 8

Yes it is true
i think they still use it cause i have to drink it every day.
if i havent had any by 4 i start getting very short with people

Answer 9

yeah they used cocaine...they took it out just after they started making it

Answer 10

yeah but it was a medicine and apparently it tasted horrible (like most medicines really except strawberry calpol) but then thay banned it in 1869