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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 02/06/2009 : 08:27:03
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Back before the turn of the last century, in the late 1800s, apothecary shops – drug stores – were apt to do more medical business than physicians. When one felt a little ill, one went to the drug store and purchased whatever nostrum seemed suitable to the sufferer and the druggist. Many of these treatments contained all manner of substances that today, many would be considered dangerous and grounds for a felony bust. Morphine & other opiates including heroine, grain alcohol, oil of hashish, caffeine, and yes, cocaine among others, were freely dispensed, mostly under brand names but the druggests usually kept a stash of their own. They didn't cure much of anything serious, but the suffer felt a lot better, and is that not the point of the whole thing, hmm?
They also had a soda fountain where milkshakes and ice cream sodas could be had as well as the various soft drinks of the day, and snacks. It was in the rear of one of these little shops, owned by John Pemberton, that Coca-Cola had it's conception. Pemberton was reasonably successful in the apothecary business to start with, but when he came up with Coke, a rather sticky substance consisting mainly of a sweetened caramel syrup liberally blended with caffeine, alcohol, and cocaine, he prospered.
The way this stuff was served was to pour a measured portion of Coke into a glass, then top it off with carbonated water. It tasted good and the drugs in it might make a hang-over or legitimate headache sufferer feel much better – how much better depending upon the number of glasses consumed and/or the generosity of the soda jerk. His drug store prospered and he began to sell his soothing elixir to others. But finally, unwell and addicted to morphine, he sold the recipe to Asa Candler, an Atlanta drug store chain owner, for $2,300. Candler almost immediately made his nut back.
Sales of fountain Cokes were also aided by one of the nation's periodic flirtations with Prohibition. In Atlanta, Prohibition only lasted from July 1886 to November 1887 but during that brief period soda fountains acquired thousands of new customers. When the saloons did re-open, they didn't immediately recoup their former patrons and it was reported that some went out of business. Unlike bartenders, soda jerks were not consistent in their mixing of drinks, with some using only one-ounce of Coke syrup per glass while others, incredibly, poured up to four ounces.
Coca-Cola was enjoyed by people "of all walks of life, but most abundantly by office workers, brain workers who took a glass before work, another at lunch, and several more in the evening." Corner newspaper boys, salesmen and delivery boys were among the fountains' best customers, drinking Cokes throughout the day. One delivery boy, who lost his job and was unable to buy Cokes for several days, appeared at his doctor's office "in a very nervous, almost collapsed condition, claiming that he knew something was the matter with him." A local doctor said that his partner was "very strangely affected by drinking Coca-Cola. If he takes a glass, he can't find his way home."
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After some lawsuits involving extended and very expensive legal wrangling that ultimately included the U.S. Supreme Court, not a little confused legislation, and some lightening up of the blow/booze part of the mix, Candler sold the rights to bottle Coca-Cola, thinking that the bottlers would still be forced to buy his syrup. As it turned out, he'd have been better advised to set up bottling plants himself, but he stuck with fountain drinks and sold his product in bulk to near-independent but trademarked Coca Cola bottlers. Never the less, Candler's family became one of the wealthiest in the country.
In the end, Coke had lost all but it's caffeine and sugar punch, but it retained all, and gained yet more, of it's popularity.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2009 : 12:26:28 [Permalink]
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| I'm still waiting for my heroin and hypo kit from the Sears catalog. Damn Pony Express, express my ass... |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Scattershots: Cocaine Cola
