It could be said that cocaine, a substance extracted from the leaves of the coca bush, which grows in South America, or coca leaves, laid the foundation for the success of Coca-Cola. The Spanish conquistadors of that time discovered that the local Indians chewed coca leaves to suppress hunger and eliminate fatigue. In the mid-19th century, a French pharmacist, based on this common knowledge, mixed coca extract into wine to create a beverage. This alcoholic beverage, "Vin Mariani," named after the pharmacist, quickly became very popular.
At that time in France, whether it was the music composer Charles Gounod or the actress Sarah Bernhardt, they were all fond of this powerful anesthetic; and addicted to it like them were the novelist and critic Émile Zola and the great writer Jules Verne; needless to say, the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, who was far away, and even the great American inventor Thomas Edison also gained innovative inspiration from "Vin Mariani"; from the British Queen and the Russian Tsar to the Pope, almost all the celebrities around the world were enjoying the wonderful feelings it brought. One of them—Pope Leo VIII—also awarded the pharmacist Mariani a gold medal just because this cocaine-containing alcoholic beverage made him very happy. In Germany, there were even rumors claiming that the army's rapid reaction ability was enhanced by it; an 1886 issue of *The Army and Navy Journal* once published an article suggesting that this cocaine-containing wine be used as "a new type of food supply during this year's maneuvers."
Like any other successful product, "Vin Mariani" soon had imitators: an American pharmacist named John Stith Pemberton, who was addicted to morphine, formulated and sold a similar mixed beverage in 1880, named "Pemberton's French Coca Wine." However, this alcohol-containing product was launched at an inopportune time and was immediately resisted by the rising temperance movement in the United States. However, compared to alcohol, cocaine enjoyed a very good reputation and was even said to be able to cure alcoholism. So Pemberton removed the controversial alcohol component, reformulated a non-wine cocaine beverage, and called it Coca-Cola—that is the "Coca-Cola" we know today. However, the name was the same, but the ingredients were quite different from today's. When he promoted his invention, "Coca-Cola," it was as a "functional food": a high-nutrient brain tonic that could cure symptoms such as nervous headaches, neuralgia, hysteria, and melancholy. At that time, the most important ingredient in Coca-Cola was cocaine. Undoubtedly, it quickly made Coca-Cola have many high-status customers who enjoyed the coke and cocaine as if addicted. We already know that coca contains cocaine. And the name Coca-Cola suggests that in addition to Coca, this drink should also contain another important ingredient—cola nuts, which contain caffeine. However, it is very likely that this ingredient was not present in the original Coca-Cola drink, but because it was said to be good for health—just as people today talk about the benefits of multiple vitamins for health—adding it to the name would make this new drink more marketable, so it got this name. Later, caffeine was added to Coca-Cola. This caffeine was basically purchased from the Merck Group, a pharmaceutical company in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany.
Later, because cocaine became a prohibited substance, it had to be withdrawn from Coca-Cola—a drink that appeared under the image of a "health drink." In order not to affect the taste too much, starting from 1903, people began to use coca leaves as raw materials to replace the cocaine previously extracted from them. Although the taste was thus maintained, because of the withdrawal of cocaine, the original target market for sales had to be repositioned. Now, "teenagers" became the main focus locked by the advertising, and the rebellious reason they were attracted to Coca-Cola was because its taste still retained the trace of the banned cocaine—and this is precisely the unique charm of Coca-Cola. Thus, this refreshing drink was reborn. Although it contained no alcohol and no cocaine, it was still considered a masterpiece of success in our world.