Life & English: The birth of Coca-Cola

Have you ever tasted Coca-Cola? Did you know Coca-Cola was born in a pharmacy? Here is Coca-Cola birth story.

Dr. John S. Pemberton was a pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia, in the 1800s. A pharmacist is a person who mixes medicines. In 1886, Pemberton started trying to make a new medicine. He wanted to make syrup to help people with headaches. He mixed together sugar, water, caffeine, oils and other ingredients. The syrup used the coca plant and a nut called the kola nut. Pemberton called the sticky brown syrup Coca-Cola. Pemberton wanted to sell Coca-Cola as a medicine. He asked a pharmacist in Atlanta to mix the syrup with water and sell it as a treatment for headaches. People liked the taste of the syrup. Once, bubbly water was added to the syrup by accident. This made it taste even better.

Pemperton died in 1888. Soon a man named Asa G. Candler took ownership of the Coca-Cola recipe. Candler had opened the Coca-Cola company. He started selling Coca-Cola all over the United States. Today people drink it all around the world.

Collected & edited by QM