Editing Pemberton's French Wine Coca

{{short description|Coca wine by John Pemberton}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Refimprove|date=January 2012}}
[[File:Pemberton's French Wine Coca advertisement.jpg|thumb|1885 advertisement]]
'''Pemberton's French Wine Coca''' was a [[coca wine]] created by the druggist [[John Pemberton]], the inventor of [[Coca-Cola]]. 
It was an alcoholic beverage, mixed with [[coca]], [[kola nut]], and [[Turnera diffusa|damiana]]. The original recipe contained the ingredient [[cocaethylene]] (cocaine mixed with alcohol), which was removed, just like the alcohol had before it, in 1899 because of a [[social stigma]] surrounding the rampant use of cocaine at the time.<ref>{{cite news|last=Hamblin|first=James|title=Why we took cocaine out of soda|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/why-we-took-cocaine-out-of-soda/272694/|accessdate=August 30, 2013|newspaper=The Atlantic|date=January 31, 2013}}</ref>

== History ==

French wine coca is a combination of cocaethylene (a unique drug made by mixing cocaine and alcohol) and French wine.

In 1863, a Corsican chemist [[Angelo Mariani (chemist)|Angelo Mariani]] combined coca and wine and started selling it under the name "[[Vin Mariani]]". This became extremely popular. Jules Verne, Alexander Dumas, and Arthur Conan Doyle were among literary figures said to have used it, and the chief rabbi of France is quoted to have said, "Praise be to Mariani's wine!"<ref>{{cite book|last=Markel|first=Howard|title=An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine|year=2012|publisher=First Vintage Books|location=United States|isbn=9781400078790|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GU2Kg0jd6NEC&q=praise+be+to&pg=PA56}}</ref> Pope [[Leo XIII]] reportedly carried a flask of it regularly and gave Mariani a medal.<ref>{{cite book|last=Haskins|first=Mike|title=Drugs - a user's guide|date=June 8, 2011|publisher=Random House |isbn=9781446446119|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXaYpx1JlnEC&q=%22a+most+wonderful+invigorator+of+the+sexual+organs%22&pg=PA89}}</ref>

Seeing this commercial success, Dr. John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia – himself a morphine addict following an injury in the Civil War – set out to make his own version. He called it Pemberton's French Wine Coca and marketed it as a [[w:Panacea (medicine)|panacea]]. Among many fantastic claims, he called it "a most wonderful invigorator of the sexual organs".<ref>{{cite news|last=Hamblin|first=James|title=Why we took cocaine out of soda|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/why-we-took-cocaine-out-of-soda/272694/|accessdate=August 30, 2013|newspaper=The Atlantic|date=January 31, 2013}}</ref>

In the 1880s, when former US President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] was writing his memoirs, he drank Pemberton's French Wine Coca to fight a painful throat cancer.<ref name="h2g2 A87789992">{{cite web|url=https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A87789992|title=Pemberton's French Wine Coca and the Birth of Coca-Cola|website=H2g2.com|date=24 May 2013}}</ref>

In an 1885 interview with the ''[[Atlanta Journal]]'', Pemberton claimed the drink would benefit "scientists, scholars, poets, divines, lawyers, physicians, and others devoted to extreme mental exertion."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yumsugar.com/Pembertons-French-Wine-Coca-Coca-Cola---Do-You-Drink-Coke-192309 |title=Pemberton's French Wine Coca (Coca-Cola) - Do You Drink Coke? |publisher=Yumsugar.com |date= |accessdate=2012-01-30 |archive-date=June 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120621001706/http://www.yumsugar.com/Pembertons-French-Wine-Coca-Coca-Cola---Do-You-Drink-Coke-192309 |url-status=usurped }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ccmphtml/colainvnt.html |title=Coca-Cola Television Advertisements:Dr. John S. Pemberton |publisher=Memory.loc.gov |date= |accessdate=2012-01-30}}</ref> In 1885, when [[Atlanta]] and [[Fulton County, Georgia|Fulton County]] enacted [[Temperance movement|temperance]] legislation, Pemberton scrambled to develop a non-alcoholic version of his popular product. The result was an early version of [[Coca-Cola]]. The temperance legislation did not affect the inclusion of coca, which remained in the formula until early into the 20th century, when it was removed under the orders of then-[[The Coca-Cola Company]] president [[Asa Candler]]; coca leaf extract with the cocaine removed remains one of the flavors in Coca-Cola.

Despite Atlanta's Temperance legislation, production of French Wine Coca continued until Pemberton's death in 1888; in 1887, French Wine Coca sold 720 bottles a day. The Coca-Cola recipe was eventually sold to Candler.<ref name="h2g2 A87789992"/>

== Uses ==

Pemberton claimed astounding medicinal properties for his French Wine Coca, which was marketed as a [[patent medicine]].  French Wine Coca was marketed mostly to [[upper class]] [[intellectuals]], afflicted with diseases believed to have been brought on by [[urbanization]] and Atlanta's increasingly competitive business environment. The beverage was advertised as a cure for nerve trouble, [[dyspepsia]], [[gastroparesis]], mental and physical exhaustion, gastric irritability, wasting diseases, [[constipation]], [[headache]], [[neurasthenia]] and impotence.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pendergrast{{!}}|first=Mark|title=For God, Country and Coca-Cola|year= 2000|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=978-0-465-05468-8|page=32}}</ref> It was also suggested as a cure for [[morphine]] [[Substance dependence|addiction]], which was increasingly common after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite web |url=http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/37305-pembertons-french-wine-coca-cola-prec |title=Pemberton's French Wine (Coca- Cola precurser [sic]) Bottle |publisher=Collectors Weekly }}

[[Category:Cocaine]]
[[Category:Patent medicines]]
[[Category:Wineries in Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Coca-Cola brands]]