Culture - Coca-Cola Denies History Again

[Powder_Reality]

When I was in school I wrote a report about cola. For information on the subject, I emailed the Coca-Cola company. In the email, I mentioned that their product used to contain cocaine. In the response they completely denied that Coca-Cola ever contained cocaine in the company's entire history. Seems like they're really trying to forget/cover up this part of their history. It doesn't seem like a big deal to me, Cocaine used to be sold OTC in lots of other products back then. I guess they just don't want to tarnish their "family-friendly" image.

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19583

After reading this post, SWIM was intrigued and decided to try this out for himself. His e-mail to Coca-Cola read:

July 11th, 2006

I was just wondering why the Coca-Cola Company repeatedly denies the fact that Coca-Cola used to contain the alkaloid cocaine. It's a historical fact. When it was invented in 1886 it was marketed as a nerve and brain tonic, and contained the extracts of coca leaves and kola nuts. Even though it's unknown how much cocaine was in the syrup at the time, it is known that by 1902 there was only about 0.2 mg of cocaine per ounce of syrup. And when it was determined that cocaine could be potentially harmful, the company did everything they could with the technology that they had to remove every trace of cocaine from the beverage. And then of course the drink became completely cocaine-free in 1929. So my question once again is why does the Coca-Cola Company deny that Coke ever contained the cocaine alkaloid. It was very common for other medicines at that time to contain cocaine, and it's not news that cocaine was completely legal at one time. So why the repeated denials? I just don't understand it. Thank you for your time.

SWIM received a automatic response email within a couple hours that read:

We appreciate your interest in The Coca-Cola Company and will respond to your email as quickly as possible.

We thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,
The Coca-Cola Company

Finally, a week later, SWIM received his e-mail responding to his inquiry. The e-mail read:

Thank you for contacting The Coca-Cola Company. We appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns.

Please be assured that Coca-Cola does not contain cocaine or any other harmful substance, and cocaine has never been an added ingredient for Coca-Cola.

We hope this information is helpful and reassures your confidence in our brands. Should you have additional questions or comments, please visit our website again.

Gisele
The Coca-Cola Company
Industry and Consumer Affairs

So once again Coca-Cola denies the history of their product. But SWIM noticed that they aren't technically lying by the way they word their response: Cocaine has never been an added ingredient for Coca-Cola. This is true, Coca-Cola has never added cocaine to their product, but it was still technically an ingredient at one time. But they competely ignored how SWIM pointed out all the historical facts about the alkaloid being present in their product. In SWIM's opinion, they must have just sent him a generic e-mail that they send to everyone who inquires about cocaine in their product. Looks like the only way that somebody might be able to get Coca-Cola to admit it's cocaine history is to actually talk to one of the head employees face to face.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good work

[carousel]

the person(s) who sends those e-mails doesn't want to risk his job over something miniscule like this...

[Bajeda]

They probably have a form letter they send out. Now if only there could be a slip up similar to the "bug" incident by an airline company so that they can be embarrased :P


*Just wondering, but does anyone remember which airline the "bug letter" was from? I can't recall.

[enquirewithin]

Perhaps they are messing around with definitions. I'm not sure that it actaully contained refined cocaine as such but coca leaf, which could be siad to be different.

Still, it's not called Caffeine Cola!

[Powder_Reality]

Just as they wrote in the e-mail, Coca-Cola never added refined cocaine into their product. But they made the drink with coca extracts, and hence the finished product did contain small amounts of the cocaine alkaloid. It's all in the way you word it.

[Alfa]

You simply have not received an answer to your question. Why not? Because this is a touchy subject
1. The Coca Cola company has a licence to import massive quanitities(Hundreds of tons annually) of coca leaves. Coca leaves are illegal under the UN treaty on psychotropic substances of 1971.
2. Many people do not differentiate between coca and cocaine. Before you know it, you'd have mothers screaming: Are my children drinking COCAINE?????

Edit: in search of the coca import licence, I already came accross mothers screaming exactly what I wrote above.

[RPS]

Coca-Cola was named back in 1885 for its two "medicinal" ingredients: extract of coca leaves and kola nuts.

The formula for Coke, whose status as a trade secret has been embellished by company lore, once contained trace amounts of cocaine (about 1/400th of a grain, or 0.16 milligrams, in 1902), although this was removed around 1929 as health regulations were tightened. Nevertheless, Coca-Cola has been criticized for its possible negative health effects, with many urban myths surrounding it.

"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."

Obviously, it is something a large corporation would not like to admit to its consumers- and don't expect them too any time soon.

Cheers,
RPS

[Nagognog2]

The formula for Coca-Cola is still regarded as one of the best-kept trade secrets in the world. Perhaps in 50 years we'll find out it's actually full of Ritalin and Prozac. Anywho - I recall reading somewhere that the name was changed after they changed the formula to a non-cocaine containing beverage. If this is so, then they might be legally right in their disclaimer.

[Nature Boy]

SWIM loves his Coca-Cola. Hate to back the big global fatcats but plain old Coca-Cola Classic is nicer than any other softdrink he knows. It's probably highly addictive!

[CrystalDextro]

my thought is the secret formula probably has an addictive analog or some kind of addictive substance because they've already seen how much money is made in having a legally addictive substance that was probably as popular as alcohol at the time

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Alfa

You simply have not received an answer to your question. Why not? Because this is a touchy subject
1. The Coca Cola company has a licence to import massive quanitities(Hundreds of tons annually) of coca leaves. Coca leaves are illegal under the UN treaty on psychotropic substances of 1971.
2. Many people do not differentiate between coca and cocaine. Before you know it, you'd have mothers screaming: Are my children drinking COCAINE?????

Edit: in search of the coca import licence, I already came accross mothers screaming exactly what I wrote above.

Could you post a link to the screaming mothers? I would very much like to see the site in question as I find those sorts of things to be quite amusing.

[Alfa]

It's somewhere in there:
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...ence+coca+cola

Have fun.

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Alfa

It's somewhere in there:
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...ence+coca+cola

Have fun.

heh, still haven't found the screaming moms, but I did find that Coca Cola collaborated with Nazis during WWII!

[Thirdedge]

Definetly highly addictive. Swims friend is alergic to milk, so his parents fed him Coke as a small child (I know, pretty sick . . .)
Anyway, now as an adult he can not shake his 2 Litre a day Coke habit, is grossly unhealthy and will stoop very low to satify his addiction.

[Thirdedge]

This recipe is attributed to a sheet of paper found in an old formulary book owned by Coca-Cola inventor, John S. Pemberton, just before his death (U.S. measures):

* Ingredients:
o 1 oz caffeine citrate
o 3 oz citric acid
o 1 fl oz extract vanilla
o 1 qt lime juice
o 2½ oz flavoring
o 30 lb (14 kg) sugar
o 4 fl oz fluid extract of coca (decocainized flavor essence of the coca leaf)
o 2½ gal water
o Caramel sufficient
* Flavoring:
o 80 Oil orange
o 40 Oil cinnamon
o 120 Oil lemon
o 20 Oil coriander
o 40 Oil nutmeg
o 40 Oil neroli
o 1 qt alcohol
* Directions:
o "Mix caffeine acid and lime juice in 1 quart boiling water add vanilla and flavoring when cool. Let stand for 24 hours."

This recipe does not specify when sugar, coca, caramel or the rest of the water are added.

[Jatelka]

An independant cinema in the South-West UK is making it's own "Coke" according to the following recipe:

Brew it yourself
NB. 1 batch of 7x formula will produce three batches cola syrup, or approximately 54 litres of cola.
Step 1: 7x formula:
Using food-grade essential oils, assemble 3.75ml orange oil; 3ml lime oil; 1ml lemon oil; 1 ml cassia oil (nb. reduce cassia content for next production); 0.75ml nutmeg oil; 0.25ml coriander oil (6 drops); 0.25ml lavender oil (6 drops); 0.25ml neroli oil (optional/removed due to high cost).
Using a measuring syringe, measure out the oils into a glass or ceramic container. Keep covered to avoid volatile oil fumes escaping. Then dissolve 10g instant gum arabic (equivalent to 22ml) in 20ml water (low calcium/low magnesium, Volvic is good) with one drop vodka - Cube uses Zubrowka. (Be aware that total quantity of vodka will be 0.0007ml per litre of Cube-cola).
Place the gum/water/vodka mix in a high-sided beaker - stainless steel or glass are best. Using a high-power hammer drill with kitchen whisk attachment, whisk the gum mixture at high speed while your assistant droppers the oils. Mix in steadily with the measuring syringe. Continue to whisk at high speed for 5-7 minutes, or until the oils and water emulsify.
The resulting mixture will be cloudy. Test for emulsification by adding a few drops of the mixture to one glass of water. No oils should be visible on the surface. You now have a successful flavour emulsion, which should hold for several months.
Step 2:The mixers
This makes two allied concentrates, Composition A and Composition B, which can be stored separately before being mixed into cold syrup with the addition of sugar and water.
Composition A
Mix 30 ml double strength caramel colouring (DD Williamson Caramel 050) with 10 ml water. While stirring, add 10ml 7x flavour emulsion (oils/gum/water mix).
Composition B
Mix 3 tsp (10ml) citric acid with 5-10ml water, then sieve in 0.75 tsp (2.75ml) caffeine. Mix thoroughly using a pestle and mortar until caffeine granules are no longer evident. The mixture may behave erratically, turning either white or clear for no apparent reason. If it goes white, add more water. Pass through muslin or jelly bag to remove any anomalies.
At this point, A+B can be packaged separately and later reconstituted into cola syrup.
Step 3: The cola syrup
2 litres water; 2kg sugar
Compositions A & B
Make a sugar syrup (mix in a cooking pot on low heat to dissolve quickly) using 1.5 litres of the water and all the sugar. Filter if unsure. Mix Composition A into the remaining 500ml water. Add Composition B, then the sugar syrup. You now have 3 litres Cube-Cola syrup or approx 18 litres cola.
Step 4: The cola As required, make up your cola as a 5:1 mix, five parts fizzy water to one part cola syrup. Cube uses 350ml syrup in a 2l bottle of Tesco Ashford Mountain Spring. This cola recipe is released under the GNU general public licence.

SWIJ can report that it actually tastes better than the real thing!

[Bladerunner]

Am I being stupid but why did they call themselves Coca-Cola in the first place?

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Bladerunner

Am I being stupid but why did they call themselves Coca-Cola in the first place?

It was produced with material from Coca leaves and Kola nuts I'm guessing. The Kola nut has caffeine I think and the coca leaves provided another stimulant effect of course.

It seems like Coca-Cola was more of an energy tonic back in the day.

[fatal]

Originally Posted by thirdedge

* Ingredients:
o 1 oz caffeine citrate
o 1 qt alcohol

imagine if they made coca-cola with that much in every 2 litre bottle. yowza!

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by fatal

imagine if they made coca-cola with that much in every 2 litre bottle. yowza!

I think it would boil off though. Better to add it afterwards

[Orchid_Suspiria]

Swim knows there is no active cocaine in Coca Cola anymore but swim heard they still somehow use the leaves.Is there any truth to this?

[Alfa]

threads merged.

[geophagus]

The answer was not provided by the Coca Cola company due to the way you asked your question. Did it contain cocaine? No. Did/does it contain coca leaf extract? Yes.

Coca Cola is one of the only corporations in the USA that is allowed to use "de-cocanized coca leaves" as an ingredient in their product. As another member already stated, Coca Cola has a very secret formula that is very unique. One of their secret ingredients happens to still be the de-cocanized coca leaf extract. It used to contain the regular coca leaf extract, but that was before we were born obviously.

Here's a link describing the company in New Jersey that still prepares the de-cocanized coca leaf extract for the Coca Cola corporation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Company

This company (Stephan Company) is allowed to import coca leaves from Peru, and Columbia under the eye of the DEA, and once there they prepare the de-cocanized extract that they ship to Coca Cola, while the active ingredient is sold to the pharmacuetical company Mallinckrodt: http://pharmaceuticals.mallinckrodt....msds/COCAI.pdf

[pabel_giboon]

Urban myth says: the coca cola company buys 4 tons of coca leaf a year, 2 tons from colombia, 2 tons from peru. that´s stored close to new york, it´s said they have stock for 10 years. there, alcaloids are extracted and sold as precursors for novocaine production. a syrup/oil is extracted and used for the soda.
That matches what SWIGeophagus reports.

[tayo]

swim makes "old-school coca cola"... just drop in some coca leaf (how much up to swiy) let sit for days... then pour through a tea screen into cup... might lose some carbonation but it doesn't change the taste much, just adds more flavor and a feeling besides caffeine. its possible that the acids might hurt the alkaloids but it definitely doesn't destroy all of them.