Healthy Food

8 Foods That Were Invented for Another Purpose

8. Coca-Cola

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It’s not a coincidence that Coca-Cola somehow shares a name with cocaine because the origins of the most popular non-alcoholic beverage in the world did involve the prohibited drug.

In the 1860s, a Parisian chemist named Angelo Mariani marketed a cocaine and wine concoction that generally made consumers “feel great” to put it simply.

Popular fans of the beverage included literary figures Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and even Pope Leo XIII! Fast forward to 1886 when an American pharmacist named John Pemberton went looking for something that could cure morphine addiction.

You see, Pemberton himself was addicted to the pain killer after getting injured in the Civil War.

In his search, he came across Mariani’s cocaine wine, and brought it to the US, naming it “Pemberton’s French Wine Coca.” Soon after, Pemberton concocted his own recipe, using coca leaves, kola nuts, and sugar syrup, and named it “Coca-Cola, The Temperance Drink”, and marketed it as a brain tonic that could make you smarter.

But you do know that having Coke too often isn’t a smart idea, right? So, which of these bite-size backstories surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments section below.

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