The Urban Myth of Coca-Cola and Bourbon Cola Steak
The interesting history of the world's most famous soda and its famous cocaine myth, plus a recipe for Cola steak
There is an old joke I know about the Americans and Soviets during the Cold War:
One day in the White House, the personal aide to President Reagan comes in and says:
“Mr. President, the Soviets have landed on the Moon!”
“So what”, says Reagan, “we got there first!”
“Well, they landed there yesterday and have apparently started to paint the moon red”.
“Well, if that’s all there is to it, come back to me later if there are more developments!” said Reagan, continuing to read the documents in front of him.
Three days later, the aide comes back and says:
“Mr. President, the Soviets have painted half of the moon red! What can we do?”
“Nothing”, says Reagan, looking down at his papers and adding a signature to one of them.
Three more days later, the aide bursts into the Oval Office:
“Mr. President, the Soviets have painted the whole moon red!!!”
Reagan looks up, smiles and says:
“Excellent, now send a rocket up there with some guys and some white paint and have them write Coca Cola on it!”
History
The history of Coca Cola is an interesting one. The first drink was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1886.
Dr. John Stith Pemberton, a local pharmacist and Confederate States Army veteran, made a mixture of syrup for Coca-Cola, and carried a jug of it down the street to Jacobs' Pharmacy, where it was sampled, pronounced "excellent" and placed on sale for five cents a glass as a soda fountain drink. It was mixed with carbonated water.
Pemberton sold this syrup to local soda fountains, and, with some advertising, the drink quickly became phenomenally successful.
It was Pemberton’s bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, who chose the name for the drink and penned it in the flowing script that became the famous Coca-Cola trademarked logo we all know. He thought that "the two Cs would look well in advertising." And he was so right.
Asa Griggs Candler Sr., an American business tycoon and politician purchased the Coca-Cola recipe for $238.98 in 1888 from Pemberton. Candler founded The Coca-Cola Company in 1892 and developed it as a major company.
The Urban Myth - Cocaine in Coca Cola
I am sure everyone has heard of the popular rumour that once upon a time, Coca Cola had cocaine in it. The answer to that is slightly complicated, as it is neither a yes, nor a no.
Cocaine — as in the white powdered substance — was not part of the original recipe, and is not used in Coca-Cola today. The drug is a highly concentrated substance. However, the soda gets the first part of its name from the coca leaf, from which cocaine is derived. Coca-Cola once did contain coca leaf extract and caffeine from kola nut (also spelled "cola nut" at the time), leading to the name Coca-Cola.
Originally, Pemberton called for five ounces of coca leaf per gallon of syrup (this is approximately 37 g/L), which was a significant dose; in 1891, this original formula was altered extensively and it contained only a tenth of this amount.
From the turn of the century, there was no more coca leaf in Coca Cola.
So no, there is absolutely no cocaine in Coca Cola today.
Today, that extract is prepared at a Stepan Company plant in Maywood, New Jersey, the only manufacturing plant authorized by the federal government to import and process coca leaves, which it obtains from Peru and Bolivia. The company extracts cocaine from the coca leaves, which it then sells to Mallinckrodt, the only company in the United States licensed to purify cocaine for medicinal use.
In 1919, Ernest Woodruff led a group of investors in purchasing the company from Candler. As collateral for the acquisition loan, Woodruff placed the only written copy of the formula in a vault at the Guaranty Trust Company of New York.
In 1925, when the loan had been repaid, Woodruff moved the written formula to the Trust Company Bank in Atlanta. On December 8, 2011, the company placed it in a vault on the grounds of the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, with the vault on public display.
In 1946 the company purchased rights to Fanta. Fanta was at the time a soft drink developed in Germany in 1940, as a Coca-Cola alternative due to the American trade embargo with Nazi Germany. Fanta soon dominated the German market with three million cases sold in 1943.
The contoured Coca-Cola bottle, first introduced in 1916, was registered in 1960.
In 1978 Coca-Cola became the only company allowed to sell cold packaged beverages in the People’s Republic of China.
The Secret Recipe
The Coca-Cola Company's formula for its Coca-Cola syrup, which bottlers combine with carbonated water to create the company's flagship cola soft drink all over the world, is a closely guarded trade secret.
Company founder Asa Candler was the one who created this veil of secrecy that surrounds the formula in 1891 as a publicity stunt, marketing, and intellectual property protection strategy.
While several recipes, each purporting to be the real formula, have been published, the company maintains that the actual formula remains a secret, known only to a very few select (and anonymous) employees.
According to the company, only two employees are privy to the complete formula at any given time and they are not permitted to travel together.
In 2006, a disgruntled Coca-Cola employee tried to sell top-secret Coke documents to Pepsi. The rest reads like something out of a spy novel. You can read more about it:
Cola and Bourbon Steak
125ml / ½ cup bourbon whiskey
250ml / 1 cup Coca Cola
50ml / ⅓ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon hot sauce (I used Tabasco)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon black pepper
4 large steaks
Mix all the marinade ingredients and then add the sliced steaks. Rub in the marinade and store in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
Fry on the grill the way you like your steak best, well done, medium or rare. Or almost fully raw, on the very hot grill, still cold inside, like my husband likes it.
You can also put the marinated steaks in a ziplock bag in the freezer for later use. The meat will marinate while thawing.
Join me next week to find out about Pepsi and how it was briefly the 6th largest navy in the world.