John Pemberton, every mention

Coca-Cola: The Complete History & Strategy (Audio) · Acquired Nov 24, 2025 · 22 mentions

• ▶ 12:13 David Rosenthal Which brings us to Dr.
• ▶ 12:31 David Rosenthal So after the war, he moves to Atlanta and as part of his sort of entrepreneurial aspirations in this new patent medicine consumer economy, and also to probably solve his own problem, he starts casting about for other drugs that could cure…
• ▶ 12:49 David Rosenthal And that is how in the mid-eighteen eighties, he learns about a new miracle drug sweeping America.
• ▶ 14:49 David Rosenthal So entrepreneurial Pemberton in Atlanta sees Vin Mariani's success and is like,
• ▶ 15:08 David Rosenthal He decides that he's going to get the caffeine from African cola nuts, K-O-L-A, cola nuts.
• ▶ 15:24 David Rosenthal Yep, and it's very bitter, but the reason he chooses it is it has an even greater caffeine concentration than coffee beans.
• ▶ 15:33 David Rosenthal He really wants this product to work.
• ▶ 15:35 David Rosenthal So Pemberton starts selling Pemberton's French wine coca, which is still wine, but is now infused both with coca leaves for the cocaine and cola nuts for the caffeine.
• ▶ 15:55 David Rosenthal Grant becomes a fan, and Pemberton starts selling, like, thousands and thousands of bottles in and around Atlanta.
• ▶ 16:55 David Rosenthal So Pemberton's now like, well, shoot, I've got this hit product.
• ▶ 17:09 David Rosenthal So he starts madly experimenting with all sorts of flavors and ingredients.
• ▶ 17:12 David Rosenthal And after six months or so in April of 1886, he nails a formula.
• ▶ 17:22 Ben Gilbert The book I was reading, which is called Secret Formula, it's a great book on the history of Coca-Cola that had access to all the corporate archives, really describes Pemberton in this phase as finding his capitalist streak, as sort of…
• ▶ 19:32 Ben Gilbert So Pemberton just got a hold of Merck and bought a bunch of the powder.
• ▶ 20:01 Ben Gilbert Down in the basement, Pemberton filled his forty-gallon kettle with plain water, which he then heated to a boil over an open fire.
• ▶ 20:35 Ben Gilbert Then, as the basic blend cooled, Pemberton turned to the question of flavor.
• ▶ 21:04 Ben Gilbert And of course, Pemberton added this brew to the fluid extract of coca leaves.
• ▶ 21:09 Ben Gilbert Exactly how much cocaine went into the inaugural batch of Doc Pemberton's new soft drink syrup is impossible to calculate more than a century later.
• ▶ 21:16 Ben Gilbert But with even a touch of the drug, in combination with the sugar and caffeine, four times the amount in today's Coke made Pemberton's concoction quite a stimulating beverage.
• ▶ 22:13 David Rosenthal Yes, but it lends the first half of the name, which Pemberton's business partner at the time, a guy named Frank Robinson, comes up with the simple, descriptive, perfect name for this new brew, Coca-Cola.
• ▶ 23:43 Ben Gilbert And I'm pretty sure what actually happens is Pemberton lets his formula settle, and it's kind of this thick syrupy thing,
• ▶ 24:54 Ben Gilbert I read that this guy was Pemberton's bookkeeper, and yet he's the one who came up with the name Coca-Cola and the Spencerian script, the logo Coca-Cola, which has been unchanged other than just tightening it up a little bit since he…