March 29: Coca Cola and Jacobs’ Pharmacy

Coca Cola was concocted on this date in 1886 in an Atlanta, Georgia backyard as a “brain tonic” that could cure hangovers, stomach aches and headaches. Perhaps it could: The original formula included caffeine and five ounces of coca leaf (from which cocaine is derived) per gallon. The creator, pharmacist John Pemberton, brought his syrup a few doors down to Jacobs’ Pharmacy, where he mixed it with carbonated water and shared it with customers. The pharmacy began marketing it on May 8 as a patent medicine for 5¢ a glass. Jacobs’ Pharmacy was part of a chain of drugstores owned by Joseph Jacobs, the son of Gabriel (a Confederate veteran) and Ernestine Heyman Jacobs. Jacobs had the odd distinction of being the first Atlanta business owner to use pennies to give exact change, rather than rounding out to the nearest nickel, which gave him a competitive advantage over the competition. He blundered, however, when he sold his 1/3 share in Pemberton’s patent medicine for bedpans, syringes and pill boxes and a few shares of stock in a glass factory.

“The valuable tonic and nerve stimulant properties of the coca plant and cola nuts . . .’” —John Pemberton