Imagine yourself drinking an ice cold Coke.  Water dripping down the edge.  You slowly grasp the tab with your fingers and pop open the can *pop*.  You can hear the fast popping of the fizz. You raise the drink to your mouth and let the drink slowly flow into your mouth and down the back of your throat.  You have finally been relieved of your thirst.  

 

         John Stith Pemberton is the creator of Coca-Cola.  He was a pharmacist that was born on July 8, 1831, in Knoxville, Georgia.  He was an only child with parents by the name of James C. Pemberton and Martha L. Grant.  He attended schools in Rome, Georgia and lived there for thirty years until he went to college (Bodden).  He attended college at Reform Medical College in Georgia.  After college he met his wife Ann Eliza Clifford Lewis and had his only child, Charles Ney Pemberton.  John created Coca-Cola on accident in 1886.  He received a lot of static because he included the drug cocaine in the drink.  He included cocaine in the drink because of an addiction to morphine (Bodden).  Just two years after he created Coca-Cola he died on August 16, 1888, in Atlanta, Georgia from stomach cancer, caused by his addiction to morphine.  

 

         Coca-Cola contains a variety of sweet ingredients.  It contains two types of acids; citric acid and phosphoric acid.  Citric acid is a weak organic tricarboxylic acid.  Phosphoric acid is a mineral acid-chemical (Green).  It also contains kola nut, which is an African fruit, and coca leaf also known as cocaine.  To give the drink fizz, carbonated water is added.  Also to give the drink flavor, merchandise 7x is added.  Merchandise 7x is a flavor combination of orange, nutmeg, lemon and caramel, along with lime juice (Green).  

 

         Each bottle of Coca-Cola goes through a six step process to ensure that every bottle is amazing.  First the bottle is cleaned, steamed, and sanitized.  Then it is transported by a conveyor belt to the next station (Cantwell).  The first ingredients added are the syrup and water.  After the water is added a machine inserts kola nut, citrus, cinnamon and vanilla flavorings (Cantwell).  After all the flavorings are added, sugar and carbonated water are added.  A machine then shakes the bottle to mix the ingredients.  After the ingredients have been mixed a worker checks the bottles and they are placed into boxes.  The boxes are then placed onto a truck which takes the bottles to the store.  

 

          On May 8th, 2017, Coca-Cola had its one hundred and thirty first anniversary (Moran).  It has changed a lot since 1886.  When it was first made it was not very well known so John Pemberton gave out coupons to increase sales.  Hilda Clark was their first endorser who placed them in a magazine in 1904.  In the 1920s Coca-Cola was first placed on outdoor advertising such as billboards (Moran).  Later in 1955 the king size bottle was first introduced.  Then in 1960 they introduced the twelve ounce steel cans.  Recyclable bottles were not introduced until 2009.  Just a few years later they introduced holiday packaging in 2011 (Moran).  Just one year later in 2012 the company was named number one most successful by BrandZ.  

 

          The Coca-Cola Company has more than nine hundred factories in more than two hundred countries housing ninety thousand, four hundred employees (Staff).  It has had a great effect on the lives of women.  At the end of 2015 it had employed one point two million women, in sixty countries.  It has also had a very large effect on the environment.  It has increased income in Kenya by one hundred and forty percent  by building factories there (Staff).  It has also helped in wildfire rehabilitation.  Coca-Cola is now known as the “symbol of the United States.”  

From John Pemberton creating it in 1886 to it being named the “symbol of America,” Coca-Cola has had a long journey.  It has had many improvements and setbacks over the years, but overall Coca-Cola is one of the best, and well known companies in the world.