Vin71898Cent

In 1863, Angelo Mariani added coca leaves to wine to create Vin Mariani. This ad was published in the July 1898 Century magazine.

The ethanol in the wine extracted the cocaine from the coca leaves creating cocaethlyene. This substance was a powerful mood altering beverage endorsed by actors and actresses, authors (Ibsen, Zola, Jules Verne, Dumas, Doyle), composers (Massenet, Gounod, Faure), royalty (Queen Victoria, King George I of Greece, King Alphonse XIII), President McKinley and 2 Popes: Leo XIII and Pius X.

Vin Mariani contained 6 mg cocaine per ounce of wine, but the version to be exported to the US contained 7.2 mg per ounce to compete with the higher cocaine content of similar drinks in the US, including Pemberton’s French Wine Cola.

Pemberton marketing his coca wine until 1886 when Atlanta introduced Prohibition. Pemberton replaced the wine in his recipe with sugar syrup creating Coca Cola, the great “temperance drink”.

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