[Cicero]

What about cocaine? The rumor has long had it that the very early version of Coke contained some, which was why it was so habit forming.

[kbennkc]

You have to add your own cocaine to it now. If you put in too much , your throat will become anesthetized and you will drown while taking the pause that refreshes. Or is that Pepsi?.

[EDINVA]

Don’t know if they still do it, but it used to be that when you went to Cuzco, Peru, they would give you coca leaf tea .. helps offset the lightheadedness in that high Andes altitude. Natives chew the leaves all the time.

[2harddrive]

It wasn’t a RUMOR. It is FACT, until just before passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act.

[mamelukesabre]

coca cola

Those are two words. Look them up separately. It’s not rocket science, bud. P.S. cola is sometimes spelled kola and it comes from a nut tree grown in africa.

[Richard Kimball]

Coca Cola did and does contain coca leaves. When it was first introduced in 1885, it did contain a small amount of cocaine and caffeine, and was sold as a patent medicine. In 1891, when people started figuring out that cocaine could be addictive, they removed cocaine from the Coca Cola, but as the removal process was not completely effective, there were trace amounts of cocaine in Coca Cola until around 1910.

FWIW, Coca Cola probably never had enough cocaine to get you high, but nobody alive today really knows exactly how much was in the early (1885-1891) mixture.

[Georgia Girl 2]

The original version did have cocaine in it. It was finally banned in the 30’s I think. They used to advertise it as “Mother’s little helper” or something like that because the cocaine gave you a lift. I guess now its the sugar. LOL!