Coca-Cola, also known as Coke, began in the chaos of the post-Reconstruction South. In May 1886, Georgia pharmacist John Styth Pemberton succeeded in creating what he intended, a temperance drink. With cries against alcohol reaching a fever pitch in the region Pemberton worked to create a drink that could satisfy the anti-alcohol crowd as well as his need to turn a profit. In the ensuing mixing and re-mixing he came up with the syrup base for Coca-Cola. The reddish brown color and "spicy" flavor of the drink helped mask the illegal alcohol that some of his early customers added to the beverage. Little did he know that this new drink, made largely of sugar and water, would quickly become the most popular soft drink in the United States and, eventually, the entire world.

Although John Pemberton created the formula for Coca-Cola it fell to others to turn the product...