Ben Gilbert

Really?

That's squarely what I believe a patent medicine is.

Really?

I didn't know Dr. Pepper was that old.

Except in the 1880s, it's really legal and really broadly encouraged.

Certainly there's no FDA or anything to make it illegal, but society's posture toward cocaine wasn't bad.

Right.

They did not really discover the addictive nature of it or demonize the addictive nature of it yet.

Feels like a thing I would be swearing by and endorsing too.

I imagine once you start, it's the best thing ever.

Which we should say is the first introduction of the word cola.

Period.

In the American lexicon, cola drinks were not a thing.

Which makes sense.

People are drinking it for its drug-like medicinal qualities, not that it's in any way refreshing.

Party's over.

Yes.

And so the question is, how does he arrive at this formula?

The book I was reading, which is called Secret Formula, it's a great book on the history of Coca-Cola that had access to all the corporate archives, really describes Pemberton in this phase as,

As finding his capitalist streak as sort of realizing okay take a step back patent medicines are sold for 75 cents a dollar it serves a crowd of people when they're looking to recover from some ailment or really at this point probably serve an addiction.