Coca-Cola forced to remove Caffeine from its products in 1910s

Hoist40

Banned
I don’t think anyone will be able to challenge the Sarsaparilla Corporation, they have a lock on the non-alcohol drink market around the world.

Yeah sure they had some rough times after prohibition ended but once they got John Wayne drinking it in every movie it took off.
 
We basically get caffeine-free soft drinks much earlier than we actually did. :p

In all seriousness, though, the coffee industry would definitely take a major blow due to this. Maybe tea as well.
 
The government case partly hinged on caffeine being ADDED to Coke, so coffee wouldnt have been directly effected.

However, attempt to get caffeine added to the addictive drugs list had worked, that would surely have outlawed coffee.

Hmmm... maddened coffee drinkers rise up and throw out the government, with the new one making repealling that change their first act? At which point Coke gets its caffeine back?
 
A caffeine ban strikes me as fantastical. Would the prohibition extend to chocolate? "Unpopular" would be putting it mildly. And whose agenda would be served? While there was a large constituency clamoring for a ban on alcohol, there was no such movement to ban caffeine, which has never been associated with social problems.
 
I wonder how this'll relate to American cultural perceptions towards other stimulant drugs, such as amphetamines and cocaine.
 
Dathi THorfinnsson said:
attempt to get caffeine added to the addictive drugs list had worked, that would surely have outlawed coffee.
Not a chance. Coffee is too popular with the power structure. It's not the drink of choice of an ethnic minority. It would never get banned.
Hollis Hurlbut said:
other stimulants, such as nicotine.
Or cocaine, which Coke used to have.:eek: (7.5%-Up?:p) Or heroin. Or methadone.

Best option would be benzedrine.
 
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I was thinking nicotine might be a "safe" choice, since the powerful tobacco lobby would fight any effort to ban it. But I have no idea if nicotine could ever be turned into a beverage additive. It might make the drink taste lousy. I agree that benzedrine would be very effective, but any hypothetical government which bans added caffeine is likely to ban benzedrine as well.
 
I was thinking nicotine might be a "safe" choice, since the powerful tobacco lobby would fight any effort to ban it. But I have no idea if nicotine could ever be turned into a beverage additive. It might make the drink taste lousy. I agree that benzedrine would be very effective, but any hypothetical government which bans added caffeine is likely to ban benzedrine as well.

Unless, possibly, culturally caffeine isn't as permitted because it's in your food - but benzedrine and other stimulants when they come around are considered beneficial, particularly if it needs a prescription for access.
 
According to Frederick Allen's history of Coca Cola, "Secret Formula" (fun read), the African Kola Nut was the source of the caffeine incorporated along with the original cocaine, "Coca" as in the coca leaves cocaine is refined from, to make it an effective headache remedy just as Canadian aspirin has caffeine in it too for superior headache relief. It's got about the same amount of caffeine as a single cup of coffee and coffee was already a major beverage in U.S. culture, on par with tea by then. The coffee craze and discussions about regulating it are 17th Century England, Holland, etc.-coffeehouses like Lloyds of London.

The Kola Nut's main contribution was being sooooooo bitter that it took an enormous amount of cane sugar blended in to make Coca Cola headache remedy drinkable and after enough sugar and carbonation with traces of lemon and lime juice, cinnamon, cloves, etc. actually palatable and tasty, just like many other patent medicines and cough syrups did at the time. Overcoming the Kola Nut to keep some caffeine in there made Coca Cola the most sugary beverage available which is probably how it became such a popular recreational beverage instead of staying a competitor to aspirin.
Pepsi Cola's main claim to fame was doubling the amount of sugar by volume over Coke. The Kola Nut wasn't available thanks to U-Boat disruptions in African shipping so the caffeine source changed in World War II but not the high cane sugar content.

By World War I it's a sugary beverage for pleasure, not a medication. So probably no impact at all.
 
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