We need to talk about Coca-Cola, one of the other caffeine sources we reach out for, but it comes with hardly any benefits.

Now, I know the story you have been told. A friendly pharmacist in Atlanta named John Pemberton invented a headache cure in a brass kettle, and now the world would like to buy the world a Coke. It’s the American Dream in a bottle!

But, as a student of history—and someone who is inherently suspicious of anything that can clean rust off a car bumper—I’m here to tell you that the origins of the world’s most famous drink aren’t just “secret formulas.” They are deeply colonial.

It all starts with a star-shaped fruit from the rainforests of West Africa.

Meet the Kola Nut: The Original Social Network

Before it was a “Cola,” it was Kola.

Native to the tropical rainforests of Africa (think Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Nigeria), the Kola Nut (Cola acuminata) is about the size of a chestnut, but infinitely more important.

In West African culture, specifically among the Igbo people, this nut is not just a snack. It is a sacred currency. There is a saying: “He who brings kola brings life.”

For centuries, the Kola nut has been the ultimate symbol of hospitality. If you visit a home, you break a Kola nut. It is used in naming ceremonies, weddings, and religious rituals. It represents peace, ancestors, and community.

Flavor profile: It contains caffeine and theobromine (the happy stuff in chocolate). When you chew it, it tastes bitter at first, but then it sweetens your breath and sweetens the water you drink afterward.

It was, and is, a complex, culturally rich fruit that brought people together.

Enter the Colonizers

So, how did a sacred West African symbol end up in a soda fountain in Georgia?

If you guessed “Imperialism and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade,” give yourself a gold star.

During the 1600s and onward, enslaved West Africans were forcibly taken to the Americas. They brought the knowledge of the Kola nut with them. Meanwhile, European colonizers, realizing that the nut was an excellent stimulant (nature’s Red Bull), began commercializing it.

Fast forward to 1886. Enter John Pemberton.

Pemberton was a pharmacist and a morphine addict (a common “hobby” for Civil War veterans). He was looking for a cure for his addiction and a way to make a quick buck. He created a syrup using two main ingredients:

1. Coca leaves (from South America) – Yes, the cocaine part.
2. Kola nuts (from Africa) – The caffeine part.

He called it Coca-Cola.

The Great Marketing Heist

Here is where the “Banjaran” in me gets angry.

The Kola nut was a spiritual object. But in the hands of American capitalism, it was stripped of its dignity. It was reduced to a mere chemical component—a stimulant to keep factory workers working and consumers consuming.

Pemberton’s bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, is the one who penned the famous flowing script logo. But he also did something else. He suggested changing the “K” in Kola to a “C.”

Why? Because, and I quote, “the two Cs would look well in advertising.”

That is it. That is the summary of colonization. A sacred indigenous tradition was literally misspelled because it looked prettier on a billboard.

They took the stimulant, ditched the culture, and built an empire on the backs of the people who originally cultivated it.

Does Coke Even Contain Kola Anymore?

Today, the “Cola” in your Coke is mostly synthetic caffeine and artificial flavorings. The actual Kola nut—the thing that gave the drink its name—has largely been ghosted by the company. It’s the ultimate breakup.

Coca-Cola became the symbol of American freedom, while the regions that provided the raw materials—the Andean coca fields and the African kola forests—saw very little of that profit.

A Juicy Teaser (The Vanilla Conspiracy)

Now, speaking of secret ingredients…

While Coke is secretive about its formula, there is another flavor that plays a huge role in that distinct taste: Vanilla.

Rumor has it that for decades, Coca-Cola was at the mercy of the “Vanilla Mafia”—the cartels and typhoons in Madagascar, Mexico, etc. that control the world’s vanilla supply.

In fact, there is a very strong, very spicy theory that the New Coke disaster of 1985 (one of the biggest flops in history) wasn’t just a bad recipe choice. It was a desperate attempt by Coke to create a vanilla-free recipe because the prices had become too high.

They tried to free themselves from the vanilla beans, and the world revolted.

But that… is a story for another post.

Stay tuned.