Museum Devoted To `The Real Thing'

It is fitting that the World of Coca-Cola, a three-story building with an impressive skylit atrium, is located next to the spot where the soft drink was first served at a small pharmacy soda fountain more than 110 years ago.

The museum, at 55 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, has plenty of exhibits for visitors to explore at their own pace, whether they have just a passing interest in the fizzy beverage or a deep brand commitment to the “pause that refreshes.”

One bit of interesting trivia visitors will learn is that John Pemberton, who in 1886 developed and produced the first batch of the forerunner of Coca-Cola, originally called it the French Wine of Coca. Although, the wine was laced with cocaine, which is derived from the coca plant, no one at that time thought the drug was harmful or addictive. This was true of doctors, including Sigmund Freud, who sometimes extolled cocaine's properties.

When Atlanta banned alcoholic beverages in 1886, Pemberton took the wine out of the coca drink and created the syrup that would later become known as Coca-Cola and served as a soda-fountain drink.

It wasn't until 1903, when Asa Candler bought out Coca-Cola from its previous owners, that cocaine was removed from the soft drink because Candler recognized its harmful aspects.

At the World of Coca-Cola museum, a late-1930s soda fountain has an old-fashioned soda jerk who will demonstrate how the flavored noncocaine version of Coca-Cola was prepared.

Coca-Cola is marketed and sold in more than 200 countries and served nearly 1 billion times a day, according to the museum's Web site. That massive distribution came about because another Coca-Cola owner, Robert Woodruff, proclaimed that wherever soldiers were during World War II, they would always have Coca-Cola available to them. At least 64 plants were built worldwide in a short period to help supply the soldiers. After the war ended, the plants remained operational due to the drink's popularity.

Among the highlights of the World of Coca-Cola are the International Video Lounge and Tastes of the World, which features samples of Coca-Cola formulas that are unavailable in the United States. Through the years the giant soft-drink company has adapted its mainstay formula to please local taste preferences.

And for inveterate souvenir buffs, the World of Coca-Cola store offers a vast array of merchandise and apparel related to the Coke brand.

Additional information about the World of Coca-Cola is available by phone at (800) 676-COKE or online at<www.woccatlanta.com/wocc2.html>.▪