At the time it was introduced, the product contained cocaine from coca leaves and caffeine from kola nuts which together acted as a stimulant.

[3] In 1889, the formula and brand were sold for $2,300 (roughly $71,000 in 2022) to Asa Griggs Candler, who incorporated the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, Georgia in 1892.

In July 1886, pharmacist John Stith Pemberton from Columbus, Georgia invented the original Coca-Cola drink, which was advertised as helpful in the relief of headache, to be placed on sale primarily in drugstores as a medicinal beverage.

[19] In 1999, Coca-Cola purchased 50% of the shares of Inca Kola for $200 million, subsequently taking control of overseas marketing and production for the brand.

[29][30][31] In August 2014, it acquired a 16.7% (currently 19.36% due to stock buy backs) stake in Monster Beverage for $2.15 billion with an option to increase it to 25%, as part of a long-term strategic partnership that includes marketing and distribution alliance, and product line swap.

[39] On September 19, 2018, the Coca-Cola Company acquired Organic & Raw Trading Co. Pty Ltd the manufacturer of MOJO Kombucha in Willunga, Australia.

[75] Coca-Cola bottlers, who hold territorially exclusive contracts with the company, produce the finished product in packages from the concentrate and beverage base, in combination with filtered water and sweeteners.

The bottlers then sell, distribute, and merchandise the Coca-Cola product to retail stores, vending machines, restaurants, and food service distributors.

Also, the company has accelerated refranchising both company-owned bottlers and independent bottling partners to consolidate their operations and move away from the capital-intensive and low-margin business of bottling, with maintaining minor share ownership of these consolidated bottlers and secure the right to nominate directors and/or executives through shareholders agreement and/or capital and business alliance agreement.

It features flavor sampling and a history museum, with locations in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Intended for use in offices with five to fifty people,[88] its refrigerated compartment held three individual one-litre plastic containers of soda syrup and a CO2 tank.

These included Minute Maid Juices to Go, Powerade sports beverage, flavored tea Nestea (in a joint venture with Nestlé), Fruitopia fruit drink, and Dasani water, among others.

[99] Since then, the Coca-Cola Company has been using "minimum inventories of raw material" to make their signature drinks at two production plants in Venezuela.

[100] On July 6, 2006, a Coca-Cola employee and two other people were arrested and charged with trying to sell trade secret information to the soft drink maker's competitor PepsiCo for $1.5 million.

[101] The company announced a new "negative calorie" green tea drink, Enviga, in 2006, along with trying coffee retail concepts Far Coast and Chaqwa.

[107] In November 2011, Coca-Cola revealed a seasonal design for its regular Coke cans as part of a partnership with the World Wildlife Fund.

Muhtar Kent, Coke's former chief executive officer, stated that the company has the option to increase its stake to 25 percent but could not exceed that percentage in the next four years.

[116] In the retail setting, direct store beverage delivery trucks (mobile advertising) as well as point of sale coolers and vending machines have bright red logo blazoned branding.

[116] As part of its corporate propaganda campaign to deflect public attention away from the harmful health effects of its sugary drinks, the Coca-Cola Company has funded front organizations.

GEBN designed its own studies to arrive at conclusions set in advance and cherry picked data to support its corporate public relations agenda.

Nineteen MLB teams (Los Angeles Angels, Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, New York Mets, Washington Nationals, San Diego Padres, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Texas Rangers, Tampa Bay Rays, Cincinnati Reds, Boston Red Sox, Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox ) have Coca-Cola products sold in their ballparks.

[145][146][147] After Martin Luther King Jr. won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, plans for an interracial celebratory dinner in still-segregated Atlanta were not initially well supported by the city's business elite until Coca-Cola intervened.

[148] J. Paul Austin, the chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola, and Mayor Ivan Allen summoned key Atlanta business leaders to the Commerce Club's eighteenth-floor dining room, where Austin told them flatly, 'It is embarrassing for Coca-Cola to be located in a city that refuses to honor its Nobel Prize winner.

[150] This organization was set up to oppose a citizen's initiative, known as Proposition 37, demanding mandatory labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients.

[164] That same year, the company started to sell reusable bottles in Brazil, which customers could return to the point of sale for a discount of subsequent purchases.

[166] In December 2024, Coca-Cola announced adjustments to its sustainability goals, specifically revising its target to recycle the equivalent of 100 percent of its packaging by 2030.

High-fructose corn syrup is carbon intensive due to the substantial amounts of fossil fuels required to power heavy machinery.

The environmental impact of corn production can be attributed to three primary effects of field emissions, irrigation and grain decay.

[171] In November 2000, Coca-Cola agreed to pay $192.5 million to settle a class action racial discrimination lawsuit and promised to change the way it manages, promotes, and treats minority employees in the US.

In 2003, protesters at Coca-Cola's annual meeting claimed that black people remained underrepresented in top management at the company, were paid less than white employees, and fired more often.