I recently had the opportunity to travel to Atlanta, which is home to the Coca Cola Museum. This post is inspired by that trip! There I learned about Diva Brown, also known as "The Original Coca Cola Woman." Also a trip to Coke museum is nothing without spending a lot of time in their tasting room. Can I just say how surprised I was that a lot of Coke products from around the world tasted downright medicinal? Besides my beloved cherry vanilla Coke, I found one new favorite-Korean Minute Maid. It was lychee flavored and so refreshing (lychee just so happens to be my favorite boba tea flavor too). Grab something fizzy and see how history remembers Diva Brown:
-Born Caroline Mayfield, divorced from J.C Mayfield in the late 1890s
-J.C Mayfield was an associate of Dr. John Pemberton, the creator of the Coke formula. Although Mayfield owned the rights to the Pemberton Medical Company in 1888, Pemberton also sold the rights to others. This led to a free for all known as the Cola Wars of the early 1900s.
-Diva Brown began selling her own formula and sold it under the name and slogan: "My-Cola: Made from The Original Coca-Cola Formula."
-She had her own syrup making factory in Alabama by 1909
-She was never sued by the Coca Cola Company!
-Mentions of her in The National Bottler's Gazette call her both "Successful New Woman of the South," and a "Fake and a Humbug."
Sources: The Kola Wars: John Pemberton and the Birth of Coca-Cola and The Original Coca-Cola Woman
