A Coca-Cola recipe more than two hundred years old found in an Italian monastery

The story of Coca-Cola’s origins has taken an unexpected turn. In the San Marco monastery in Florence, an archival document was discovered containing a recipe for a drink whose ingredients turned out to be remarkably similar to those of the predecessor of the famous American soft drink. The discovery has already sparked lively debate: could one of the world’s best-known beverages really have Italian roots?

While going through the centuries-old archive, the monastery’s prior, Father Manuel Russo, discovered an old 19th-century advertisement. It described a recipe for the so-called elixir vinoso ricostituente — a “restorative wine elixir.” Its ingredients included coca leaves, kola nuts and wine. The drink was advertised as a remedy for fatigue, exhaustion and age-related ailments.

It was precisely the combination of coca leaves and kola nuts that caught historians’ attention. In 1885, American pharmacist John Pemberton created an alcoholic tonic called Pemberton's French Wine Coca, which also contained coca leaf extract, kola nuts and wine. A year later, after Prohibition was introduced in the state of Georgia, he removed the alcohol from the recipe, replacing it with sweet syrup and carbonated water. Coca-Cola was born.

Despite the striking similarity between the recipes, there is no evidence that Pemberton was familiar with the Florentine elixir specifically. Moreover, Father Russo himself urges people not to jump to conclusions. According to him, coca-based drinks were fairly common in Europe in the 19th century, and the monastery pharmacy was simply producing one of many similar versions.

In addition to the recipe, researchers found empty bottles from the elixir and documents showing that it was one of the most popular products sold by the monastery pharmacy. Other unusual discoveries included old labels from medicinal oxygen, brandy, purified petroleum alcohol and even a dried Nile crocodile, which has hung from the pharmacy ceiling for several centuries as a symbol of rare exotic ingredients.

The discovery does not rewrite the history of Coca-Cola, but it shows that the famous drink did not appear out of nowhere. Its predecessors included numerous pharmaceutical tonics and elixirs that were popular in Europe long before the legendary American soft drink emerged.