Vin Mariani

Advertising bill for the wine Mariani, lithograph of Jules Chéret, 1894

Vin Mariani (French: Mariani wine) was a tonic and patent medicine created about 1863 by Angelo Mariani, a French chemist who became intrigued with coca and its economic potential after reading Paolo Mantegazza’s paper on coca's effects. In 1863,[1][2] Mariani started marketing a wine called Vin Tonique Mariani (à la Coca du Pérou)[1] which was made from Bordeaux wine and coca leaves.[3]

The ethanol in the wine acted as a solvent and extracted the cocaine from the coca leaves, altering the drink’s effect. It originally contained 6 mg of cocaine per fluid ounce of wine, but Vin Mariani that was to be exported contained 7.2 mg per ounce, in order to compete with the higher cocaine content of similar drinks in the United States. Advertisements for Vin Mariani claimed that it would restore health, strength, energy, and vitality.

Popularity

Vin Mariani was very popular in its day, even among royalty such as Queen Victoria. Pope Leo XIII and later Pope Saint Pius X were both Vin Mariani drinkers. Pope Leo awarded a Vatican gold medal to the wine, and also appeared on a poster endorsing it.[3]

Thomas Edison also endorsed the wine, claiming it helped him stay awake longer.[3] Ulysses S. Grant was also a fan of the wine, which he began drinking while writing his memoirs towards the end of his life.[4]

Competition

This tonic evidently inspired John S. Pemberton's 1885 coca wine drink recipe called Pemberton's French Wine Coca. Later that year, when Atlanta and Fulton County passed prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing a carbonated, non-alcoholic version of his French Wine Coca. The beverage was named Coca-Cola, because the stimulants mixed in the beverage were coca leaves from South America and kola nuts, the beverage's source of caffeine.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Angelo Mariani – Man Behind The Bottle – Discover". Exposition Universelle des Vins et Spiritueux.
  2. ↑ There are some conflicting information on the actual dates, see Karch, Steven B. "A Brief History of Cocaine". Taylor & Francis Group. Boca Raton, FL. 2006. Page 32.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Inciardi, James A. (1992). The War on Drugs II. Mayfield Publishing Company. p. 6. ISBN 1-55934-016-9.
  4. ↑ Dwight Garner (July 19, 2011). "The Lure of Cocaine, Once Hailed as Cure-All". The New York Times.

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