This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, the show where America is the star

and the American people.

And we love hearing your stories. Send them to Our American Stories.com.

Up next, a story about a drink that we all know, but might not know the backstory of.

Here's our own Monty Montgomery with a story.

Coca-Cola is arguably the South's most successful export.

They sell around 3 billion cases of product around the world annually, but they started

out small.

Here's Larry Jorgensen, author of the Coca-Cola Trail, with more on that.

Well, Coca-Cola actually started out as the syrup that is now the main ingredient in Coca-Cola.

And the syrup was invented by John Pemberton, who was a pharmacist in Columbus, Georgia, and had started

working on the formula, and then his time of working on the formula was interrupted by the Civil War,

and he actually fought in the Civil War. When he got out of the war, he had a war injury.

You know, stories get twisted through the years.

I heard it was a saber-type injury

to his stomach,

but whatever,

it was definitely from the war,

and he was looking to get some relief.

Relief in the form of a morphine-free

painkiller,

...