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.

And we're telling you this story because on this day in history, in 1886, John Pemberton, the inventor of the

drink, bottled his first in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Here's our own Monty Montgomery with the 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, as he was addicted to the substance

at the time.

He had studied, and he had learned that the cola nut would create a pretty good flavor,

and the coca leaf was known for giving some relief to pain.

...