And this from the Net:

Why Our Great-Grandparents Had Fond Memories Of Their Youth...' 
(I'm surprised they remember anything!!)

A bottle of Bayer's 'Heroin'. 

Between 1890 and 1910 heroin was sold as a non-addictive substitute for morphine.

It was also used to treat children suffering with a strong cough.

Coca Wine, anyone? 

Metcalf's Coca Wine was one of a huge variety of wines with cocaine on the market. Everybody used to say that it would make you happy and it would also work as a medicinal treatment.

Mariani Wine.

Mariani wine (1875) was the most famous Coca wine of its time. 
Pope Leo XIII used to carry one bottle with him all the time.
He awarded Angelo Mariani (the producer) with a Vatican gold medal.. 

Maltine.
Maltine Coca Wine was produced by the Maltine Manufacturing Company of New York.
It was suggested that you should take a full glass with or after every meal. Children should only take half a glass. 

Opium for Asthma:

At 40% alcohol plus 3 grams of opium per tablet,
It didn't cure you, but you didn't care... 

Cocaine Tablets (1900).

All stage actors, singers, teachers and preachers had to have them for a maximum performance. Great to 'smooth' the voice. 

Cocaine drops for toothache.

Very popular for children in 1885. Not only did they relieve the pain, they made the children very happy!

Opium for newborns.

I'm sure this would make them sleep well (not only the Opium, but also 46% alcohol)!


It's no wonder they were called 'The Good Old Days'!!  From cradle to grave... everyone was stoned!!!

**********

COCA COLA'S LOST FIZZ

Even though Coca-Cola was the world's best selling soft drink, it was always nervous of rival Pepsi snapping at its heels.

When Pepsi introduced its famous Pepsi Challenge, a blind taste test which showed that more customers preferred the sweeter taste of Pepsi when sipping the drinks side by side, Coca-Cola was rattled.

Coke executives became convinced that the taste of their product had become a problem and so they set about developing a new cola flavour that would beat Pepsi hands down in a blind tasting.

New and supposedly improved Coke was launched at a lavish press event in New York in April 1985. Amazingly, not only was the taste of Coke being changed, but the original familiar bestselling Coke would no longer be produced and sold.

Coca Cola decided to change the taste of Coke after pressure from the Pepsi Challenge

New York Times reporter Pamela Hollie, one of the journalists at the press launch recalled that she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"It's like saying we've decided to change the American Flag and put the stars someplace else," she said.

Loyal Coke drinkers were horrified and mounted noisy campaigns against the new drink. There were protests in the streets of American cities.

One militant Coke enthusiast said at the time: "My oldest daughter is 22. Her first word was Coke. Her second word was Mommy."

Ultimately Coke executives reviewed their market research and realised they had made a fundamental error. The blind taste test did not take account of all the brand associations and loyalty that attach to a product in a real world situation.

People didn't just love the old Coke for its taste - they loved what it stood for. And the market researchers had not asked how consumers would feel if their old Coke was to be replaced by a new product.

After just 79 days, Coca-Cola reversed its decision and announced that the original recipe would go back into production.