Explained: The 'coke' in coca-cola, Musk's new cocaine mission

Elon Musk has taken Twitter by storm again as the world's richest man jokingly sets his sights on buying Coca-Cola and wanting to add the 'cocaine' back to it. With a million likes and counting Musk's tweet reads as a joke and sparked a meme/reply fest on the social platform.

But it's not all just banter, the popular soft drink did in fact, as per reports, have a significant amount of cocaine as part of its ingredients.

The drink was invented in 1885 by John Pemberton, a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia. Pemberton’s recipe contained cocaine in the form of an extract of the coca leaf, which inspired the “Coca” part of the drink's name. The “Cola” comes from the kola nut which is another caffeine stimulant.

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One must take into account that at this point in history, cocaine was legal and a common ingredient in medicines. In fact, it was advertised as "patent medicine" that could cure headaches and fatigue.

Reports indicate that the amount of cocaine in Coca-Cola was reduced over time and finally eliminated in 1929 when the Prohibition Era kicked in when alcohol was deemed illegal in the United States. Coke soon became popular as a "soft" drink, an alternative to hard alcohol.