"Coca Wine - Removes that tired feeling". Coca Wine was an alcoholic drink combining wine and cocaine. The drink was invented in 1863 by a Italian chemist named Angelo Mariani. He first tried his tonic named Mariani Wine on a depressed actress. The results were spectacular. The ethanol in the wine acted as a solvent and extracted the cocaine, creating a compound that heightened the impact of both drugs. Presidents, royalty and even the Pope went on to love the drink. Queen Victoria, Thomas Edison,US presidents William McKinley and Ulysses Grant all knocked it back. Pope Leo carried a flask of Coca Wine with him,, just in case prayer alone was not strong enough to elevate his spirits. The pope called Angelo Mariani a 'benefactor of humanity'. He even awarded him with a Vatican gold medal for the invention of Coca Wine and allowed his image be used in poster advertisements. The world's best known Coca drink however, came about when a pharmacist in Atlanta named John Pemberton made his own Coca Wine. But when prohibition outlawed alcohol in the States he had to replace the wine in his recipe with sugar syrup. He renamed it Coca Cola,, the temperance drink "offering the virtues of coca without the vices of alcohol" and marketed it as the perfect beverage. The rest is history. This super rare Dublin Coca Wine sign c.1890 is available for purchase.