RECIPE FOR A PRECURSOR TO COCA-COLA FOUND IN FLORENCE MONASTERY

FLORENCE, JULY 29 /SRNA/ - A mid-19th-century recipe describing a drink that could be a precursor to modern Coca-Cola-type beverages has been discovered in the pharmacy of the Monastery of St Mark in Florence.

The recipe was uncovered during archival cleaning work, and Dominican friar Manuel Russo said that a faded advertisement promoted a "fortifying wine elixir" made from coca leaves and kola nuts.

He said that the drink was among the pharmacy's best-selling products at the time.

The yellowed advertisement describes the "fortifying wine elixir" as a tonic intended to relieve physical and mental exhaustion, headaches, and weakness associated with old age or "exceptional exertion," DPA reported.

Its listed ingredients include 30 grams of kola nuts, 10 grams of Bolivian coca leaves, and one litre of an alcoholic mixture.

According to historical records, missionaries brought both the coca leaves and the kola nuts from South America to Tuscany.

Coca-Cola is generally considered to have been invented in 1886, when American pharmacist John Stith Pemberton created Pemberton's French Wine Coca, a tonic containing coca leaves and kola nuts.

When prohibition measures made the original formula impractical, Pemberton replaced the alcohol with water and sugar syrup, eventually creating what became Coca-Cola.

The newly discovered Tuscan recipe predates Pemberton's invention by several decades, although Russo stressed that there is no evidence of a direct link between the monastery drink and the later beverage.

Coca-Cola's exact recipe has long been one of the world's best-known trade secrets.

The kola nut is the fruit of the evergreen kola tree. It contains high levels of caffeine and protein and is used in the production of energy drinks.

The best-known carbonated beverages made from kola nuts are Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Dried kola nuts are also used in chocolate production and in the making of certain types of wine.