When Coca-Cola was first sold in 1886, what was the price of one glass?

When Coca-Cola was first sold in 1886, one glass cost five cents.

Pharmacist John Stith Pemberton developed Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Georgia, and sold the first servings at Jacob’s Pharmacy. Customers received the drink from the pharmacy’s soda fountain, where flavored beverages were mixed with carbonated water. The five-cent price matched the common cost of a glass of fountain soda in the late nineteenth century.

The original drink was marketed as a temperance beverage and was initially sold as a syrup mixed with soda water. Coca-Cola’s early sales were local, but newspaper advertising and the distinctive name helped the brand expand. The five-cent price later became strongly associated with Coca-Cola’s early history, although prices varied as distribution methods and economic conditions changed.

A common mix-up is confusing the original fountain price with the cost of a bottled Coca-Cola. Bottling began later, after entrepreneurs secured rights to produce and distribute the drink beyond soda fountains.