Coca-Cola was first sold in bottles
On this day · 12 March 1894
A Vicksburg candy merchant poured fountain Coke into reusable glass bottles, inventing the model that carried the drink to the whole world.
On 12 March 1894, Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time anywhere, at the Biedenharn Candy Company in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Until then the drink existed only at soda fountains, mixed by the glass.
Proprietor Joseph Biedenharn wanted to reach rural customers who lived far from any counter, so he ran the syrup through the soda equipment he already used and filled Hutchinson bottles, a squat, reusable design nothing like the contour bottle to come. He loaded a horse and buggy and sold cases through the Mississippi countryside.
The company’s own founder was unimpressed; Asa Candler saw little future in bottling.
That skepticism proved costly. Biedenharn’s improvisation became the cornerstone of the independent franchise-bottler network that now distributes Coca-Cola worldwide. His candy store on Washington Street still stands as a museum marking the spot where the bottled era began.
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