---
title: "Which came first, Coca-Cola or the hamburger?"
description: "Coca-Cola vs the hamburger: Coca-Cola came first, by 14 years — 1886 against 1900. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/coca-cola-vs-hamburger/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Coca-Cola or the hamburger?

**Which came first, Coca-Cola or the hamburger?: Coca-Cola**

1886 — 14 years before the hamburger

Coca-Cola came first, by 14 years. John Pemberton first sold his syrup at a pharmacy in Atlanta.

## Side by side

|  | Coca-Cola | the hamburger |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1886 | 1900 |
| Date | 1886-05-08 | — |
| Category | company | food |
| What happened | John Pemberton first sold his syrup at a pharmacy in Atlanta. | Competing American claims put the first burger between 1885 and 1904. |

## Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola went on sale in May 1886 as a patent medicine, selling about nine glasses a day in its first year. Pemberton sold the rights for a few thousand dollars and died in 1888 without seeing any of it. Pepsi followed in 1893 under the name Brad's Drink, renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898 — so Coke is seven years older, and both are older than the Ford Motor Company.

## the hamburger

At least four places claim it. Charlie Nagreen said he flattened a meatball between bread at the Seymour Fair in Wisconsin in 1885; the Menches brothers claimed the same year at the Erie County Fair; Louis' Lunch in New Haven claims 1900; and Fletcher Davis of Athens, Texas is credited with introducing it at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair. No contemporary document settles it. What is documented is the Hamburg steak — chopped beef, no bun — on American menus from the 1870s.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Coca-Cola or the hamburger?

Coca-Cola, by 14 years — 1886 against 1900.

### When did Coca-Cola start?

1886. John Pemberton first sold his syrup at a pharmacy in Atlanta.

### When did the hamburger start?

1900. Competing American claims put the first burger between 1885 and 1904.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]
- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)