kola

Kola is a West African word—possibly from Hausa—for the nut of the kola tree (Cola acuminata, Cola nitida), which grew across the forests of West Africa. The kola nut was used in ceremonies, as currency, and as a stimulant drink. Arab traders brought it northward starting in the 10th century. Portuguese traders encountered it in the 1500s and called it cola.

In the 1880s, American entrepreneurs experimenting with patent medicines and tonics discovered that kola nuts contained caffeine and other stimulants. In 1886, John Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia, created a syrup from kola nuts, coca leaf, and other ingredients—Coca-Cola. The drink was named after its two botanical ingredients: coca and kola.

Coca-Cola became one of the world's most valuable corporations. By the early 1900s, the company had removed actual coca from the formula due to legal restrictions. By mid-century, actual kola nuts were no longer in Coca-Cola either—they were too expensive and too difficult to process. The drink was now colored with caramel and flavored with chemistry.

Kola survives as a ghost ingredient in a name. Coca-Cola no longer contains coca or kola, but the word kola lives on in billions of bottles sold annually. The Hausa language gave English a word for a commodity, then the commodity disappeared but the word remained—an empty signifier naming something that is no longer there.