Today in History—August 28: When Pepsi Got Its Name
On this summer day in 1898, something very mundane took place in the town of New Bern, North Carolina.
At the drugstore on the corner of Middle and Pollock streets, patrons had their first taste of an old favorite under a new name. For several years they’d been calling it “Brad’s Drink,” after the drugstore’s owner, Bradham—Caleb Bradham, to be exact. Brad’s Drink was a refreshing, sweet mix of sugar, caramel, kola nut, lemon oil, nutmeg, and carbonated water.
Apart from the drink being satiating during the sweltering summer, Bradham claimed that it also served as a digestive, aiding against dyspepsia. He started marketing it as Pepsi-Cola on August 28, 1898.
The name change had little to do with impressing local clientele: They already loved Brad’s Drink, not only for its taste but also because it provided an opportunity to gather with friends over a bubbly drink that was free of alcohol. The temperance movement was in full swing then, and the aversion to alcohol was especially strong in the rural South.
Contrary to popular belief, the digestive enzyme pepsin has never been part of Pepsi’s formula.
The rebranding to Pepsi-Cola was instead more of a reflection of a broad transformation happening in the American economy. People went from getting their everyday needs at their town’s mom-and-pops to buying them from national (and eventually global) corporations. The rapid expansion of railroads allowed products to be distributed far beyond local markets. But to reach customers across the country, business owners needed catchy branding. Among the other companies that embraced mass branding just after America’s expansive Gilded Age were Hershey’s, Jell-O, and Campbell’s.
“Brad’s Drink” had a nice homey feel for New Bern, but Bradham knew it didn’t quite have the invigorating fizz of “Pepsi-Cola.”
- $94 billion: PepsiCo’s net revenue in 2025
- 3: Countries where Pepsi isn’t sold (North Korea, Cuba, and Russia)
- 38 mg: Caffeine content of a standard can of Pepsi
- 1789: Saturn’s moon Enceladus is discovered by English astronomer William Herschel
- 1884: One of the earliest known photographs of a tornado is taken
- 1963: Martin Luther King, Jr., gives his “I Have a Dream” speech
