Angelo Mariani

Advertising bill for the wine Mariani, lithograph of Jules Cheret, 1894

Angelo Mariani or Ange-François Mariani was a French chemist born at Pero-Casevecchie in Corsica in 1832. He's the inventor in 1863 of one of the first (if not the first) cocawine: the famous Vin Mariani, a Bordeaux red wine mixed with extract of coca leaves. His labs were based in Neuilly-sur-Seine. His drink becoming a popular success (coca leaves users prefer to drink coca wine rather than masticate the leaves or drink leaves infusions), a dozen imitations appears while he declines the concept in elixirs, pastilles, pastes and coca tea. Coca plant was still at this time a new discovery, the plant essence being isolated around 1860 by Albert Niemann, and chemical formula established in 1863 by Wilhelm Lossen.

Angelo Mariani is sometimes referenced as the 1st cocaine millionaire.

The wine Mariani was prohibited only at the beginning of the First World War. Mariani died in 1914. He's buried at Père Lachaise in Paris.

Categories: 1832 births | 1914 deaths | French chemists