The History of the Cough Drop

Cough drops have become staple items in the aisles of just about every drug store in the United States. The sheer number of brands and variety can be daunting. Do you need a suppressant or expectorate, maybe a decongestant? Other types abound, but few people know how the item found in every U.S. medicine cabinet came to be. Just what is the history of the familiar cough drop, which was a product of the patent medicine era? History says that in 1877 the Smith Brothers, the manufacturers of the first cough drop, registered their trademark with the newly formed U.S. Patent and Trademark office.

Candy for a Meal

• The true originator of the concoction that eventually became the cough drop is reputed to be Sly Hawkins, but James Smith is credited with its introduction to the public. According to F&F Foods, the current owners and manufacturers of the cough drops, Smith was a restaurant owner in Poughkeepsie, New York. In the period around 1840, Hawkins, a street merchant, approached Smith, offering to barter a hot meal for the recipe to his "cough candy." A deal was struck and both parties were satisfied.

Cooking up Cough Candy

• An enterprising man who recognized the opportunity for a new product, Smith decided to try reproducing the cough candy in his home kitchen. He successfully produced a tasty candy in five-pound batches. To test his new market, free samples were first offered to his restaurant customers, who liked the taste and the effect on their nagging coughs. When customers began asking for cough candy, he knew he had a winner.

Expanding the Business

• Smith's cough candy business was locally successful, but he didn't have time to expand it and still run his restaurant. His sons, however, were eager to try their hand. William and Andrew Smith began selling cough candy at the local stagecoach station and then expanded their sales into the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains. Production grew to more than six tons each day, but the Smiths were intent on growing the business even further.

Advertising Pays Off

• Although their father had placed a small advertisement in the town paper, the Smith sons knew that the secret to generating consumer interest in a new product was all about repeated and simple advertising until their product became a well-known item. Soon retail drugstores were carrying Smith's cough candy and business grew quickly. Glass jars with the words "Smith Brothers" and containing their cough candy became a familiar fixture and sales grew. This was also the time that the word "drop" replaced the "candy" and the cough drop was born.

From Jars to Boxes

• Competition and imitators grabbed onto what they recognized as a wildly expanding market, and the Smith brothers soon realized that their jars were being filled with other brands of cough drops. In a stroke of inspiration, they designed the first boxed cough-drop package. They further distinguished their brand by placing their likenesses on the package and set the standard for future cough and candy packaging.

The Family Business Lives On

• Subsequent generations of Smiths continued the business, adding new varieties of cough drops and cough syrups and incorporating into "Smith Brothers Inc" in 1919. The pharmaceutical company Warner-Lambert finally bought all rights in 1963, continuing to make Smith Brothers cough drops until 1972.