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Coca-Cola’s Secret Formula ‘Discovered’

Time Magazine

For 125 years, Coke’s secret recipe has remained one of the most heavily guarded trade secrets in the world. Now a group of accidental soda sleuths say they’ve stumbled across a list of its ingredients.

Producers of the radio program This American Life came across an article on the history of Coca-Cola in the 1979 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Coca-Cola’s hometown newspaper. Published on page 2B on February 18, 1979, the article received little attention at the time. But, producers says, that’s because no one realized the photo used to illustrate the story is a hand-written copy of John Pemberton’s original recipe, jotted down by a friend in a leather-bound recipe book of ointments and medicines, and passed down by friends and family for generations.

The long story of Coke’s secret formula begins with Pemberton, a veteran from Georgia who emerged from the Civil War with a morphine addiction. Hoping to cure his ailment, he dreamed up Pemberton’s French Wine Coca, a brew that included kola nut and coca wine. But in 1886, as Atlanta passed prohibition legislation, he reformulated the drink without alcohol, renamed it Coca-Cola, and began selling it in Georgia pharmacies.

Asa Candler, an early president of the Coca-Cola company who bought the formula in 1887, worried rivals would obtain the recipe so insisted no one ever write it down again. Staff removed all labels from ingredient containers and identified them by sight and smell only. Candler even went through the company mail so he could shred invoices that employees might attempt to sell to other drink makers.

If the radio program’s producers are right, Candler and other executives were too late: the book of remedies with the copy of the Coke recipe had already started its travels. This American Life tracked down the book to a widow in Griffin, Georgia, who says her husband was fishing buddies with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer. It’s now in a bank vault, too.

And while companies like Pepsi have deduced the general ingredients on their own, none have unlocked the “Merchandise 7X flavoring” that gives Coke its unique taste and bubbly burn. “The company has always said, and as far as I know it’s true, that at any given time only two people know how to mix the 7X flavoring ingredient,” Mark Pendergrast, historian and author of For God, Country and Coke told This American Life. “Those two people never travel on the same plane in case it crashes; it’s this carefully passed-on secret ritual and the formula is kept in a bank vault.”

The recipe:
Fluid extract of Coca: 3 drams USP
Citric acid: 3 oz
Caffeine: 1 oz
Sugar: 30 (unclear quantity)
Water: 2.5 gal
Lime juice: 2 pints, 1 quart
Vanilla: 1 oz
Caramel: 1.5 oz or more for color

The secret 7X flavor (use 2 oz of flavor to 5 gals syrup):
Alcohol: 8 oz
Orange oil: 20 drops
Lemon oil: 30 drops
Nutmeg oil: 10 drops
Coriander: 5 drops
Neroli: 10 drops
Cinnamon: 10 drops

The This American Life team enlisted experts and ordinary citizens alike to taste-test the original formula. It was pretty close — some people couldn’t differentiate it from the real thing — but the radio show couldn’t hit the nail on the head. And no matter what, they can’t quite achieve the level of marketing that has made Coca-Cola so beloved.

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19 Comments

  • out of towner

    wow!!!! that is cool why do they have to publicize it
    it sounds more exiting when it is secret and it is not a kashrus problem because the rabbis that are the mashkeach knows it…

  • pfffff

    We buy bread because it’s easier than baking it. We buy disposable diapers because it’s easier than washing. Now, instead of buying coke, I am going to make my own? Right.

  • Obviously

    It’s not a secret. Their formula has to be reproduced globally. That’s impossible to do without engineers and mixing specialists not-knowing what’s up. And what’s more, the flavor changes from country to country. Meaning, they don’t really have a single formula. More likely, they use raw elements that reproduce a close resemblance of the target “taste” based on availability of said elements. That’s a more economic model.

    Just like Coke, and Coca-Cola Classic, and Coke Zero, and Coke with Lime, and Diet Coke, big companies with a product as popular and as globally outspread as Coca-Cola face the only real thing: eventually they have to reinvent their product in order to keep their sales from flat-lining.

    Just like they changed the flavor, and then changed it back, and then the can, and then the bottle, now they have to reinvigorate life into an old-school product by arousing public interest in “peptic salve” that’s inside refrigerators. Why? Because people like good stories and now, with the “Secret Is Out: ‘7X Top Secret Formula Revealed!’” Coke becomes a more personal shebang. It’s like an Uncle we can all talk about and give over stories to our children. We know its history, we’ve confirmed in our minds that it’s the only “real” soda that ever even had a story. It was in Atlanta in the late 1800; it probably was pivotal in inventing the internet, etc., etc.

    Don’t waste another moment on it.

  • so now what?

    if you want to know if this is true, contact mordecai hasofer in rechovot who works with rav landau. he is privy to the secret info for the sake of the landau heksher.

  • awacs

    “I thought Rabbi Lau knows it.”

    My understanding is that he approved a list of ingredients, among which were the secret ones. So he knows the secret ingredients, but a lot of others, too.

    And knowing the ingredients is only part of the story. The proportions, and how it is prepared is also important to the final product.

  • hmmmm

    Seriously> Does anyone even know what Coca and Nerolie ARE?? No one is going home and mixing up their own homemade vats of coke, i wouldnt get too excited.

  • To #3

    You cant make it Because you only have the ingredients you also need the directions of how to make it.

  • Stacy

    I’m descended from John Pemberton…that’s pretty cool. I didn’t know that he came up with Coca Cola

  • To: #7

    the reason the soda tastes dif in each country is NOT because they each have their own recipe. It’s because they each have their own quantities of syrup/flavoring added. The flavor/syrup comes bottled from the main factory where they produce it. It’s shipped around the world. All those smaller international factories don’t know what’s inside the bottle.

  • awacs

    “the reason the soda tastes dif in each country is NOT because they each have their own recipe. It’s because they each have their own quantities of syrup/flavoring added.”

    Not (entirely) true. In certain countries, for example, real sugar is added rather than the cheaper HFCS, giving a nicer, sweeter taste. Many Coke die-hards bemoaned the day Cole switched from sugar.

    And, if you really want to make this stuff at home, check out http://www.guardian.co.uk/l…

    They needed a *special* type of gum arabic (whatever THAT is), and a hammer drill (really) to mix the stuff.

  • awacs

    “In certain countries, for example, real sugar is added rather than the cheaper HFCS, giving a nicer, sweeter taste. Many Coke die-hards bemoaned the day Cole switched from sugar.”

    Many of them seek out Mexican Coke from ethnic stores b/c the Mexicans use real sugar. Likewise, they buy up the Kosher-for-Passover stock – HFCS is kitniyos and therefore replaced with sugar.