Coca-Cola Secret Recipe Revealed?: 'This American Life' Says It Hid In Plain Sight

It might be one of the most closely guarded secrets in the soft drink industry.

But the cat might be out of the bag.

On "This American Life" this weekend, Ira Glass broadcasted what he believes to be the original recipe to "merchandise 7X," the super secret ingredient in Coca-Cola. One of the world's most closely guarded trade secrets, many myths surround the ingredient, including the idea that only two people at any given time actually know the formula.

Glass claims that "This American Live" found the recipe published in a newspaper in Coke's very own hometown -- on page 2B of the February 18, 1979, Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Apparently, a local columnist had stumbled across it in an old book of recipes, which was handwritten by a pharmacist decades earlier.

While it sounds like a weird place to find such a thing, Coca-Cola was invented by a pharmacist, and was initially sold at pharmacies and soda fountains. The book containing the recipes had been passed down by pharmacists for years.

Apparently, John Pemberton, the inventor of Coke was very close to the original author of the 130-year-old-book, who copied the recipe and recorded it in its pages.

The recipe, from "This American Life" via Time:

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

But is it real? During the "This American Life" segment, one Coke historian says it very well could be, though the soft-drink maker denies it.

For the whole "This American Life" broadcast, visit their site (which has periodically been down), or check out their Facebook page, where it's also embeded.

The recipe itself is read around the 10 minute mark.

Comments

[Derek Spisak]

06:38 AM on 02/20/2011

Funny, it looks more like a recipe for glazing a ham...

[citizenEP]

04:09 PM on 02/22/2011

One of Coke's finer uses!

[Widespread Panic]

09:04 PM on 02/18/2011

This may be the original recipe but it ain't the current one. It's on serious lock down in a small building behind the one where I work. :)

[Wake Up Call]

08:07 AM on 02/17/2011

The actual complete recipe was revealed many years ago in India when they opened a bottling plant there, and some workers promptly published the complete recipe in an Indian newspaper. One thing missing in this article's recipe is the coca plant extract. The big question is what do they do with the tons and tons of cocaine that is chemically removed from the coca leaves? It is very hard to believe that they would just incinerate billions of dollars of cocaine every year. Is Coca Cola really behind the drug war, and do they market their products through mafia gangs secretly? That sounds like a wild conspiracy theory - but at the same time, if YOU were sitting on billions of dollars of cocaine in a South American country where YOU ruled the government, what would you do?

[ElBruce]

03:30 AM on 02/17/2011

OK, so for starters I just need to get my hands on some fluid extract of coca...

[cookerman45]

12:15 AM on 02/17/2011

water, high fructose corn syrup the end.

[onlyaquarterdelusional]

12:19 PM on 02/21/2011

and salt

[cookerman45]

02:35 PM on 02/21/2011

of course!

[kella]

08:34 PM on 02/16/2011

People that like coke realize that coke made without hfc syrup tasted good because of the sugar. Get the Cola 365 in Whole Foods. It tastes exactly like the old cola.

[Eric Korpela]

06:25 PM on 02/16/2011

I would expect Coca Cola to also have Cola nut extract. Coca extract is pretty hard to come by these days.

[Chico41]

04:50 PM on 02/16/2011

Does it really matter that this has been revealed? All of those ingredients have been replaced with unpronounceable chemicals anyway.

[baxtron]

11:26 AM on 02/16/2011

update recipe found

per 5 gallons of water

4 gallons High Fructose Corn Syrup
.9 gallons Caffine
1 Charleston Chew

Mix well.

[gregory57]

11:02 AM on 02/16/2011

I suspect that, even if correct in context, the working recipe had to have been changed when the coca and alcohol were removed from the mixture. You can't delete flavors like that without making other changes.

[xianred]

10:24 AM on 02/16/2011

What a kick to see this recipe making the news. I did my master's thesis on Coca-Cola in 1999 and included this recipe in my paper - found it on the internet.

[Higgs Boson]

10:14 AM on 02/16/2011

If you want an original formula coke then try a Red Rocks coke , they still use their original 1885 formula . Those are very good .

[Higgs Boson]

10:12 AM on 02/16/2011

The only way to get a real coke is to buy Kosher cokes during the holidays , they are made with the original formula ............

[entropyisfun]

09:45 AM on 02/16/2011

Water
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Carmel Coloring
Sodium Benzoate

[russelltrust]

09:37 AM on 02/16/2011

What? Coke denied it?!?! Then it must definitely not be it.