1. For almost 125 years, the recipe for Coca-Cola has been a secret and this has been a very successful marketing strategy for the company. According to the story, the fizzy drink’s famous ‘7X’ flavourings have remained unchanged since they were first blended in 1886. Today, only two Coke executives know the recipe, neither of
whom can travel on the same plane in case the secret dies with them.
2. Now, one of America’s most famous radio broadcasters says he has discovered the Coke secret. Ira Glass, presenter of the programme This American Life, says he has found a copy of the recipe. The original is still supposedly kept in a bank in Atlanta, in a burglar-proof room.
3 The formula was created by John Pemberton, an Atlanta chemist who made cough medicines and other drinks in his spare time. In 1887, he sold the recipe to a businessman who immediately placed it in the Atlanta bank for safekeeping.
4. Glass came across a recipe that he believes is the secret formula in a back issue of Pemberton’s local paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, while he was researching an entirely different story. On an inside page of the 8 February 1979 edition, he found an article that claimed to have discovered the secret 7X formula. The article was based on information found in an old notebook that belonged to Pemberton’s best friend, RR Evans. Glass was intrigued and, after some investigation,
found that the notebook had been passed from generation to generation until it reached a chemist in Georgia called Everett Beal, whose widow still has it.
5. The rediscovered recipe includes the following ingredients: extract of coca leaves, caffeine, plenty of sugar, lime juice, vanilla and caramel. The all-important7Xflavourings are added into that syrup: alcohol and six oils – orange, lemon, nutmeg, coriander, neroli and cinnamon. The formula is very similar to the recipe worked out by Mark Pendergrast who wrote a history of Coca-Cola in 1993.
6. Coke’s secret recipe is actually partly a myth. The recipe has, in fact, changed substantially over time. Cocaine, a legal drug in Pemberton’s time, was removed from the drink in 1904. Extract of coca leaves is still used but only after the cocaine has been removed. In 1980, the company largely replaced sugar with a cheaper sweetener that is often found in American food and drink. Passionate Coke fans were not impressed by this change.
7. Despite these controversies, one element has remained constant over time: Coke’s commitment to keeping its own secret. People have been talking about the secret recipe for more than a century and this has been good for business.
8. The company has reacted to the This American Life story in a way that has been typical of its commercial strategy since the 19th century. “Many people have tried to discover our secret formula but they’ve been unsuccessful,” Coca- Cola’s Kerry Tressler said.

© Guardian News & Media 2011
First published in The Guardian, 16/02/11