1886’s cola formula still a secret, says Coke

Coke, the world’s largest soft-drink giant, denied a radio show’s claims of having discovered Coke’s secret cola formula, adding that the formula lies safely in the unreachable Atlanta bank vault.

In an official statement, Coca- Cola Co. said on Tuesday that its core recipe is yet a secret, refuting the claims of a radio program of having found out the Coke recipe.

A weekly broadcast, “This American Life” told its listeners that it has found the covert formula from February, 1979's edition of 'The Atlanta Journal-Constitution', a Coke’s homeland tabloid.

As per the radio show, the newspaper story comes with a photograph of manually written notebook containing a list of ingredients. The recipe includes vanilla, caramel, sugar, lime juice and oils of neroli, coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon and orange.

Notebook, an authentic source
WBEZ-FM, the radio shows producer and Public Radio International, show’s distributor jointly stood for the authenticity of their story’s source. As per their claim, the notebook is owned by a close pal of John Pemberton, the pharmacist who prepared Coca-Coal’s recipe in 1886.

In the meanwhile, Coke declared that cola formula which is revealed in the story is definitely different from the one which is kept secured by Coke itself in an Atlanta bank strongroom.

On the other hand, the radio broadcasters said the cola recipe, which the show found out, matches well with the one mentioned in Pemberton’s notebook, stored in Coke’s archives.

Archive Director Philip Mooney informed the show that, if not exact, both are quite alike.

"Could it be a precursor? Yeah, absolutely," Mooney says on the show. "Is this the one that went to market? I don't think so."

Many formulas have cropped up in the past, with similar claims, while many are still trying to find out the most sought after formula of Coca- Cola, the most famous brand of all colas.