Coke's Secret Formula Discovered!

"It's the real thing!"
~ Coca-Cola slogan








Producers from This American Life were researching Coca-Cola and found an article from 1979 that had - get ready! - a hand-written copy of the original recipe as one of its illustrations.

This recipe has been closely guarded for over a century, with precautions as extreme as taking all labels off ingredients (mixers use sight/smell only to identify them) and only having two people alive at the same time who know how to mix the mysterious "7X flavor".



Here's the recipe, as posted Time.com:

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




You can read more about this neat discovery here.