Coca-Cola Formula

While several recipes, each purporting to be the authentic formula, have been published, the company maintains that the actual formula remains a secret, known only to a very few select (and anonymous) employees.

Coca-Cola inventor John Pemberton is said to have written this recipe in his diary shortly before his death in 1888. The recipe does not specify when or how the ingredients are mixed, nor the flavoring oil quantity units of measure (though it implies that the “Merchandise 7X” was mixed first). This was common in recipes at the time, as it was assumed that preparers knew the method.

2.5 oz (71 g) “flavoring”, i.e., “Merchandise 7X”

4 US fl oz (118.3 ml) fluid extract of coca leaves (flavor essence of the coca leaf).

“Mix caffeine acid and lime juice in 1 quart boiling water add vanilla and flavoring when cool.”

Recipe is from Food Flavorings: Composition, Manufacture and Use. Makes one 1 US gallon (3.8 l; 0.83 imp gal) of syrup. Yield (used to flavor carbonated water at 1 US fl oz (30 ml) per bottle): 128 bottles, 6.5 US fl oz (190 ml).

1. Mix 5 lb (2.3 kg) of sugar with just enough water to dissolve the sugar fully. (High-fructose corn syrup may be substituted for half the sugar.)

2. Add 1 1⁄4 oz (35 g) of caramel, 1⁄10 oz (3 g) caffeine, and 2⁄5 oz (11 g) phosphoric acid.

3. Extract the cocaine from 5⁄8 drachm (1.1 g) of coca leaf (Truxillo growth of coca preferred) with toluol; discard the cocaine extract.

4. Soak the coca leaves and kola nuts (both finely powdered); 1⁄5 drachm (0.35 g) in 3⁄4 oz (21 g) of 20% alcohol. California white wine fortified to 20% strength was used as the soaking solution circa 1909, but Coca-Cola may have switched to a simple water/alcohol mixture.

5. After soaking, discard the coca and kola and add the liquid to the syrup.

6. Add 1 oz (28 g) lime juice (a former ingredient, evidently, that Coca-Cola now denies) or a substitute such as a water solution of citric acid and sodium citrate at lime-juice strength.

1⁄2 drachm (0.89 g) lemon oil, traces of 2⁄5 drachm (0.71 g) nutmeg oil, and, if desired, traces of coriander, neroli, and lavender oils.

Add 1⁄10 oz (2.8 g) water to the oil mixture and let stand for twenty-four hours at about 60 °F (16 °C). A cloudy layer will separate.

Take off the clear part of the liquid only and add to the syrup.

Add 7⁄10 oz (20 g) glycerine (from vegetable source, not hog fat, so the drink can be sold to Jews and Muslims who observe their respective religion’s dietary restrictions) and 3⁄10 drachm (0.53 g) of vanilla extract.

Add water (treated with chlorine) to make a gallon of syrup.

In 2011, Ira Glass announced on his Public Radio International show, This American Life, that show staffers had found a recipe in “Everett Beal’s Recipe Book”, reproduced in the February 28, 1979, issue of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that they believed was either Pemberton’s original formula for Coca-Cola, or a version that he made either before or after the product was first sold in 1886. The formula is very similar to the one found in Pemberton’s diary. Coca-Cola archivist Phil Mooney acknowledged that the recipe “could be a precursor” to the formula used in the original 1886 product, but emphasized that the original formula is not the same as the one used in the current product.

The secret 7X flavor (use 2 oz of flavor to 5 gals syrup):

Alleged Secret Recipes