The exact ingredients in the Coca-Cola recipe have been a closely guarded secret since the drink was created in 1886, but now, apparently, the secret has been revealed (and you might be surprised by some of the hidden ingredients).
The only official written copy of the Coca-Cola recipe is reportedly held in a US bank vault while just two company employees at any one time know all the ingredients of the cult drink.
On the side of your can of Coca-Cola, the ingredients are simply listed as ‘Natural flavourings including caffeine’ alongside carbonated water, sugar, phosphoric acid and colour (Caramel E150d).
But now, a website called thisamericanlife.org has said that it has uncovered a list showing the ingredients and quantities used to make the drink.
And it might surprise you to learn that, despite it’s not-so-healthy reputation, the secret ingredients actually read like an aromatherapy session and include orange oil, lemon oil, neroli, coriander, nutmeg and cinnamon.
According to the website, the secret Coca-Cola recipe was originally published in a 1979 local newspaper article in Coca-Cola’s US home town of Atlanta, Georgia.
The recipe had apparently been written down by a friend of Coca-Cola creator John Pemberton’s.
“I think that it certainly is a version of the formula,” the Daily Mail quoted historian Mark Pendergrast as saying.
A crucial part of the formula was also given the name ‘7X’ to add to the mystique.
Pendergrast added, “At any given time only two people know how to mix the 7X flavouring ingredient. Those two people never travel on the same plane in case it crashes; it’s this carefully passed-on secret ritual and the formula is kept in a bank vault.”
Well now the secret’s out and, if it’s the real deal, it sounds as though you can pick up the ingredients for Coca-Cola’s secret 7X at your nearest Holland and Barrett.
Who’d have thought.
