U.S. National Public Radio has revealed a recipe for the best-selling beverage Coca-Cola,
but not the current version of the drink, which is a trade secret, of course.
NPR revealed what it says is the first recipe, invented in 1886.
Well, Martin Savidge joins me now from CNN Center to explain.
So Martin, the trade secret has been revealed.
Well hello, Anna. We'll see about that.
You know, when I first heard this story I said, you know, I really don't believe this.
I can't believe that the most widely branded soft drink in all the world, their recipe had somehow been published in a newspaper in 1979,
which is what this radio program alleged.
And it just seemed that it had to be an Internet hoax or that it had to be perhaps an urban myth.
So, I started to do some digging, and I went to the first place you should go when you want to look something up.
I head to the main branch of the Atlanta Library downtown and take a seat.
So Doug McCown -- McCown right? -- has decided to help us.
He is the reference librarian here, and he's actually found the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from February 18, 1979.
That's the paper and the day where the recipe supposedly was published on page 2-B.
And sure enough, a quick search finds the story.
So this article that was written by Charles Salter basically talks [about] how the author had an encounter with a gentleman, a pharmacist,
who had an old ledger, and in that ledger, supposedly, was the recipe for Coca-Cola.
And here is a photograph, if I move it over.
And it may not show up too well on camera, but listed here are all the ingredients, supposedly, for Coca-Cola.
But could that really be the recipe? That led me to my next stop.
Since Atlanta is home to the world headquarters of Coca-Cola,
we thought, well, what better place to come to start looking for answers?
Phil, how long have you been a historian with Coca-Cola?
I've been here 33 years.
In a courtyard I meet a man who knows a lot about Coke's past.
Is the secret of Coca-Cola, the recipe, is it here?
Well, it's actually not in our headquarters building. It's actually in a vault in the SunTrust Bank.
That's in downtown Atlanta, and Phil says only a handful of executives actually know the recipe.
He's very familiar with the 1979 Atlanta Journal article.
Is that the formula for Coca-Cola?
No, it's not. I mean, the formula for Coca-Cola is probably the most closely guarded secret in the history of American commerce.
Phil says every couple of years somebody claims to have an old document,
believing it's the recipe for the original Coke, only it's not.
He says what they are, are early attempts from the 1900s when others tried to replicate the recipe.
In other words, they are cola recipes, but they are not the real thing.
Course, I figured Phil wouldn't tell me even if it was the real recipe.
My real shock came when I talked to marketing professor Doug Bowman,
who said it may or may not be the real recipe, but it doesn't really matter at all.
I don't think we'll ever know if it's really the recipe. And I don't think Coke really cares.
Coke is selling a lifestyle brand. It...they're selling refreshment. They're selling happiness.
In other words, Coca-Cola is way more than just a list of ingredients on an old piece of paper.
It is part of our lives. It is a brand, and it happens to be the most widely known brand, the biggest brand, in all the world. Anna?