"This American Life" reveals original Coca-Cola recipe

The radio program found the recipe in an old issue of the Atlanta Constitution-Journal. So, what's in it?

Published February 15, 2011 2:16PM (EST)

Chicago-based radio program "This American Life" cracked the Coca-Cola code. The show apparently unearthed the soft drink's recipe -- which is guarded in a massive vault in the Coke's corporate headquarters in Georgia -- in a 1979 edition of the Atlanta Constitution-Journal. The recipe dates back to 1886.

So what's in it, then? To start: the eponymous coca extract, plus citric acid, lime juice vanilla, caramel, caffeine, sugar and water. More important, though is "7X" -- which includes orange oil, alcohol, nutmeg oil, lemon oil, coriander, neroli and cinnamon -- and constitutes the drink's backbone.

You can read more about the recipe and listen to This American Life's broadcast at their website here


By Peter Finocchiaro

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