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Coca-Cola formula
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The Coca-Cola formula is The Coca-Cola Company's secret recipe for Coca-Cola. As a publicity marketing strategy started by Robert W. Woodruff, the company presents the formula as a closely held trade secret known only to a few employees, mostly executives.
Contents
Published accounts say it contains sugar crystals, caramel, caffeine, phosphoric acid, coca leaf and kola nut extract, lime extract, flavoring mixture, vanilla and glycerin. Alleged syrup recipes vary greatly, and Coca-Cola reluctantly admits the formula has changed over the decades.
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Encyclopedia
The Coca-Cola formula is The Coca-Cola Company's secret recipe for Coca-Cola. As a publicity marketing strategy started by Robert W. Woodruff, the company presents the formula as a closely held trade secret known only to a few employees, mostly executives.
Contents
Published accounts say it contains sugar crystals, caramel, caffeine, phosphoric acid, coca leaf and kola nut extract, lime extract, flavoring mixture, vanilla and glycerin. Alleged syrup recipes vary greatly, and Coca-Cola reluctantly admits the formula has changed over the decades. The basic “cola” taste from Coca-Cola and competing cola drinks comes mainly from vanilla and cinnamon; distinctive tastes among various brands are the result of trace flavorings such as orange, lime and lemon and spices such as nutmeg.
To this day, Coca-Cola uses an ingredient from coca leaf extract prepared by a Stepan Company plant in Maywood, New Jersey, using a process monitored by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Because cocaine is naturally present in coca leaves, today's Coca-Cola uses "spent", or treated, coca leaves, those that have been through a cocaine extraction process, to flavor the beverage. Some contend that this process cannot extract all of the cocaine alkaloids at a molecular level, and so the drink still contains trace amounts of the stimulant. The Coca-Cola Company currently refuses to comment on the continued presence of coca leaf in Coca-Cola.
Kosher Coca-Cola
The closest formula to the original that can be purchased is the 1935 kosher formula which is still produced (as of 2008) though it may be difficult to find outside of Passover, where it is sold in 2-Liter bottles with a yellow or white cap marked with a circle around the letter U followed by a P, indicating that the Orthodox Union certifies the soda as Kosher for Passover. While the current American Coke formula is kosher, during Passover Ashkenazic Jews (who make up the majority of American Jews) do not consume corn products or their derivatives, which prevents them from consuming high fructose corn syrup. Even sugar-based formulas would still require certification of both the local formula and the specific bottling plant, as the strictures of Kashrut on Passover are far higher and more complicated than usual kosher observance.
Purported secret recipes
Pemberton Recipe
This recipe is attributed to a sheet of paper found in an old formulary book owned by Coca-Cola inventor, John S. Pemberton, just before his death (U.S. measures). Makes 10 gallons of Soda
- Ingredients:
- Flavoring:
- 80 Oil orange
- 40 Oil cinnamon
- 120 Oil lemon
- 20 Oil coriander
- 40 Oil nutmeg
- 40 Oil neroli
- "Mix caffeine acid and lime juice in 1 quart boiling water add vanilla and flavoring when cool. Let stand for 24 hours."
This recipe does not specify when sugar, coca, caramel or the rest of the water are added, or the flavoring oil quantity units of measure.
Reed Recipe
This recipe is attributed to pharmacist John Reed
- 30 pounds (14.2 kg) of sugar
- 2 US gallons of water
- 1 quart of lime juice
- 4 ounces of citrate of caffeine
- 2 US ounces of citric acid
- 1 ounce of extract of vanilla
- 6 drams(3/4 US fluid ounce) of fluid extract of cola
- 6 drams fluid extract of coca
Merory Recipe
Recipe is from Food Flavorings: Composition, Manufacture and Use. Makes one U.S. gallon (3.8 L) of syrup. Yield (used to flavor carbonated water at 1 fl oz per bottle): 128 bottles, 6.5 fl oz (192 ml).
- Mix 2,400 grams of sugar with just enough water to dissolve the sugar fully. High-fructose corn syrup may be substituted for half the sugar).
- Add 37 grams of caramel, 3.1 grams of caffine, and 11 grams of phosphoric acid.
- Extract the cocaine from 1.1 grams of coca leaf (Truxillo growth of coca preferred) with toluol;dry the cocaine extract.
- Soak the coca leaves and kola nuts (both finely powdered; 0.37 gram of kola nuts) in 22 grams of 20 percent alcohol.
- California white wine fortified to 20 percent strength was used as the soaking solution circa 1909, but Coca-Cola may have switched to a simple water/alcohol mixture.
- After soaking, discard the coca and kola and add the liquid to the syrup.
- Add 30 grams of 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.
- Mix together 0.88 gram of lemon oil, 0.47 gram of orange oil, 0.20 gram of cassia (Chinese cinnamon) oil. 0.07 gram of nutmeg oil, and, if desired, traces of coriander, lavender, and neroli oils, and add to 4.9 grams of 95 percent alcohol.
- Shake.
- Add 2.7 grams of water to the oil mixture and let stand for twenty-four hours at about 60 °F (15.5 °C). A cloudy layer will separate.
- Take off the clear part of the liquid only and add the syrup.
- Add 19 grams of 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 1.5 grams of vanilla extract.
- Add water (treated with chlorine) to make 1 gallon of syrup.
See also
External links
Further reading
- Pendergrast, Mark: For God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It. New York: Basic Books, 2000 (second edition; ISBN 0-465-05468-4).
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