These guys really found out the secret recipe to one of the most closely-guarded, longest-kept secrets in the world, and then offered to sell it to the biggest rival, worth billions, for a grand total of 75k

The final implication of this video has been my theory for a while- the secret recipe is a marketing gimmick. It keeps an air of mystery about the brand, and gets people talking about it. Pretending like the formula is something mythical and ultra top secret serves no purpose other than to keep a small section of people's brains reserved for Coca-Cola speculation, and it's advertising they don't need to spend a cent on.

Fun fact: to get the “Kosher” label, they had to told the secret (the list of ingredients) to a rabbi. When the rabbi died, and they had to do it again, they had a better idea. They created a list with all the ingredients, mixed up with other, irrelevant ingredients which were not actually used. The new rabbi certified that the bigger list is kosher, so everything in it (including the actual ingredients) are kosher too. And they didn’t have to tell the secret any more.

The real secret Coca Cola recipe was the friends we made along the way :)

I believe there might be a better kept drink recipe: Chartreuse. I think the recipe is only known by two senior monks and it has been that way for several centuries. It's also really complicated with over 300 plants being used

"How Do the Manufacturers Make the Thing When They Don't Know What Thing They're Making" pretty much describes the entire field of software engineering.

We made the Pemberton 1886 recipe a few years ago on our channel - It was pretty good.

The reason they went from 2 people to "a small group" is that they ramped up production since then and the urine from 2 people isn't enough anymore.

Sam is just an imaginary persona invented by Storyblocks, to sell more stock footage

My late brother in law was a chemist who specialised it water treatment and purification . He was involved in the setting up of a few Coca Cola plants in Africa and the Far East. He told me that to keep the taste uniform throughout the world, the various factories would take local water and effectively strip out all the salts and chemicals that all water contains and then use that purified water to make Coke by adding the required ingredients.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: "How many know the recipe?" Yoda: "Always two there are. No more, no less."

So I worked in kfc... the "11 secret herbs and spices" are literally labelled on the shiny silver original recipe seasoning packet they come in. This IS in Australia though which has better consumer laws than America where keeping the contents of food you are selling a secret generally is illegal.

One of my friends was a lab technician for Pepsi and one of his jobs was to go to the local supermarket and buy one of each of the competitors drinks once a month and then analyze them all on a spectrum analyzer and compare the current formula with the previous results. So yes they know exactly what is in it!

I would pay about $3.50 for a bottle of Original 1800s Coke.

Can you please make a video on the story of Vulcan, West Virginia, and how the Soviets nearly built a bridge there? It's a pretty interesting story, and it starts in 1977 with the village of Vulcan wanting a bridge that crosses the Tug fork (the nearest bridge is nearly 2 miles away), so they could access a road on the other side. When both the state and federal governments refused their request, their mayor asked the Soviet embassy and East German officials for help. The Soviets even sent a journalist there, and an hour later the West Virginian government hastily promised and built a bridge so the Soviets wouldn't build one. It's a pretty interesting story, and it was major news at the time.

The recipe is literally the best marketing Coca-Cola could have asked for. LOL Pepsi Terrorism.

Coca Cola keeps their secret formula in the second page of Bing Search results

Great video as always! Coca Cola has been around a long time. It's crazy to me that they actually had "soldiers" who worked for them in World War 2. While they weren't technically soldiers, just employees for the company, they went abroad and were stationed where everyone else was and two even died. Their sole purpose was to supply the allied forces with as much Coca Cola as possible. Even the temporary factories they were allowed to build to help supply soldiers during the war helped them grow immensely as many of them were converted to permanent facilities after the war and allowed them, essentially, to gain global expansion paid for, in part, by the US government. I actually made a video on this topic on my channel a while back. Super interesting time period for the company...

I heard you can download the secret recipe by replying back to a don't reply email...

If the recipe is not patented, could those guys have patented it, then sue Coca-Cola for infringing on their patent?

"only two permitted people know the recipe at any given time" Me who can just read the ingredients label on the side: "UNLIMITED POWER"

You are the first sponsored KZfaqr I've found that actually used the words "I'm being paid to sell", in reference to the product. Thank you!

The fact that those employees decided to sell the recipe to Pepsi and not leak it to the public is some next-level stupidity. That could’ve been the most insane recipe leak of all time

The biggest doubt I have about the secret recipe is how the FDA authorices coca-cola to sell the product.

2:35 This explains why Pepsi once became the 6th largest military in 1989.

It has plum. Sometimes in the factory process a machine starts failing and a few bottles come out before it's fixed, I have seen the distinctive remnants of plum pulp in two different ocassions over the years.

His name was Asa Candler, not Asa Cander. FUN FACT: Asa Candler built a racetrack south of Atlanta that he eventually donated to the city. It's now Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.

Sam: No one knows the Coca-Cola recipe Me: Looks at the Ingredients on the back of the bottle

I used to run the QA department at a food plant in the US. Based upon nutritional labeling requirements alone, ever since the passage of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (1990), it would be absolutely essential that the people working on the Nutrition Facts panel and related ingredient listing do have access to the actual raw formula. This act allows for a certain amount of rounding, but the actual ingredient listings for all of the components poured into the batch would need to be known by that team, so they can properly place the ingredients in their proper order based upon amounts used. The notion that only two people in the company ever know the whole formula is a joke, meant to add an air of mystery, but doesn't in any way make sense for a modern multinational corporation.

3:54 - tell me more about this Caffine. Is it related to caffeine?

In the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta, they have a whole section dedicated to the "secret recipe", so yeah, it's a marketing gimmick. 3:55 You might need some more "caffeine". Also, it's the "Stepan" company.

I like to imagine that the "small group" that knows the secret recipe just drinks Pepsi because they know what is inside Coke haha

There is at least 1 non-coke employee who knows the entire recipe. The Orthadox Union certifies coke as being Kosher. This requires knowledge of the full recipe. So, there is at least one random Rabbi in NY (OU headquarters), working for the OU, who knows the recipe as well.

Hank hill claims nobody can tell the difference between coke and mega-lo brand cola

I didn't realize coca cola still used coca leaves, just w the "cocaine" removed. This brings up a question - the drug war in Latin America involved (involves?) dropping defoliant on tons of small coca farms. How do they know if someone is farming coca leaves for coca cola versus the drug trade?

Isn't coca-cola being the only company that's licensed to use coca extract kinda very monopolistic and anti-consumeristic, which is against the law?

The reason coke goes to such ostentatious lengths to protect their formula as building a vault is twofold: first, because the very idea of the secret formula is a marketing tactic, but second and perhaps more importantly it’s because it’s one of the things required to allow them to pursue leaks as illegal corporate espionage. If they didn’t take “reasonable measures” to protect their secret formula, then if someone stole it Coke wouldn’t necessarily have any ability to legally go after the thief. Problem is that “reasonable measures” isn’t statutorily defined, so it would be adjudicated at trial. By going over the top and having only one copy that’s in a vault and the whole “only two people know it” thing, they’re hedging their bets to make sure they could be said to have taken “reasonable measures” to secure the secrecy of the formula.

3:56 It contains carmel coloring AND caffine?

video idea if you haven't already done it: how there were actually six mainland US civilian casualties in world war II

I love seeing more of your personality in these videos. I hope Wendover takes a slice from here ;)

This won't stop me from making coke though

There was a court case in like the 1920s where the US government basically said "either your product contains cocaine, which is illegal, or your name is false advertising, which is illegal." To which Coca Cola pointed out that they do use coca, but they take the cocaine out first.

The script itself, and the way the narrators reads it is enormously captivating!

Apparently the spice blend for Heinz Ketchup is made in a similar manner, all people know is the blend comes out of secretive room in the factory and that it gets added into the mix at a certain point.

It is still valuable to keep the recipe secret as not every country universally respects intellectual property so while coke in the US might be safe from being duplicated that is not true in other countries. Also, keeping the recipe secret prevents would-be copy cats from making coke but at a low quality, and thus damaging the soda's reputation as a whole.

I worked at a company that kept their technical secrets on… a computer. Ok, but it was a computer not connected to the network or internet, locked in a room with a separate alarm code. Think Mission Impossible, but instead of the retinal scan, floor pressure sensors, sound sensors, and heat sensors in the room, it just had a contact switch style alarm on the door. I’m guessing lots of corporations do that kind of stuff with their trade secrets.

loved the Storyblocks add... because I love the stock footage you use c:

Fun fact: I have just received a Coca Cola advert at the beginning of the video 😂😂

It could be because they are selling on a global scale and not every country is as strict with patents as the USA. For example china could just copy the original and sell it as it's own and supply the biggest marketed in the world with it.

1:00 no that's reserved for the copyright office

I loved that transition to the ad... ¨i am being paid to sell¨ lmfao

The ending conclusion was what everyone expected

I'm pretty sure that someone with a lab and tools to identify molecules can tell you all what is included in the syrup. Since it's a mass produced liquid, knowing what ingredients are leaves only finding the ratio of them to replicate it. It's not like wine where everything in the process can affect the taste.

What I wanna know is how a product with secret ingredients can possibly be legal or FDA approved, I mean how can they sign off on a product if they aren’t even allowed to know what’s in it?

The main thing about keeping it secret is the fact that they can sue whoever steals it and be sure to win. The punishment for stealing a company's secret is proportional to the effort the company invests in hiding it.

That "You tell me" part got me 🤣

Was that "D*ck-in-a-Box" stock footage @ 00:20? 🤦🏻‍♂️

Secrecy through obscurity doesn't work in the end. Coca-Cola's recipe "secret" is akin to an urban legend (albeit a "real" thing). The recipe itself has no marketable value, but it has immense marketing value. Anyway, as a kid we considered a Coke to be a special treat, not a daily thing. Still do, actually.

I think the reason why they keep it a secret it is that not so people can sell it for more, but would sell it for way cheaper, like store brands, and they might not want to compete with them.

I live just an hour away from the Coca Cola factory hq, and the tour is AMAZING you have to see it, you get to try 500 different flavors of coke

actually the funny thing about 'Im not going to tell you what this is and demand the right to sue anyone who sells it' is exactly how software patents work, sort of... in a way. Also I could have sworn this video came out years ago. Also, its june already LOL

an employee once offered to steal and sell the recipe and give it to Pepsi. Pepsi contacted Coca cola and turned the person in for this.

Dang, mr krabs got compitetion

I feel like the easiest way would be to actually have several fake recipes, too, that a few employees also know but think that they're the real ones, so basically no one knows who actually knows

but what is the recipe for bricks?

Pepsi didn't even want the Coke formula because even if they made their own it would just lead to a race to the bottom in which both would see the bottom line shrink.

Question do they export the coca leaf extract for manufacturing outside of the US? or do other countries have a substitute?

I’d like to see a video on the food plants catching fire, or at least get your thoughts on wether it’s normal or what exactly is going on! I think it’d be half interesting! 😁

To be fair, while in theory a recipe could be patented, it almost never happens. This is because of the 4 x patentability requirements: *Is the invention patentable subject matter? *Is the invention useful? *Is the invention novel? *Is the invention non-obvious? ALL of the above criteria have to be achieved for a patent to be possible. Recipes are rarely able to achieve "non-obvious" or "novel" categories, thus recipes don't get patents.

You should have said “when Pepsi re-invests in its navy” , because after all…..if you havent heard about the soviet deal, they bartered Pepsi for scrap Soviet ships to get around cash deal laws at the time, and technically had one of the worlds largest navies.

3:57 “caffine” lol

Coming from the latest episode of connect 4 straight to this🤩 keep up the amazing content guys

It’s well known that Coke no longer contains cocaine and does contain caffeine. But the caffeine was not added to replace the cocaine. It was added to replace the kola since caffeine could be added in greater concentration. 5x, to be precise, but they were later required by law to reduce that. (Both were used in an attempt to cure the creator of his morphine addiction but that endeavor failed). So Coca Cola contains no “coke” and no kola.

Mrs Philips is legit and her method works like magic I keep on earning every single week with her new strategy

The punchline for this video was so perfect.

2:36 LoL nice one

Thanks for the entertainment. I think it is a myth. Coke tastes so different in each country that there is no standard and therefore no secret recipe. Even 50 kilometres across the Thai/Malaysian border the coke flavour is markedly different. Pepsi is far more consistent from country to country.

People can be allergic to just about anything. I bet if you did a large enough population study of who was allergic to coke, and what other things they are allergic too....you could figure out the ingredients.

in australia we use sugar not corn syrup in our coke. so they have several versions of their recipe already.

The best episode so far!

A single factory processes coca leaves and removes all the cocaine? Huh. No wonder they're so productive.

To add onto the Pepsi story, Pepsi didn’t even open up the documents to see recipe. They didn’t want to have a chance to be held liable and sued by Coke, plus like Sam said, what are they gonna make? Coke flavored Pepsi???

Purported secret recipes Pemberton recipe Coca-Cola inventor John Pemberton is said to have written this recipe in his diary shortly before his death in 1888.[28][29] 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. Ingredients: 1 oz (28 g) caffeine citrate 3 oz (85 g) citric acid 1 US fl oz (30 ml) vanilla extract 1 US qt (946 ml) lime juice 2.5 oz (71 g) "flavoring" (i.e., "Merchandise 7X") 30 lb (14 kg) sugar 4 US fl oz (118.3 ml) fluid extract of coca leaves (flavor essence of the coca leaf) 2.5 US gal (9.5 l; 2.1 imp gal) water caramel sufficient to give color "Mix caffeine acid and lime juice in 1 quart boiling water add vanilla and flavoring when cool." Flavoring (Merchandise 7X): 1 qrt alcohol 80 oil orange 40 oil cinnamon 120 oil lemon 20 oil coriander 40 oil nutmeg 40 oil neroli "Let stand 24 hours." Merory recipe 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).[30] 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.) Add 1+1⁄4 oz (35 g) of caramel, 1⁄10 oz (3 g) caffeine, and 2⁄5 oz (11 g) phosphoric acid. Extract the cocaine from 5⁄8 drachm (1.1 g) of coca leaf (Truxillo growth of coca preferred) with toluol; discard the cocaine extract. 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. After soaking, discard the coca and kola and add the liquid to the syrup. 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. Mix together 1⁄4 drachm (0.44 g) orange oil, 1⁄10 drachm (0.18 g) cassia (Chinese cinnamon) oil, 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. Beal recipe 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.[31][32][33] 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.[34] Fluid extract of Coca: 3 drams USP Citric acid: 3 oz Caffeine: 1 oz Sugar: 30 lbs Water: 2.5 gal Lime juice: 2 pints (1 quart) Vanilla: 1 oz Caramel: 1.5 oz or more for color The secret 7X flavor (use 2 oz of flavor to 5 gals syrup): Alcohol: 8 oz Orange oil: 20 drops Cinnamon oil: 10 drops Lemon oil: 30 drops Coriander oil: 5 drops Nutmeg oil: 10 drops Neroli oil: 10 drops is the recipe

I'm low key ok with the recipe being a secret. Because once the secret is revealed it's no longer fun anymore to speculate about or be surprised if theres a change. It's like opening all your presents before Christmas. When the holiday finally arrives, you're just not excited about it, a bit of that magic is lost. Which is why yes, I clicked on this for that reason. I knew the answers wouldn't be provided by some random youtuber that has the same voice tone in every video with really bad jokes, but it adds to the "When Santa Claus comes" magic.

But, and hear me out, what if someone else patented the coke-a-cola recipe. Would the company then be forced to pay royalties to the patenter, or would the company ignore them? I think there’d be a lawsuit no matter what, but still fun to think about

Question: How do governments know Coke is safe for consumption and approval if the recipe is secret?

Its June my bros. Dont forget your goals!!

I think the real reason they keep it such a closely guarded secret is that while no company in the world would bother making it, the average person in their home probably would. Also, last I heard, the coca leaf thing is a myth. Coke doesn't use coca leaves anymore. And even if they did, there are ways of synthesizing that stuff.

doesn't coca cola have different flavors and recipes depending on country?

I’d honestly say my local Jewel has gotten close with its recipe, having been able to use it to fool a coke fan. Difference being it used cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup and was able to use less to achieve the same sugary taste.

@2:54 well, a group of two people is the smallest "small group" you can have 🙂

What about the list of ingredients on the back of the bottle?

Another certified hood classic

What if someone has an allergy to one of the "secret" ingredients (be it coke or KFC or any other secret recipe)?

3:59 Damn I looooooooooove "Caffine," because damn if it ain't fine

Pouring all the ingredients in the toilet nailed it.

This is the fact that I am surprised that they left. Truly, coca-cola was "created" by a Valencian, from Spain. Then, the American arrived who tried it, liked it, took it and started the brand. Have a nice day.

Basic Cola recipe: Caramel syrup, which comes from melting and toasting sugar in a frying pan, mixed with sparkling water, about 10 parts water to one part caramel. BOOM!!

Ayyy, shout out Northfield, IL!

If you truly want to keep a secret secure, _never_ write it down, _never_ tell anybody, and forget it yourself: secret safe forever!