How Coca Cola (Actually) Keeps Its Secret Recipe Secret

Video written by Adam Chase

[justinwlacy]

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.

[bronkolie]

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

[juzoli]

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.

[coop]

"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.

[philippeperrin]

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

[GlenAndFriendsCooking]

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

[billyyank]

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

[erbow]

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

[DrZaius]

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.

[johnparker]

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.

[KyleWhite]

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!

[GeoffShouldWin]

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

[LeeAtkinson]

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.

[paulverse]

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

[anonymousthanks]

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

[Thebreakdownshow]

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

[gaspytheghost]

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

[liamnixon]

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.

[GGsquared]

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

[mnbvcxy]

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