Coca-Cola formula
Although the current, authentic Coca-Cola Formula is known to only a small number of people at The Coca-Cola Company, many have tried to reverse-engineer speculative recipes for Coca-Cola syrup. Alleged recipes vary greatly and the formula has changed over the decades; published accounts suggest it contains or once contained sugar, caramel, caffeine, phosphoric acid, coca leaf and cola nut extract, lime juice or oil, flavoring mixture, vanilla and originally glycerin (but not any more).
The following are some of the alleged recipes for the syrup:
Alleged syrup recipe number one
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:
- 1 oz. Citrate Caffeine
- 3 oz. Citric Acid
- 1 oz. Extract Vanilla
- 1 Qt. Lime Juice
- 2 1/2 oz. Flavoring
- 30 lbs. Sugar
- 4 oz. fluid extract of Coca (decocainized flavor essence of the coca leaf)
- 2 1/2 gal. Water
- Caramel sufficient
- 80 Oil Orange
- 40 Oil Cinnamon
- 120 Oil Lemon
- 20 Oil Coriander
- 40 Oil Nutmeg
- 40 Oil Neroli
- 1 Qt. Alcohol
"Mix Caffeine Acid and Lime Juice in 1 quart boiling water add vanilla and flavoring when cool. Let stand for 24 hours. Flavoring is likely a mixture orange oil, lemon, nutmeg oil, cinnamon oil, coriander oil, neroli oil and 1 quart of alcohol."
This recipe does not specify when sugar, coca, caramel or the rest of the water are added.
Alleged syrup recipe number two
This recipe is attributed to pharmacist John Reed
- 30 pounds of sugar
- 2 gallons of water
- 2 pints of lime juice
- 4 ounces of citrate of caffeine
- 2 ounces of citric acid
- 1 ounce of extract of vanilla
- 6 drams (3/4 ounce) of fluid extract of cola
- 6 drams of fluid extract of coca
Alleged syrup recipe number three
This recipe is from Food Flavorings: Composition, Manufacture and Use (2nd Ed.) 1968 by Joseph Merory (AVI Publishing Company, Inc., Westport, CT)
Makes one gallon of syrup. "Mix 2,400 grams of sugar with just enough water to dissolve (high-fructose corn syrup may be substituted for half the sugar). Add 37 grams of caramel, 3.1 grams of caffeine, and 11 grams of phosphoric acid. Extract the cocaine from 1.1 grams of coca leaf (Truxillo growth of coca preferred) with toluol; discard 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 cassie (Chinese cinnamon) oil. 0.07 gram of nutmeg oil, and, if desired, traces of coriander, lavender, and New Coke on April 23, 1985, and met general rejection from the public and derisory reactions from competitors like Pepsi-Cola. Within a period of weeks, Coca-Cola Original was brought back onto the market.
The New Coke formula was a variant of the sweeter Diet Coke formula rather than the original Coca-Cola formula itself. Thus New Coke tasted much sweeter, perhaps more like Pepsi.
Formula history and background
