# Coca cola formula
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 4, 2001, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303 "2001-10-04T01:21:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@insider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insider)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303/1 "2001-10-04T01:21:43Z")
Has the formula for Coke ever been published anywhere? Why is it so difficult to determine exactly what it is made of?
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### Author:  [@Firx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Firx)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303/2 "2001-10-04T01:28:26Z")
Basically, [no.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_033.html)
The reason it’s hard to find a list of ingredients is because their secret drink formula is… a _secret_.
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### Author:  [@Space\_Otter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Otter)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303/3 "2001-10-04T01:32:07Z")
I dunno, there are a good number of coca cola knock-offs, house brands, etc. Most are pretty close to Coke. Coke is mostly sugar, water, caramel color and a few mixed citrus flavors. The idea that there is a secret is mostly a marketing ploy I suppose.
Now there are people who will jump in and go, nooooo! Coke is completely unique and different from Pepsi, RC etc. Only coke is the real thing!!! Whatever.
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### Author:  [@King\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/King_Rat)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303/4 "2001-10-04T02:06:01Z")
Between the book “For God, Country, and Coca Cola : The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It” and books such as William Poundstone’s “Big Secrets” I think that you can get a pretty close picture of what’s in Coca-Cola, if not to the nth degree. Here is what snopes has to say, see the formula near the bottom:
[http://www.snopes2.com/cokelore/formula.htm](http://www.snopes2.com/cokelore/formula.htm)
How can something that is so mass-produced really be kept a secret? That’s what I want to know.
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### Author:  [@Firx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Firx)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303/5 "2001-10-04T02:07:04Z")
While you may be right about lots of brands being “pretty close to Coke”, let’s be fair and concede that they don’t have all of the ingredients (let alone exactly the same methods of combining those ingredients, God forbid!) that are in the aforementioned Secret Formula.
Not to say that Coke is the only Real Thing™, but the others aren’t _exactly_ like it.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303/6 "2001-10-04T04:08:43Z")
**Space Otter** said
> [@](#):
>
> Now there are people who will jump in and go, nooooo! Coke is completely unique and different from Pepsi, RC etc. Only coke is the real thing!!! Whatever.
Heretic!
They are more different than American Beers, IMHO. Not craft-brewed stuff, but commercial crap.
I think that a blind taste test could spot the difference between Coke, Pepsi, RC. Some of the knock-offs might fool a taster. But I’ll wager a pro could tell the diff. between the major three. I actually think I could.
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303/7 "2001-10-04T04:47:59Z")
Actually a good lab could probably analyze the contents of Coke and tell you exactly what’s in it, down to the ratios of the various ingredients, but what good would that do you? If you tried to put out a cola that tasted _exactly_ like Coke, you’d be sued so fast your lawyer wouldn’t even have a chance to tell you what his hourly rate is. Coke’s formula is trademarked, and if memory serves, a trademark, unlike a patent, can be renewed ad infinitum, so anyone trying to duplicate Coke’s taste exactly is most likely going to lose in court and lose big.
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### Author:  [@Dale\_The\_Bold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_The_Bold)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303/8 "2001-10-04T04:54:20Z")
I’ve always wondered this. If there’s a “secret formula,” then it should be legally required to be listed among the ingredients. Unless by “secret formula” they have a processing method, but I’d call that a “secret technique.” Or maybe it’s cocaine… :rolleyes:
I’ve also heard the rumor that Diet Coke doesn’t really have “just one calorie,” but they make so much money off it that they can afford the false advertising fines. Okay, this smells like bull to me, but does anyone have a source to debunk this claim?
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303/9 "2001-10-04T18:49:10Z")
The book _Big Secrets_ by Williams Poundstone, 1983, ISBN 0-688-04830-7 discusses this in Chapter 3. It goes on for about 18 pages. It looks like there have been several attempts at quantitative analysis of the ingredients but only educated guesses about the actual process to produce it.
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303/10 "2001-10-04T18:53:20Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \*
> **Coke’s formula is trademarked. . .**
A formula isn’t trademarked, a name or symbol (mark) under which a company does business is trademarked. A secret formula is not patented because then the formula would have to be a matter of public record. It is a trade secret.
Not sure if Coke could sue someone who tried to reproduce their formula, unless it were marketed with an attempt to confuse the product with Coke.
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### Author:  [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303/11 "2001-10-04T19:41:39Z")
My knowledge in this area is very sketchy indeed, but I believe that if it isn’t patented, anyone who figured the formula out would be permitted to reproduce it. The reason trade secrets are kept secret is just because there’s no legal right to stop people from reproducing them if known. Now, if a Coke executive was told the formula as part of his job and then sold that to PepsiCo or went into business for himself that would be an illegal misappropriation. But discovering the formula through honest investigation is OK. Note that the same deal applies with respect to perfumes. I can’t imagine that Clavin Klein, et al, have never sued those knock-off perfume manufacturers. If they have, they’ve clearly lost because you can still buy the knock-offs.
As for listing ingredients, near the end of the list you’ll find “natural and artificial flavors.” It’s exctly which flavors and in what amounts that is the question at issue; those are not required to be listed.
–Cliffy
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### Author:  [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-formula/85303/12 "2001-10-04T20:34:02Z")
In Patent Law class last spring, our prof told us that, among other things, the Coca-Cola company adds some chemicals to their soft drink to make chemical analysis more difficult, “masking” some of the ingredients. These additives serve no purpose other than protecting the secret.
Makes your mouth water, eh?