One of the biggest secrets in the world of business was almost leaked. The exact recipe of Coca-Cola is a highly guarded secret that few in the world know, but the radio program This American Life came close to blowing the lid off the whole thing. To give you a sense of how heavily guarded this secret is, when the company first started out in 1887, then president Asa Candler made sure that no one wrote down the recipe ever again and staffers had to identify the ingredients by sight and smell because the labels were removed from ingredient containers. The secret formula itself is locked away in a bank vault. With this level of secrecy, it would've been hard to uncover the formula, but the radio program producers stumbled upon it while looking at an article about Coke's history in a 1979 newspaper; the photo that accompanied the article was a photo of the original hand-written copy of the original recipe.Fortunately for the Coca-Cola company, the exposed recipe wasn't quite right, mostly because it didn't get the "Merchandise 7x flavoring" right, the most important, distinctive, and secretive part of the recipe. Apparently, the company only allows two people at any given time to know how to mix the flavoring and they aren't allowed to travel on the same plane in case it might crash. When the radio producers held a taste-test for their Coke recipe, the tasters said it just wasn't the same, although it came close for some. A spokesperson for the company has already stated that the formula is a secret the company has no intention of revealing, so it looks like it will remain a secret for good. As for the handwritten-copy in the article photo, there's some uncertainy about whether it's the real deal.
I found all this to be new, interesting, and somewhat funny information, but I don't know if this level of secrecy is needed. I feel like most people can't tell the difference between the flavor of Pepsi and the "Merchandise 7x flavoring" in Coke, or at least I have trouble doing so. I wonder if revealing the secret formula would actually damage Coke's sales or if it's just paranoia. With so many brands of the same soda flavors, they all kind of blend into each other, so that all lemon-lime sodas taste the same, and all orange sodas the same, and all root beers, and all whatever flavor soda you would call Coke. But what do you guys think? Is this level of security and secrecy needed or are they fussing over nothing? Do you even like Coke or do you prefer Pepsi?
5 comments:
Haha! For some reason this article reminds me of Spongebob Squarepants. The cartoon has a secret "krabby patty" recipe that very few people know. So in a way, I relate this super secret formula in he Coca-Cola to the Krabby Patty. But I don't really care about how secretive the recipe is though. Unless both the people who know it pass away and the Coca-Cola recipe dissapears forever and we will never see it again. I really don't think that it makes a big difference either because I think Coca-Cola and Pepsi taste the same. I never really found a difference between them. But this article really made me laugh.
I never knew about the secrecy behind coke. I find this article really interesting because I never knew that the Coca-Cola company is so cautious about keeping their recipe a secret. I guess it's something that companies need to do to prevent more competition. By keeping this secrecy, companies can also ensure that their product stays unique without any people copying them and selling the same drink at a lower price because the company would lose a lot of profit if this happened. I think that the Coca-Cola Company people are really smart about this. However, I also do not know the difference between Pepsi and Coke. When people compare the two, I don't understand the difference and I can't taste it.
I don't remember where I acquired this information, so, please, correct me if I'm wrong. But, the creators of Coke did not want to patent the recipe because the patent only gives the producers of Coke a 10 year monopoly over the product before the recipe is released as public information. The Coca-Cola company does have an advantage. When the product was first released, it was the very first of such carbonated beverage with such unique flavor. Although this doesn't serve as as much of an advantage now because there are competitors such as Pepsi, Coke still has an advantage because it's name has been known longer. As Eunice said, another advantage to keeping the recipe a secret is that no other competitor can create the same product.
Come on Chad! There is a big difference between the taste between Coke and Pepsi. I am a Coke addict. I think there is some sort of money and security reasons why Coke is protecting their recipe. It is an incredible drink that I drink everyday. I think the person who has the recipe just incase something happens to them. It is kind of like the crabby patty from Spongebob and the silk worm from China. And look at the silk road in history it was a big economic boost for China. And if China leaked the secret out than it would longer have a value. People were walking hundreds of miles for the silk.
I find it kinda stupid and funny. But looking from the workers point of view, I guess if Coca -Cola had some odd ingredient in it, something like taco bells meat had, than maybe revealing the stuff and showing it to the public will have less people buying it.
But yeah, it's just plain crazy, who cares if we know what it's made out of? It's not like we'll probably be able to make it in our backyard.
And FYI it's all about A&W root beer
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