Chemistry YouTuber claims to perfectly replicated Coke

The formula for Coca-Cola is one of the most closely guarded trade secrets. After a full year of experimentation and an untold amount of taste testing by family and friends, a chemistry YouTuber thinks he has finally cracked it.

Coca-Cola is the most popular soft drink in the world, and its secret formula is kept in a comically large vault protected by armed guards. Many have tried to steal or replicate it, to no avail. Chemistry YouTuber LabCoatz was determined to succeed where others had failed. Since early recipes for the beverage are widely known, and he had science on his side, LabCoatz thought tweaking the recipe would be pretty straightforward. He discovered that he was “very, very wrong.”

One of the first hurdles he faced was that none of the US companies that produce de-cocainized coca leaf extract, one of the known ingredients, were willing to sell him any. The extract he bought online from South America was seized, so no matter what he came up with, his recipe could not be the actual recipe used by Coca-Cola. He would have to find a way to mimic whatever flavor the extract produced.

It took him a full year to try different combinations of all the flavors suspected to be among the “natural flavors” listed in the ingredients, including orange, lemon, lime, coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, naroli, black pepper, lavender, clove, and kafir lime leaf. Fellow science YouTubers with mass spectrometers helped by analyzing real Coke and identifying the chemicals present and their concentrations.

He was stuck for some time trying to replace the coca leaf extract, but finally made the connection between the extract and tea, which contains tannins, an astringent substance that can counteract sweet flavors. Tannins generally don’t show up in mass spectrometry. The addition of wine tannins was the missing piece of the puzzle. The final recipe contains: sugar, carbonated water, caffeine, caramel color, food-grade alcohol, 85% phosphoric acid, glycerin, wine tannins, 5% vinegar, vanilla extract, and fenchol. The precise amounts are available in the video.

Commenters on the video are concerned that LabCoatz is at risk of falling out a window like an out-of-favor Russian oligarch, but they are overlooking two things. He has not actually cracked the formula, just the taste, by his own admission, and more importantly, Coke’s secret formula is marketing, not a recipe.