Has Coke’s secret recipe been revealed?

"Everybody loves secrets, mystery, and intrigue. That's why mystery novels and films have been popular for decades, and why shows like "The X-Files" and "Lost" are cult hits. The commercial appeal of a good mystery (real or manufactured) has not been lost on advertisers. "Mystery meat" aside, several famous brands have emphasized the uniqueness of their secret-ingredient-containing products. But is there really any such thing as a "secret ingredient" these days? After all, over the past decade consumers have gotten more and more disclosure about what's in the food they eat-- everything from calorie content to food allergy information. Furthermore, laboratory analysis has kept up with the times. Perhaps when A.J. Bush baked his first recipe in 1908, or when the Coca-Cola company was founded in 1892, there was no way to determine what "secret ingredients" might be in a product.

But these days, any laboratory worth its sodium chloride can tell pretty much what chemicals and ingredients appear in what quantities of a given sample. It's food science, not rocket science.

In his book "Big Secrets," William Poundstone revealed a laboratory analysis of Kentucky Fried Chicken: "The sample of coating mix was found to contain four and only four ingredients: flour, salt, monosodium glutamate, and black pepper. There were no eleven herbs and spices — no herbs at all in fact... Nothing was found in the sample that couldn't be identified." So much for the "secret." In fact, the chicken's ingredient statement is available on KFC's Web site.

As for Coke Classic, well, the formula can be found on page 43 of Poundstone's book, but it includes vanilla extract, citrus oils, and lime juice flavoring.

There's no cocaine in Coke, and technically there never was, though it uses coca leaves and kola nuts as flavorings and stimulants. Cocaine is not the same as the coca leaf it is derived from; for centuries, natives in South American countries regularly chewed on the coca leaf for its anesthetic and mild stimulant properties. But just as chewing on a coca leaf is not "taking cocaine," neither is drinking a Coke."