This American Life - 427: Original Recipe

We discover what we believe might be the original recipe for Coca-Cola…and share it with you! When this episode first aired in 2011, it made international headlines. This, and another story about telling copies from originals.



(00:00:00) Act One: The formula for Coca-Cola is one of the most jealously guarded trade secrets in the world. So we were surprised to find a 1979 newspaper article that appeared to show Coke's original recipe. We spoke with historian Mark Pendergrast, author of For God, Country and Coca-Cola, and were even more surprised to find reasons to believe the recipe is real. (25 minutes)

(00:26:26) Act Two: Jake Halpern tells this story about document expert John Reznikoff, who came into possession of some materials which—if authentic—would change history. Then things got complicated. (32 minutes)