In the summer season, you open a bottle of Coca-Cola - it opens with a phsst sound. You pour the drink into the glass, bubbles form on the surface, and as you take a sip amid bursting bubbles, you feel cool and relaxed.
The immense popularity that this soft drink enjoys is beyond comprehension. The official website of Coca-Cola says that 2.2 billion servings of the drink are relished in more than 200 countries and territories each day. While it is distributed across the globe, its formula is reportedly kept a trade secret.
For years, people have tried to replicate its recipe, but no one has succeeded, except recently, the founder of LabCoatz channel on YouTube has claimed that he has cracked the code. LabCoatz is a science and engineering-based YouTube channel that posts videos of scientific content and projects.
The YouTuber claimed that after a year of research, experimenting with ingredients, and multiple rounds of beta testing, he was finally able to create a drink almost identical to Coca-Cola.
Guarded Journey Of Coca-Cola's Formula
When you purchase a bottle or can of Coca-Cola and flip it to read the ingredient section, it includes sugar, caffeine, sodium, and natural flavours. What are those natural flavours? That's the guarded secret.
The 140-year-old formula is more valuable than some of the costliest gems in the world. How? The recipe of Coca-Cola is not patented because to do so, the company would have to reveal the recipe that only a handful of people in the world know about.
Dr John S Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886. He kept it a secret and only shared it verbally with a handful of people. In 1892, Asa Candler purchased the rights to the business and became the sole proprietor of the company.
In 1919, Earnest Woodruff and a cluster of investors purchased the company from Asa Candler and his family. Not just that, they asked Candler's son to write down the recipe of the beverage and placed it in a vault in the Guaranty Bank in New York until the loan was repaid in 1925.
Woodruff not only claimed the formula but also carried it to Atlanta and kept it safe inside Trust Company Bank, now called SunTrust, where it remained safe for 86 years before it was moved to the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Georgia.
YouTuber Claims To Have Cracked The Recipe Of Coca-Cola
The YouTuber published a video titled Stealing The Coca-Cola Secret Formula (With Science) four days ago, and it has 3.3 million views already.
"Coca-Cola is kind of a big deal... A handful of people only know what it is made of," he said at the beginning of the 25-minute video. He called the protective measures taken to guard the formula laughable and even took a jibe at the recent AI commercial that went viral around Christmas 2025.
"Company half-heartedly promotes with horrible out-of-touch AI commercial," he added. In the beginning, he said that he knew it was impossible to replicate the Coca-Cola recipe, but he wanted to get closer to the authentic taste.
The YouTuber compared mass spectrum graphs of Coca-Cola and Lab-Cola. Photo: LabCoatz/ YouTube
The YouTuber shared that a litre of Coca-Cola contains 110 g of sugar, 96 mg of caffeine, 0.64 g of phosphoric acid, and a bit of colour that offers it the unique brown hue. He was fixated on knowing the natural flavours, which are never revealed.
He experimented with essential oils - cinnamon, orange, clove, and pepper, among others. He even tried to replicate the recipes available on the internet, including Dr John Stith Pemberton's original Coca-Cola recipe, comprising sugar, water, and lime juice, along with a secret "Merchandise 7X" flavouring and fluid extract of coca.
Finally, he shared that tannins, found in wine and tea, helped him get closer to the original taste of Coca-Cola. He said, "It has a dry and astringent taste, which helps to mask the sweet flavours, and since they are non-volatile, they don't show up on gas-based mass spectrum."
After creating Lab-Cola, he made his friends and others try it. He said, "The general consensus is Lab-Cola could be mistaken for the real Coca-Cola."
The YouTuber created Lab-Cola by experimenting with tannins. Photo: LabCoatz/ YouTube
It seems like the YouTuber has cracked the recipe. It will be interesting to see if Coca-Cola brand creators could try Lab-Cola and comment on how close it tastes to the world's beloved soft drink.
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