A YouTuber says he has reverse-engineered Coca-Cola’s 139-year-old secret formula using mass spectrometry, taste testing and a year of trial and error.
The creator, known as LabCoatz, released a 25-minute video on January 9 showing his process, which has attracted around 2.8 million views.
The analysis suggests more than 99% of Coca-Cola consists of sugar, caffeine, phosphoric acid and caramel colour, with the famed secret flavouring making up less than 1%.
LabCoatz said taste testers struggled to tell his replica apart from the original, with some rating it as high as 9.5 out of 10.
The findings challenge decades of marketing mystique around Coca-Cola’s tightly guarded recipe, which is stored in a vault at the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta.
Coca-Cola maintains that only two employees know the full formula at any one time, reinforcing the brand’s long-running secrecy narrative.
The YouTuber identified the flavour blend as a mix of citrus oils, spices and essential oils, with wine tannins replacing coca leaf extract.
Coca-Cola does use decocainised coca leaves sourced via licensed processors in the United States, though no cocaine is present in the drink.
LabCoatz said the project is legal because he is not selling the product or using the Coca-Cola trademark.
The experiment highlights how modern laboratory tools can replicate proprietary flavours without breaching intellectual property law.