But not by Julian Assange. This American Life reports that the recipe was published as a photograph on page 28 of the Atlantic Journal-Constitution newspaper in 1979 as part of an inconspicuous historical piece on the Coca-Cola company, but the small size of the newspaper, the poor placement of the article and a complete lack of the World Wide Web meant that the historical leak went unnoticed.

The recipe had apparently been written by a friend of pharmacist Mr Pemberton’s then passed down through the generations. A can of Coca-Cola currently simply refers to its specialist ingredients as ‘Natural flavourings including caffeine’ alongside carbonated water, sugar, phosphoric acid and colour (Caramel E150d).

Thisamericanlife.org consulted historian Mark Pendergrast, who has written a history of the drink and believes the recipe could be, as Coca-Cola’s famous slogan goes, the real thing.
He said: ‘I think that it certainly is a version of the formula.’

Click the pic for larger version

Coca-Cola have gone to extraordinairy lengths to preserve the secrecy of their recipe since the drink’s invention in the late 1800’s.

Asa Candler, one of the first presidents of the company, was so worried that the ‘Holy of Holies’ would fall into the wrong hands he made sure it was never written down.

He removed all the labels from the containers of the ingredients so they were identified only by the sight, smell and where they were put on the shelf…

A crucial part of the formula was also given the name ‘7X’ to add to the mystique.

Mr Candler even used to go through company mail himself and remove invoices for ingredients so no one in the accounts department could sell the recipe to a rival.

‘The company has always said, and as far as I know it’s true, that at any given time only two people know how to mix the 7X flavouring ingredient,’ said Mr Pendergrast.

‘Those two people never travel on the same plane in case it crashes; it’s this carefully passed-on secret ritual and the formula is kept in a bank vault.’

Coca-Cola has, however, had no problem with admitting that early versions of the drink contained cocaine, although the narcotic was apparently removed in the early 1900’s.

Update: Here’s a comparison between John Pemberton’s original recipe, and the recipe that appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

[Thanks, Crispin]

[Source : This American Life; Daily Mail]