可口可樂公司否認配方遭泄露
Coca-Cola Co said on Tuesday that its flagship cola recipe is still secret after nearly 125 years, denying a story by a public radio show that it has uncovered the formula.
"This American Life," a weekly radio program, said it found the closely guarded formula in an article in Coke's hometown newspaper, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, from February 1979.
A photo that appeared with the article shows pages from a notebook with a handwritten list of ingredients such as sugar, lime juice, vanilla and caramel. It also lists oils of cinnaMon, neroli, coriander, nutmeg, lemon and orange.
The show, produced by WBEZ Chicago and distributed by Public Radio International, claims the notebook originally belonged to a friend of John Pemberton, the pharmacist who created Coca-Cola in 1886.
The book passed through various hands and eventually landed with Georgia pharmacist Everett Beal, who was an acquaintance of the newspaper writer, according to Beal's widow, who was interviewed by "This American Life" host Ira Glass.
Coke, the world's largest soft drink maker, denied that the formula is the same as the one for its cola, which is kept in an Atlanta bank vault.
"Many third parties, including 'This American Life,' have tried to crack our secret formula. Try as they might, they've been unsuccessful because there is only one 'Real Thing,'" said Coca-Cola spokeswoman Kerry Tressler.
The show said the recipe matched another one once found in a notebook owned by Pemberton, which is in Coke's archives.
Archive director Philip Mooney told the show that many similar, if not identical, recipes have surfaced in the past that claim to be the one for what has become one of the world's best-known brands.
"Could it be a precursor? Yeah, absolutely," Mooney told the show. "Is this the one that went to market? I don't think so."
可口可樂公司本週二宣佈，其王牌產品可口可樂的配方沒有泄露，否認了某公共廣播節目稱配方泄露一事。該配方已延用了近125年。
每週廣播節目《美國生活》此前表示，他們在1979年2月的《亞特蘭大憲章報》上發現了可口可樂的絕密配方。可口可樂公司的總部即位於亞特蘭大。
該報文章所配的照片展示了寫在數頁筆記本書寫紙上的手寫配方列表，包括糖、酸橙汁、香草、焦糖等。此外，還列出了肉桂油、橙花油、肉豆蔻、檸檬、橙子等配料。
該節目由芝加哥公共廣播電臺製作，美國國際公衆電臺發行。節目宣稱，這本筆記本原屬於在1886年研發出可口可樂配方的藥劑師潘伯頓的友人所有。
這本筆記本經數人轉手，輾轉傳到喬治亞州藥劑師埃弗裏特•比爾手中。比爾的遺孀在接受伊拉•格拉斯主持的《美國生活》節目採訪時表示，他是宣稱可口可樂配方外泄一文作者的熟人。
全球最大的軟飲料生產商可口可樂公司否認被公佈的配方屬實，稱真實的配方一直保存在亞特蘭大一家銀行的保險庫裏。
可口可樂公司的女發言人凱瑞•特瑞斯勒說：“很多第三方機構都試圖破解我們的祕密配方，比如《美國生活》欄目。不管他們怎麼努力，都沒成功，因爲‘真的配方’只有一個。”
節目說，上述配方和可口可樂檔案館中收藏的潘伯頓的筆記本上發現的另一個配方相符。
檔案館館長菲利浦•穆尼在節目中表示，過去也出現過很多類似的配方，宣稱就是世界著名品牌可口可樂的獨家配方。
穆尼在節目中說：“這個配方可不可能是目前配方的前身？完全有可能。但這就是市場上的產品所用的配方嗎？我覺得不是。”
