This Vault In Georgia Holds One Of The World's Most Closely-Guarded Secrets
By Lisa Sammons|Published February 07, 2023
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Lisa Sammons
Author
Lisa loves animals and has dogs, rats, cats, guinea pigs, and snakes. She is passionate about animal rescue and live music - traveling across the country to see a favorite band is a pretty regular occurrence! Being out hiking in the woods enjoying the scenery with her beloved dogs is another favorite hobby, and also checking out the Pokemon Go scene in whatever city she happens to be in at any given time (coffee and dog leash in hand). You can reach Lisa at lsammons@onlyinyourstate.com
There are a lot of closely-guarded secrets in the world. Nuclear codes, celebrity love affairs, sordid family histories… the list could go on and on. However, one of the most carefully hidden secrets of all time is right here in Georgia. It’s tucked behind the walls of a secure vault that’s visited by over one million people each year. The World of Coca-Cola is one of the most popular attractions in Georgia, and hidden inside this massive museum is the ultra-secret recipe for the most famous soft drink the world has ever known.
It goes without saying that Atlanta is a popular tourist destination, and one of the most-visited attractions within the city is the World of Coca-Cola. This 20-acre complex is right across the street from Centennial Olympic Park.
You'll see Coke memorabilia from all over the world, with exhibits such as a simulated bottling line, 1930s-style soda fountain, and informative films about the soda's beginnings.
One of the most popular sections of the museum is the tasting room, where visitors can try dozens of different flavors of sodas from all over the world.
That formula is now hidden within the Vault, an area that museum visitors can walk through (but, of course, not inside of, since it's top-secret!). This is one of the most closely-guarded trade secrets in the world, and it's only known to a few anonymous Coca-Cola employees.
John Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-Cola, shared his formula with a handful of people before he died in 1888. In 1891, businessman Asa Candler purchased the formula from Pemberton's estate and altered the ingredients to improve the drink's taste.
When the Coca-Cola Company was purchased from Candler in 1919, the sole written copy of the recipe was moved to a bank in New York as collateral for the loan. That recipe was eventually moved to the World of Coca-Cola, where it lies behind the vault doors today.
The company keeps the formula so secretive that the syrup recipe is hidden even from the factories that produce it. The ingredients are simply labeled by number and the recipe states what amount to include in each batch.
