可口可乐公司否认配方遭泄露

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."

可口可乐公司本周二宣布，其王牌产品可口可乐的配方没有泄露，否认了某公共广播节目称配方泄露一事。该配方已延用了近125年。

每周广播节目《美国生活》此前表示，他们在1979年2月的《亚特兰大宪章报》上发现了可口可乐的绝密配方。可口可乐公司的总部即位于亚特兰大。

该报文章所配的照片展示了写在数页笔记本书写纸上的手写配方列表，包括糖、酸橙汁、香草、焦糖等。此外，还列出了肉桂油、橙花油、肉豆蔻、柠檬、橙子等配料。

该节目由芝加哥公共广播电台制作，美国国际公众电台发行。节目宣称，这本笔记本原属于在1886年研发出可口可乐配方的药剂师潘伯顿的友人所有。

这本笔记本经数人转手，辗转传到乔治亚州药剂师埃弗里特．比尔手中。比尔的遗孀在接受伊拉．格拉斯主持的《美国生活》节目采访时表示，他是宣称可口可乐配方外泄一文作者的熟人。

全球最大的软饮料生产商可口可乐公司否认被公布的配方属实，称真实的配方一直保存在亚特兰大一家银行的保险库里。

可口可乐公司的女发言人凯瑞．特瑞斯勒说：“很多第三方机构都试图破解我们的秘密配方，比如《美国生活》栏目。不管他们怎么努力，都没成功，因为‘真的配方’只有一个。”

节目说，上述配方和可口可乐档案馆中收藏的潘伯顿的笔记本上发现的另一个配方相符。

档案馆馆长菲利浦．穆尼在节目中表示，过去也出现过很多类似的配方，宣称就是世界著名品牌可口可乐的独家配方。

穆尼在节目中说：“这个配方可不可能是目前配方的前身？完全有可能。但这就是市场上的产品所用的配方吗？我觉得不是。”