Where is the secret formula for Coca‑Cola kept?

The secret formula for Coca-Cola is one of the most closely guarded trade secrets in history. When Dr John S Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886, his recipe was kept a closely guarded secret, shared only with a small group of people and not written down.

Asa Candler became the sole proprietor of Coca-Cola in 1891 after purchasing the rights to the business. Ernest Woodruff and a group of investors then purchased the company from Candler and his family in 1919. To enable the purchase, Woodruff took out a loan. As collateral, he provided a written record of the Coca-Cola secret formula by asking Candler’s son to commit the recipe to paper.

This record of the formula was placed in a vault in Guaranty Bank in New York until the loan Woodruff had taken out was repaid in 1925. At this point, Woodruff reclaimed the secret formula and put it in a vault in the Trust Company Bank in Atlanta (later the SunTrust Bank).

86 years later, in December 2011, the secret formula was moved to a new home at the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta. It is now at the centre of a permanent exhibit called The Vault of the Secret Formula, which celebrates the long and intriguing history of the Coca-Cola recipe.