Alleged Original Coca-Cola Recipe on Sale on eBay

May 14, 2013

A man in Georgia says he has the original Coca-Cola recipe, and he wants to sell it. Antique collector Cliff Kluge and his wife Arlene came across the recipe when they purchased a box of letters at an estate sale. The recipe was dated in 1943 and includes instructions for what seems to be Coca-Cola. The couple is trying to sell it on eBay -- bidding started at $5 million. 

"Offered for sale is a single page, hand typed and written, 70+ year old recipe on yellowed paper that was purchased out of an estate of a local chemist in a city that claims the right of being where Coca Cola Bottling originated," the eBay listing reads. "Whoever typed this letter back in 1943, had access to the original recipe, and references that fact on the second page -- 'On page 83 of the Extractor is the oringal Coca Cola formula(e) which might serve as a source of preparation information.'"

Meanwhile, the beverage company says the recipe is not the Coca-Cola original. 

"Through the years, many have tried to crack the secret formula, but no one has been able to reproduce the 'real thing'," Coca-Cola said in a statement. "The real formula is safely tucked away in a vault at the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta." 

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