[HN Gopher] Perfectly Replicating Coca Cola [video]
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Perfectly Replicating Coca Cola [video]
Author : HansVanEijsden
Score : 105 points
Date : 2026-01-08 17:09 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| anishgupta wrote:
| I didn't see the full video, but in a nutshell its quite some
| effort. For a person who has a bad tastebud like me, every dark
| colored carbonated drink tastes almost the same to me :(
| glemion43 wrote:
| You are not missing anything though.
|
| Just a lot of sugar
| dylan604 wrote:
| that's a very oversimplification of it. how people can be
| willing to consume a beverage that can be used to eat the
| corrosion off of battery terminals is beyond me. so they'd be
| missing that on top of the sugar, unless of course they are
| drinking the sugar free versions, then it's just the battery
| cleanser
| Arch-TK wrote:
| Lemonade (made from real sugar, water and lemons and
| nothing else) can also eat the corrosion off of battery
| terminals...
| jrochkind1 wrote:
| > can be used to eat the corrosion off of battery terminal
|
| That's just acidic, orange juice will do the same thing.
| But perhaps you are amazed people are willing to consume
| orange juice too!
| kstrauser wrote:
| > how people can be willing to consume a beverage that can
| be used to eat the corrosion off of battery terminals is
| beyond me.
|
| Wait 'til you find out what water can do.
|
| I do get your point, but really, it's just corrosive in a
| different way than the usual highly corrosive stuff we
| consume daily.
| rhyperior wrote:
| Let me tell you about this thing called saliva...
| richardatlarge wrote:
| It would be interesting to know more about how it's actually
| manufactured and whether he has ideas about why the classic
| formula was changed -- maybe something to do with the cost of one
| of the steps, which the video suggests could be true, as it's
| damn complicated
| 1970-01-01 wrote:
| Perfect meaning tasters would be initially fooled, but would
| correct themselves and note that the tastes were slightly
| different in A/B testing. The formula wasn't cracked it was
| emulated to a high degree of accuracy.
| Suppafly wrote:
| I didn't watch the video, but assuming they used a mass
| spectrometer, the end result will be identical to the real
| thing, anyone tasting otherwise is deluding themselves.
| tomcam wrote:
| Mass spec is indeed demonstrated multiple times
| Arch-TK wrote:
| The video explains how the gas based mass spectrometers he
| had (indirect) access to don't normally pick up nonvolatile
| compounds like tannins. It was a big breakthrough that since
| he didn't have cocoa leaf extract, and he basically nailed
| everything else, he couldn't really understand what he was
| missing until he realised the extract would likely contain
| tannins.
|
| So there may be other nonvolatile compounds which
| nevertheless impact the flavour profile. While a lot of
| flavour is in your nose, not all of it is...
| jrochkind1 wrote:
| Taste buds can detect chemicals in as concentrations as low
| as a few parts per million, I dunno.
| hinkley wrote:
| Someone once said the reason we had alcohol before
| civilization is that we carry around a chemical testing
| laboratory in our faces.
|
| It just so happens that everything in beer that can go
| wrong and hurt you (any sooner than cancer) creates a
| distinct aftertaste and you can learn to avoid it rather
| easily.
|
| The only exception of course is if you use poisonous
| ingredients in the first place.
| ipsum2 wrote:
| He doesn't compare the mass spec of his final product to a
| real coke, unless I missed it.
| Telemakhos wrote:
| There have been a number of taste tests that show that, when
| blindfolded, most people can't distinguish between Coke and
| Sprite, let alone Coke and a close imitation, without the
| visual cue: throw together enough sugar, acid, and carbonation,
| and it overwhelms the body's ability to distinguish taste. It's
| a story often repeated in marketing (like Twitchells' _Branded
| Nation_ ), because forging a distinction between
| indistinguishable parity products is marketing's job.
|
| https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/food/1982/0...
| natdempk wrote:
| I think if you believe this I'd recommend trying it yourself.
|
| I've done this blinded with colas, and it's pretty easy to
| tell the difference between Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero,
| Pepsi, and Diet Pepsi. You might not know which is which
| without some history drinking them, but they all taste very
| distinct by themselves.
|
| Really disagree that these are indistinguishable parity
| products, or that most people would not be obviously able to
| tell the difference between them.
| hinkley wrote:
| Supposedly Jell-O was originally to be clear but they needed
| the food coloring to convince your brain you weren't just
| tasting sugar and citric acid instead of the little bit of
| flavor they added per recipe.
| knallfrosch wrote:
| Most people prefer Pepsi's taste. Unless the brands are
| revealed, then the brand recognition sets in and your brain
| rewards you more for choosing Coca Cola (c)
|
| So you can taste it, but that doesn't matter in the end.
| spyckie2 wrote:
| This is irrelevant and misleading. Just because many people
| cannot tell flavors apart doesn't mean that the products are
| parity and are marketing differentiated.
|
| Sure the majority of people cannot tell flavor notes apart
| but there exists a certain % of the population that can very
| reliably distinguish different tastes. Wine sommeliers, fine
| dining, food science are all professions which require a
| sensitive palate and smell and it is an over simplification
| to talk about sodas tasting the same for the majority of
| people as if it implies there is no difference or speciality
| in crafting taste.
| layer8 wrote:
| Coke isn't even consistent between factories, different bottle
| sizes and cans.
| 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
| Now I am wondering are there any industrial processes that use a
| common commercial product as a standard?
|
| Coke, Guinness, etc all probably have exquisite quality control.
| Is it in the manual of any equipment, "congratulations on your
| new FooBar pH meter. To confirm the correct operation, a CokeCola
| should give a reading of X"
| Suppafly wrote:
| The government has reference products that a lot of processes
| use.
| https://shop.nist.gov/ccrz__ProductList?categoryId=a0l3d0000...
|
| one that gets mentioned occasionally on the internet is the
| peanut butter:
| https://shop.nist.gov/ccrz__ProductDetails?sku=2387
| 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
| I was more imagining a completely pedestrian sourced sample.
| Those are likely large aggregate pools to minimize
| heterogeneity. Looking for something like, "Go to corner
| store, buy 12 pack canned CokeCola (with aspartame), dilute
| 1:10, measure"
| analog31 wrote:
| Coincidentally, Guinness had a role to play in the development
| of modern quality control.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sealy_Gosset
| lurn_mor wrote:
| Quite informative, and a laundry list of flavor names/chemicals
| that sound far more dangerous than they taste. Interesting find
| is vinegar, which might have offered a small germ-fighting
| benefit and given Coca Cola the 'medical' qualities it initially
| sold for...
| foxyv wrote:
| I think that the cocaine was the origin of its medical debut.
| riffraff wrote:
| Cola nut also contains caffeine, so quite an energy drink
| between the two.
| colechristensen wrote:
| It was a reformulation from a popular drink where wine was
| infused with coca leaves and kola nuts, popular with Pope Leo
| XIII who appeared on poster advertisements for it. (and many
| others)
|
| Georgia passed prohibition and coca-cola was an invention to
| replace the now banned beverages.
| fiftyacorn wrote:
| Is that tonic wine? Like buckfast?
| colechristensen wrote:
| Same kind of thing as Buckfast, long out of production
| but somebody tried to revive it a decade ago.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin_Mariani
|
| https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mariani_pope.jpg
| halapro wrote:
| The ingredients he uses are not necessarily what CC uses, but
| they're just a way to replicate the flavor profile. Notably he
| lacks the coca extract so he has to make up for it.
| leetrout wrote:
| I was surprised to see nausea meds for kids that's phosphoric
| acid and sugar...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucose/fructose/phosphoric_ac...
| hulitu wrote:
| > Perfectly Replicating Coca Cola
|
| Which version ? In EU it tastes different in almost every
| country.
| a_paddy wrote:
| The concentrate is produced by Ballina Beverages, then regional
| bottlers add the bulk ingredients like sugar and water. Hence
| every version being a little different.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| And that's just bottlers. Fountain soda is also diluted from
| concentrate. So local water can affect the flavor, as can the
| calibration of the soda fountain. The better retailers will
| carbon-filter their water and check calibration regularly but
| the average convenience store? Varies wildly.
| trympet wrote:
| Do you have fountain soda in your convenience store? I've
| usually only seen that in fast food places (am european)
| lacunary wrote:
| yes it's very common in the US. See: Big Gulp!
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Yes, convenience stores here often have self-serve
| fountain soda.
| 0xbadcafebee wrote:
| Random tidbit from my youth: when the Coke truck would come
| deliver a crate of Coke bottles to our house in Mexico, each
| Coke bottle had a little stick of sugarcane in it. I don't
| think it was like that in all places in Mexico. Street
| vendors would have giant unlabeled jugs of Coke, and sell it
| to you by pouring it into a plastic bag with a straw in it.
| djoldman wrote:
| For other science buffs out there,
|
| https://www.youtube.com/@MassSpecEverything
|
| is a great resource. He breaks down lots of the things you might
| be interested in.
| neuroelectron wrote:
| Some of the interesting discovered flavor components in this
| trial were tea tree and basil (not shown in the video).
| ipsum2 wrote:
| Yes I'm surprised basil wasn't included. How did you find out
| if it wasn't in the video?
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| The marketing and trademark is more important than the formula.
| If you created and sold a perfect Coke clone you wouldn't make a
| dent in their market share. You could make one better than Coke
| and not make a dent because they aren't Coke.
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(page generated 2026-01-11 23:00 UTC)