[alizaki]

Coke could open source their cola tomorrow and nothing would change. I dont get this fascination with their secret recipe. Their strength is distribution and marketing of course. It would be the equivalent of Nike telling you how to make a shoe.

[ROFISH]

The fact that "the Coke formula is secret" is a marketing tool itself. I've seen a few ads along the line of "only two guys know the Coke formula and they each only know half." (Which I'm betting isn't true, since that makes Coke a bus factor of one.)

[wisty]

And you can bet that the guy driving in tankers from a orange-oil factory to the coco-cola HQ would have an inkling as to what one of the ingredients is.

[kenjackson]

Coke could open source their cola tomorrow and nothing would change.

It depends on what the recipe is. If they're extracting some ingredients from cow dung then I think it could hurt them.

[stanmancan]

> If they're extracting some ingredients from cow dung then I think it could hurt them.

Possibly, but people seem pretty resistent to these types of things. Red die being crushed up bugs. Everything in cigarettes. 90% of the ingredients in non-fresh foods. Pesticides on fresh foods. McDonalds....

Coke isn't exactly good for you and I think most people know that. And I think the "eww" factor would have to be pretty horrifying to make people stop drinking it.

[axod]

The "secret recipe" is simply marketing. It gets them in the news every so often, and makes the public believe it can't be replicated by competitors.

IMHO Coke tastes horrible. Can't stand the stuff. Only Pepsi Max will do.

[tptacek]

Your first sentence is clearly and obviously true, but that doesn't make the story any less newsworthy.

[goatforce5]

Pret a Manager (normally shortened to plain ol' "Pret") is a premium sandwich/coffee chain based in the UK. They have stores in Manhattan and other places too. I miss it desperately.

Pre-packaged sandwiches are normally considered a bit ghetto and nasty. Pret used to (maybe they still do... I dunno...) print the recipe for the sandwich you were eating on the side of the box so that you realised you were getting good quality ingredients and a fair amount of effort went in to what you were eating.

Seems as though Pret realised what you were buying was not so much the product itself, but the convenience.

[waqf]

I'm confused by your post because:

1. Are you USian or UKian (or neither)? Pre-packaged sandwiches have much greater acceptance in the UK. Heck, M&S sells them.

2. Don't pre-packaged sandwiches already have ingredients printed on them? If you're drawing a distinction between ingredients and recipe, how does one more than the other guarantee quality of ingredients?

[goatforce5]

1) Neither. But i've lived in both. From what I saw, Pret really upped the ante with the quality of their sandwiches, and others followed as best they could.

2) This picture answers it better than I tried to explain it:

http://www.psfk.com/2007/01/pret_gives_it_a.html