Secret Formula
Mentioned once across 1 show · first heard Nov 2025 on Acquired.
The general take
Ben Gilbert praises Secret Formula as a well-researched history of Coca-Cola that had access to corporate archives, using it to highlight how Pemberton discovered his capitalist ambitions during a crucial phase of the company.
About
Secret Formula follows the colorful characters who turned a relic from the patent medicine era into a company worth $80 billion. Award-winning reporter Frederick Allen's engaging account begins with Asa Candler, a nineteenth-century pharmacist in Atlanta who secured the rights to the original Coca-Cola formula and then struggled to get the cocaine out of the recipe. After many tweaks, he finally succeeded in turning a backroom belly-wash into a thriving enterprise. In 1919, an aggressive banker named Ernest Woodruff leveraged a high-risk buyout of the Candlers and installed his son at the helm of the company. Robert Woodruff spent the next six decades guiding Coca-Cola with a single-minded determination that turned the soft drink into a part of the landscape and social fabric of America.
Who said what
Ben Gilbert👍 Recommends
…discussing book that had access to coca-cola corporate archives on formula history
“The book I was reading, which is called Secret Formula, it's a great book on the history of Coca-Cola that had access to all the corporate archives, really describes Pemberton in this phase as finding his capitalist streak.”
Acquired — Coca-Colaat 17:37
Listener reviews
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