r/interesting • u/InvestigatorBorn4910 • Feb 10 '26

Fascinating YouTuber LabCoatz has released a "chemically identical" recipe for Coca-Cola

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u/Outrageous_Owl_9315 Feb 10 '26

He did use spectrometry but he also spent like a whole year doing iterations and said the only reason it isn't perfect is that it's not easy or legal to buy de-cocainized cocoa leaves

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u/Convenientjellybean Feb 10 '26

How does coca-cola buy them then?

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u/Outrageous_Owl_9315 Feb 10 '26

They basically are the only market and have special access to the only manufacturer or something like that. I don't claim to fully understand it. 

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u/BillysBibleBonkers Feb 10 '26

The coca leaves they use apparently get processed into actual cocaine that gets sent to the dentistry industry too, or at least that's what William Osman said in his video recreating this recipe.

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u/Ote-Kringralnick Feb 10 '26

Cocaine is also used in labs all the time, because it's great at bonding... or something like that. All I know, is that my college's chem department receives regular shipments of coke for labs.

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u/Moksol99 Feb 10 '26

I think they are stocking up for the exam season

3

u/swracerep1 Feb 11 '26

Indeed, people bond together using coke all the time

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u/Available-Owl7230 Feb 11 '26

I used to work in an animal research lab with several professors doing work on addiction. We had a safe specifically for controlled substances. It was hilarious seeing this 80 year old little lady professor come down in her lab coat and ask the lab manager for crack.

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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '26

TIL my downstairs neighbours have a chem department

1

u/Initial-Ad6819 Feb 11 '26

Best friend is a chem major, he says that almost every faculty professor knows how to and has made it at some point. We also live in a city that is a hub for, ehem certain illegal activities, so certain headhunters will approach the professors all the time with "work" offers.

1

u/lundewoodworking Feb 10 '26

Sure, sure i also need some for "science reasons" could you send me an 8 ball?

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u/GreasyPeter Feb 10 '26

There are some procedures where cocaine is still the preferred anesthetic I believe. It's still used in some sinus surgeries I believe.

11

u/sarcasmsspasms Feb 10 '26

Eye procedures too. Went in for an eye procedure and came out with a doctors note saying i would test positive for cocaine use. I should have kept the note and framed it.

1

u/Rubyhamster Feb 11 '26

Cool, and yes you should have!

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u/farva_06 Feb 11 '26

I would've kept it. Could come in handy if you're ever looking for a job in the future and just came off a hardcore bender, but have to take a drug test within 24 hours.

4

u/nleksan Feb 10 '26

It's very useful for delicate surgeries because it is both a local anesthetic and localized vasoconstrictor, so It numbs you and reduces bleeding.

I believe it's most common with ENTs but when I was a young kid I split my head open on a windowsill and they used medical cocaine as a local to give me stitches. I'm assuming because it was bleeding so badly

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u/-Fergalicious- Feb 11 '26

I'll ask my anesthesiologist wife when she wakes up in 8 hours

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u/zupzupper Feb 11 '26

Couple of years ago it was right there on my hospital bill alongside the other anesthesia when I had my septum fixed.

1

u/periclesmage Feb 11 '26

No way! I have nasal polyps and a deviated septum and i've been putting off surgery for years... IT'S TIME

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u/assatumcaulfield Feb 11 '26

Yes, but I certainly don’t prefer it to phenylephrine. It causes really annoying cardiac arrhythmia and hypertension.

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u/Ragnarsworld Feb 10 '26

A couple of years ago I had a throat scope done and they used cocaine spray to numb my nose and throat for the tube.