Buju Banton Found Guilty On Drug Charges

Grammy Award Winner Buju Banton Found Guilty On Drug Charges

Grammy Award winning dancehall reggae sensation Buju Banton has been found guilty on drug charges after many thought the artist would beat the odds after an earlier mistrial in the fall of 2010.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday evening that it took Tampa, Florida jurors 11 hours to convict Banton, born Mark Myrie, on three counts. The charges read that the singer was found guilty of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense, and using the wires to facilitate a drug trafficking offense. One charge of attempted possession with the intent to distribute cocaine was dropped.
The 37-year old Jamaican artist had a host of fans and fellow artists in court showing support for Buju during his trial. Affectionately known as “Gargamel,” Buju was arrested in December 2009 on charges of conspiring to distribute cocaine along with two others. The deejay was heard in taped conversations discussing the deal with undercover agents who then set up a sting to nab the entertainer.
Damaging video shown during the trial saw Banton allegedly tasting the cocaine for potency. In court, it was learned that an informant was given $135,000 dollars by one of Banton’s co-defendants in the case.
Buju has maintained innocence from the onset and reports say that the striking superstar exhibited no signs of sadness or despair. After the verdict was read, Buju hugged his attorneys and turned to the spectators to blow them kisses and acknowledge their support. Buju’s bail was revoked and he was led away by U.S. Marshals to await sentencing. Banton’s attorney David Markus plans to appeal the conviction and attempt to have his client free on bond as he waits to know his fate.
Buju Banton’s tenth studio album Before The Dawn received a Grammy Award for best reggae album on February 13.

Just like Qdoba's Mexican Gumbo Soup

Just like Qdoba!!
thx Spark Recipes:

Ingredients

2 T Olive Oil
1 C each diced red and green bell pepper and white onion
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
3 T Ground Cumin
1 28 Oz. can crushed tomatoes
3 small cans of chopped green chile peppers, drained
4 14 oz cans vegetable broth
1/2 C Lime juice
3 C cooked white rice
3 C cooked black beans
1 16 oz container pico de gallo
OPTIONAL (not included in nutritional info):
Cilantro
Cheese
Sour cream
Avocado

Directions
Makes 6 large bowls!

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the peppers and onions, garlic and cumin. Cook 5 minutes until vegetables are tender. Mix in the tomatoes and chile peppers. Pour in the broth and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes. Add in lime juice and blend with an immersion blender for a smooth texture and even flavor.

In 6 bowls (or into the soup for convenience) add 1/2 C each rice and black beans. Ladle the soup over the rice and beans and top with pico de gallo and your choice of garnish.

Number of Servings: 6

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user MYCRAZYMOONS.

Tortilla Soup Tortilla Soup Recipe

thx CookEatShare

Tortilla Soup

6 6-inch corn tortillas
canola oil
4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 poblano pepper
1 jalapeño pepper
1 medium Spanish onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 15-ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
6 cups chicken stock

for toppings:
shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
sour cream
2 Haas avocados, cubed
cilantro sprigs
lime wedges

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut tortillas into 1/4-inch strips. Toss tortilla strips with a drizzle of oil on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until crisp and lightly golden, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Rub chicken breasts with oil and season with salt and pepper. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until cooked through and juices run clear, about 30 to 35 minutes. Once chicken is cool to touch, shred into bite-size pieces.

Turn on broiler. Place peppers on a rimmed baking sheet. Broil peppers for 3 to 5 minutes per side until black and blistered. Alternatively, blacken peppers over a gas flame. Transfer peppers to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap for a few minutes to allow steam to loosen skins. Remove skins by rubbing peppers with paper towels. Remove stem and seeds. Wear gloves when handling jalapeño. Chop peppers.

Warm 3 tablespoons of canola oil in a large pot set over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add chopped peppers and spices; sauté for a few minutes. Add tomatoes; cook until the mixture thickens, about 8 to 10 minutes. Using an immersion blender, purée the vegetables until smooth. Add half the stock and continue to purée until silky smooth. Add the remaining stock and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Add shredded chicken and warm for 2 minutes.

Ladle soup into bowls and top each with shredded cheese, baked tortilla strips, sour cream, avocado slices, and cilantro sprigs. Garnish each bowl with a lime wedge. Yield: 6 servings.

National Margarita Day today!!

National Margarita Day: Three Unique Recipes for a Perfect Margarita Party - NewsFeed - TIME.com

NewsFeed isn't exactly sure why National Margarita Day falls on a Tuesday. But we're not stopping you from partaking, either in or out of the office.

We're also not sure why the drink needs an official holiday in the middle of February. But we're not the creators of the holiday, so we'll just have to sip our frozen margs and think of the beach. Want to throw your own National Margarita Day party? Or just be that difficult person at the bar who orders a complicated margarita tonight? We've got you covered with unique margarita recipes from our sister publications.

Cucumber and Chili Margarita (Real Simple)
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces tequila
1 1/2 ounces Cointreau
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
8 thin slices of cucumber
cayenne pepper
1 lime wedge
kosher salt
ice

Directions
In a shaker, mix together the tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, cucumber, and cayenne pepper. Shake or stir.
Rub the rim of a glass with a lime wedge, then dip the edge in a dish of kosher salt. Fill the glass with ice and top with the mixed margarita.

Mocha Margarita (MyRecipes)
Ingredients
1 cup chocolate ice cream, softened
1/3 cup prepared espresso
1/4 cup blanco (white) tequila (such as Sauza Blanco)

Directions
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, add ice,  and shake until well chilled and ice cream is smooth and pourable.  Serve in a chilled martini or margarita glass.

Jalepeño Margaritas (Food + Wine)
Ingredients
1 jalapeño, poked with a knife
1 1/3 cups tequila
1 cup orange liqueur
1 cup fresh lime juice (10 limes)
3 tablespoons superfine sugar
Kosher salt and ice

Directions
In a jar, steep the jalapeño and tequila; keep at room temperature for 3 days.
Strain the tequila into a large pitcher and discard the jalapeño. Stir in the orange liqueur, lime juice and sugar.
Pour the salt and a small amount of the margarita onto 2 rimmed plates.  Dip the rims of 6 glasses into the margarita, then into the salt. Fill  each glass with ice, pour in the margarita and serve.

New Zealand earthquake

New Zealand earthquake: Authorities scramble after temblor leaves at least 65 dead - CSMonitor.com

The mayor of New Zealand's second-largest city, Christchurch, has declared a state of emergency in the aftermath of a 6.3-magnitude earthquake that rocked the "garden city" shortly before 1 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

New Zealand earthquake shuts down flights out of the country
New Zealand earthquake magnitude 6.3 hits Christchurch
US-sized Cyclone Yasi could cost Australia more than $2 billion
Prime Minister John Key, who was raised in Christchurch, said that at least 65 people are known to have died in what "may well be New Zealand's darkest day."

The New Zealand earthquake is already the deadliest to strike the country in the past 80 years and the death toll is expected to rise. It's the second major earthquake to hit Christchurch in five months, the first causing an estimated $3 billion in damages from multiple aftershock, but no deaths.
This time, rescue crews are mobilizing from around the country to assist in what will be a massive rescue and rebuilding effort. For now, though, authorities in the country's capital, Wellington, are scrambling just to get information with the phone lines down and airports closed.
"There are people fighting for their lives at the moment, but there are also people fighting for them," Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker told reporters as the first of more than 20 aftershocks to be recorded on the day began to be felt. "We're preparing ourselves for what I think will be a really sad, bleak day for our city but be reassured everybody is doing what they can."

Mr. Parker has asked some 350 military personnel to help in the evacuation of the city's downtown area.

New Zealand earthquake shuts down flights out of the country
Information trickle
In a statement, the country's deputy prime minister, Bill English, said that government agencies and emergency services were still putting together a picture of the damage and devastation.
"Information is still coming through," said Mr. English, speaking from a parliamentary bunker here in the New Zealand capital of Wellington. "This is a fast-moving situation and we will update you as we establish more ourselves."

Among the early offers of international assistance was the US government, which has said it will provide anything from its resources available in Honolulu.
Offices, homes, landmarks leveled
The New Zealand earthquake leveled a number of central offices, wiped out iconic landmarks, and destroyed many homes, leaving parts of the picturesque cityscape – now swathed in dust and gas vapors – "unlivable." Local media is full of accounts of people trapped in damaged buildings, and residents of Christchurch have been told to evacuate, as no area is considered safe at this time.
Among the multiple casualties were an unknown number of foreign-nationals staying at one of the city's hostels catering to the younger cohort among the hundreds of thousands of international visitors who arrive each year in the country's distinctly Anglican locale, where the centrally located Christchurch Cathedral has long served as the city's most visible icon.
Today, that 110-year-old cathedral's looming spire, too, collapsed.
'Ring of fire'
Severe tremors are common in geologically young New Zealand, a land sometimes referred to as "the shaky isles" for its prime position on the Pacific Rim's "Ring of Fire" – a series of seismically active fault zones. But only a handful of earthquakes each year manage to do any damage in this relatively sparsely populated land of 4.4 million inhabitants.
The latest quake was unusually shallow, however, occurring at a depth of just three miles and one of only a few to strike almost directly underneath a major urban area over the course of New Zealand's 170-year history.
Conventional wisdom has long had it that Wellington, built as it is on ever-jittery tectonic plates, would be first in line for such an event. More on the web page.

Steve Stoute takes on the Grammys

Former music exec Steve Stoute: Grammy awarding process lacks 'clarity,' snubs deserving artists

Steve Stoute stuck up for Justin Bieber, Eminem and Kanye West. The question is: Will they stick up for themselves?
Stoute, a former music exec who's now CEO of his own marketing company, Translation, set the music industry atwitter when he took a full-page, open-letter-style ad in the N.Y. Times Sunday Styles section (costing upward of $100,000) to assert that the Grammy Awards had "lost touch" with contemporary culture.
Stoute questioned previous Grammy snubs of Eminem and West and wondered how teen phenom Bieber didn't win Best New Artist this year. He also implied that Arcade Fire's two performances during the broadcast were tied to their Best New Album win.
Monday, Stoute told us he took out the ad because "I'm in the business of cultural truth." The marketing guru, whose letter urged artists to stop accepting the invitation to the Grammys, predicted many of them "will push back on next year's show unless they have some clarity" on the Grammy voting process. 
A rep for Eminem did not respond to our request for reaction to Stoute's letter by deadline, and a rep for Bieber declined to comment. But Stoute says he's confident that his ad is what the artists and labels "needed to start the conversation" about what he termed the "hypocrisies and contradictions" of the Grammys.
 
Carmen Dell'Orefice does not want you to lay your hands on her. At least she didn't after Joanna Mastroianni's fashion show at her W. 38th St. studio on Thursday. One showgoer tells us the 79-year-old model was seated front row at the presentation and, when the lights came up, was swarmed by fashionistas seeking to say hello. That's when, our source says, the silver-haired stunner "balled herself up" and began shouting "No hands! No hands!" — apparently a warning that she would not be shaking hands and catching a cold from the crowd.
Common's decency
Common went stag at Hennessy Black's NBA All-Star party in L.A. on Thursday night, but he didn't exactly dispel talk that he's ready for his stag party. The rapper showed up at Boulevard 3 without his rumored fiancée, tennis star Serena Williams. But a source tells us that although he was out with the boys, he was on his best behavior and paid no attention to the swarms of sexy sirens trying to catch his eye.
George Shearing's doggone memories
George Shearing's death on Feb. 14, at age 91, reminded a fan of a story the blind jazz piano virtuoso recounted in his "Lullaby of Birdland" autobiography. Shearing was on a plane from Los Angeles to New York with his seeing-eye dog, Lee, when the plane made a fuel stop in Chicago. Shearing and Lee stayed on the plane while other passengers stretched their legs, until the pilot of the aircraft asked the musician if he'd like his dog walked. Shearing said yes, and a few minutes later, the passenger next to him saw a few dozen people milling around the bottom of the stairway that had been rolled up to the plane's doorway, "reluctant to get back on the plane because they saw the pilot with a guide dog!"
Remember the Pratts?
Stephanie Pratt is mulling a savvy move for an ex-reality star: When your show ends, befriend the flacks. In town from L.A. for Fashion Week revelry, Pratt — formerly of "The Hills" — hit BowlMor Lanes Times Square on Thursday night. She found time between strikes and snacks (from the kitchen of David Burke, no less) to tell a BowlMor employee she's considering a stint on E!'s PR reality show, "The Spin Crowd." If it's picked up for a second season, she may move in with Simon Huck and become his on-screen roomie. Not bad, but as reality stars potentially shacking up, we're rooting for Tim Gunn and Snooki.

Obama with all the Rulers of the World

Here's an image from the meeting Obama held in San Francisco with American's biggest tech-industry players. We told you yesterday that Obama he was meeting with Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Google's Eric Schmidt, so who are all the other people toasting to the good life? According to NYT the other dinner guests were:

Carol Bartz, president and C.E.O., Yahoo; John Chambers, C.E.O. and chairman, Cisco Systems; Dick Costolo, C.E.O., Twitter; Larry Ellison, co-founder and C.E.O., Oracle; Reed Hastings, C.E.O., NetFlix; John Hennessy, president of Stanford University; Art Levinson, chairman and former C.E.O., Genentech; and Steve Westly, managing partner and founder, the Westly Group.

The combined wealth of all the people who were in attendance is more than the GDP of Croatia. DAMN!

Facebook from a SIM Card? - no data charges, just SMS

According to The Register:

Gemalto has managed to get Facebook running on a SIM chip, making every GSM phone a Facebook phone and bringing social networking to the dumbest of handsets.

The SIM-based client isn't as pretty as its smartphone contemporaries – don't expect picture streams or sliding interfaces – but it was developed with the help of Facebook, and provides text-menu-based interaction with Facebook – including status updates, pokes and friend requests – to any GSM-compatible handset through the magic of the GSM SIM Toolkit and Class 2 SMS messages.

The SIM Toolkit is part of the GSM standard and thus supported on just about every GSM handset, from the dumbest PAYG talker to the latest iGear. It allows the SIM to present menu options to the user, collect responses, and pop up alerts when new data arrives, which is all that's necessary for a basic Facebook client.

Modern handsets also allow the SIM to make TCP/IP data connections, but Gemalto is eschewing that for Class 2 SMS to ensure compatibility with the most basic handsets, and networks.

Class 2 SMS messages are delivered direct to the SIM without the user being involved, so can update friends' status messages and deliver a poke or two. The application running on the SIM then prods the handset into alerting the user.

That user's own updates are sent over SMS too, following a status change or wall posting client pastes that into an SMS, which is sent silently on its way.

How, or if, the network operator charges for all those messages flying about isn't clear. Gemalto won't name operators yet but claims to be talking to one operator who reckons that Facebook is eating half its bandwidth, and another who's already working on SIM distribution strategies.

Not that a new SIM is necessarily required – SIMs are field upgradable, though few operators deploy them with sufficient empty space for an application like this and issuing replacement SIMs is probably easier from a marketing point of view.

But despite that it's likely that Facebook on the SIM will have a big impact in developing markets where smartphones and ubiquitous data networks have yet to penetrate. That could include South America, where Google's Orkut still dominates the social networking scene, or China, where QQ is where the cool kids hang out.

So having a SIM client could be good news for Facebook, as well as Gemalto and the dumbphone owners who want to stay connected.

Borders Files Bankruptcy, Is Closing Up to 275 Stores

According to Bloomberg:

Borders Group Inc., the second- biggest U.S. bookstore chain, filed for bankruptcy in New York today after management changes, job cuts and debt restructuring failed to make up for sagging book sales in the face of competition from Amazon.com Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Borders plans to keep operating and restructure with $505 million in so-called debtor-in-possession financing from lenders led by GE Capital, according to a statement. The 40-year-old chain listed debt of $1.29 billion and assets of $1.28 billion as of Dec. 25 in its Chapter 11 petition filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

The reorganization is only possible if Borders immediately closes 200 of its 642 stores, according to an emergency motion to sell furniture and merchandise filed in Manhattan bankruptcy court today. Sales need to start no later than Feb. 19 to take advantage of the President’s Day long weekend, and another 75 stores may need to close if concessions aren’t won from landlords, the company said.

“Closing the stores right away is essential because the Debtors are losing approximately $2 million per week at the closing stores,” lawyers for Borders wrote in court pleadings.
Market Value

Borders, whose market value has shrunk by more than $3 billion since 1998, racked up losses by failing to adapt to shifts in how consumers shop. Its first e-commerce site debuted in 2008, more than a decade after Amazon.com revolutionized publishing with online sales. The world’s largest online retailer beat it again by moving into digital books with the Kindle e-reader in 2007, a market Borders entered in July.

“Borders Group does not have the capital resources it needs to be a viable competitor,” the company’s president, Mike Edwards, said today in a statement. The bankruptcy will give it “time to reorganize in order to reposition itself to be a successful business for the long term.”

“Instead of leading and being innovative, they were certainly a follower,” said Michael Souers, an analyst for Standard & Poor’s in New York.

Borders, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, began looking for a cash infusion in December. It said lenders cut its borrowing capacity, and that failure to find replacement credit could lead to a violation of its loan agreements and a “liquidity shortfall” in the first quarter of 2011.
Cash Drain

The company has 642 stores under the Borders, Waldenbooks, Borders Express and Borders Outlet names in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, according to the court filing.

“It buys them a little bit of time, because they are closing stores that are a drain on cash flow,” said Peter Wahlstrom, a retail analyst for Morningstar Investment Services in Chicago. The bankruptcy filing “allows them to retrain their focus on the stores that are profitable.”

The company owes $302 million to vendors for inventory and has $109 million in guarantees for liquidated foreign units, it said it its filing. Among the stores being closed are three in Manhattan.

Penguin Putnam, a unit of Pearson Plc, was listed as the largest unsecured creditor with a $41 million claim. Hachette Book Group has a claim of $36.9 million and Simon & Schuster Inc. has a claim of $33.8 million. Random House, the publisher owned by Bertelsmann AG, Europe’s biggest media company, has a claim of $33.5 million.
Deal With Liquidators

Borders has a deal with liquidators Hilco Merchant Resources LLC, SB Capital Group LLC and Tiger Capital Group to guarantee it 73 percent of the cost value of all merchandise at the closing stores, which Borders estimates will bring in $131 million to $148 million to repay its creditors.

The offer, structured as a “stalking horse bid” is subject to higher and better offers, and calls for the liquidators to fund store level expenses while the locations close. It also gives Borders a 50 percent share of any proceeds after a 5 percent fee and expense recovery.

Before its bankruptcy, Borders had already started a plan to close more than 260 stores, and those locations are stocked with “quickly dwindling merchandise” that make it necessary to close them right away, Borders said in court papers. The agreement with liquidators calls for a break-up fee of $1 million if a better offer is received at an auction.
Creditors

Borders’ debt includes a $970.5 million revolving loan under an agreement from March 2010, with Bank of America Corp. and General Electric Capital Corp. as agents to other lenders. About $196.05 million was outstanding as of the bankruptcy, lawyers for Borders wrote. A term loan taken at the same time, worth $90 million, had $48.6 million outstanding.

Borders estimated that funds would be available for distribution to unsecured creditors, according to the filing signed by the company’s chief financial officer, Scott Henry.

The company in May raised $25 million in a private sale to an entity controlled by Bennet S. LeBow, who was then named CEO and chairman. Pershing Square Capital Management LP, the hedge fund run by William Ackman, is Borders’s largest shareholder, according to the filing. Borders’ biggest shareholders also include Zurich-based UBS AG, according to the court filing.

In its petition, Borders says Pershing Square holds 31.3 percent of the stock and LeBow is a 15.4 percent stakeholder.

The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading in Borders shares today and is moving to delist the company. The shares traded at a 52-week high of $3.29 last April 12.
Restructuring

Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP is the law firm that filed the petition and Jefferies & Co. is handling restructuring.

Borders has struggled with cash levels since at least 2008, when it ran short of money and was forced to borrow from Pershing Square, its largest shareholder at the time. After missing a deadline to find a buyer, the company issued 5.15 million warrants to Pershing, making the fund the bookseller’s largest investor.

Borders borrowed $42.5 million from Pershing to remodel stores and upgrade technology to compete with Barnes & Noble Inc., the largest bookseller in the U.S., and Amazon.com. Cost- savings measures have been implemented over the past year.

In January 2010, Borders announced it would close some of its bookstores in the U.S. and cut 11 percent of staff at its headquarters and eliminate 76 other jobs. Chief Executive Officer Ron Marshall resigned after a year on the job. Michael Edwards was put in a role as interim CEO.
Delayed Payments

Borders delayed payments to publishers in December as part of a plan to restructure financing arrangements with vendors. The stock lost more than a fifth of its market value, its biggest drop in two years, after the announcement.

Kmart Corp. acquired Borders in 1992, then a chain of about 20 stores founded by Tom and Louis Borders, for about $190 million and combined the retailer with its Waldenbooks unit.

In 1995, Kmart renamed the unit Borders Group Inc. and spun it off in an initial public offering. The new public company, with a market value of about $500 million, had more than 1,000 locations under the Borders, Waldenbooks and Planet Music brands and generated $1.5 billion in revenue.

Borders then joined Barnes & Noble in dotting the U.S. with book superstores that proved to be more profitable than its mall-based Waldenbooks locations. The superstore unit grew to 200 by 1996 and doubled by 2002.

“They over-expanded and built up some debt on their balance sheet,” said Souers, who has covered Borders for six years. “There was also less control to those businesses.”

Borders has asked court permission to keep its customer- rewards program, serving 42 million members, and honor obligations to its employees, which include 6,100 full-time workers and 11,400 part-time employees.

The case is In re Borders Group Inc., 11-10614, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York.

Coca Cola recipe revealed!!!?

I knew this day would come. This is one of the foundations of America, and now the secret is out. What a sad, sad day.

According to the Guardian:

For almost 125 years, the secrecy surrounding the recipe for Coca-Cola has been one of the world's great marketing ploys. As the story goes, the fizzy drink's famous "Merchandise 7X" flavourings have remained unchanged since they were concocted in 1886 and are today only known to two Coke executives, neither of whom can travel on the same plane for fear that the secret goes down with them.

Now one of America's most celebrated radio broadcasters claims to have discovered the Coke secret. Ira Glass, presenter of the public radio institution This American Life, says he has tracked down a copy of the recipe, the original of which is still supposedly held in a burglar-proof vault at the Sun Trust bank in Atlanta, Georgia.

The seven-ingredient formula was created by John Pemberton, an Atlanta chemist and former Confederate army officer who crafted cough medicines and other concoctions in his spare time. In 1887, he sold the recipe to a businessman, Asa Griggs, who immediately placed it for safekeeping in the then Georgia Trust bank.

Glass came across a recipe that he believes is the secret formula in a back issue of Pemberton's local paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, while he was researching an entirely different story. Tucked away on an inside page of the 8 February 1979 edition, he stumbled on an article that claimed to have uncovered the closely guarded 7x formula.

The column was based on an old leather-bound notebook that belonged to Pemberton's best friend and fellow Atlanta chemist, RR Evans. Glass was intrigued and, after some digging, found the notebook had been handed down the generations until it reached a chemist in Georgia called Everett Beal, whose widow still possesses it.

The rediscovered recipe includes extract of coca leaves, caffeine, plenty of sugar (it specifies 30 unidentified units thought to be pounds), lime juice, vanilla and caramel. Into that syrup, the all-important 7x flavourings are added: alcohol and six oils – orange, lemon, nutmeg, coriander, neroli and cinnamon.

The formula is strikingly similar to the recipe deduced by Mark Pendergrast who wrote a history of the drink in 1993 called For God, Country & Coca-Cola.

Coke's secret recipe is, in fact, part mythology. Contrary to the mystique surrounding it, the soda has in fact changed substantially over time.

Cocaine, a legal stimulant in Pemberton's day, was removed from the drink in 1904 after mounting public unease about the drug. Extract of coca leaves have still been used but only after the cocaine has been removed.

In 1980, the company largely replaced sugar, squeezed from beet and cane, with the cheaper high-fructose corn sweetener that has become ubiquitous in American food and drink. Coke purists were not impressed.

Despite such occasional controversies, one element has remained constant: Coke's commitment to keeping its own secret. Speculation about the recipe has been a popular talking point for more than a century, proving good for business.

True to form, the company has treated the This American Life story with the disdain that has marked its commercial strategy since the 19th century.

"Many third parties have tried to crack our secret formula. Try as they might, they've been unsuccessful," Coca-Cola's Kerry Tressler said.

The recipe: how to make your own Coca-Cola
Fluid extract of coca: 3 drams USP
Citric acid: 3 oz
Caffeine: 1 oz
Sugar: 30 (unclear quantity, possibly pounds)
Water: 2.5 gallons
Lime juice: 2 pints, 1 quart
Vanilla: 1 oz
Caramel: 1.5 oz or more to colour
Into every five gallons of syrup, add 2oz of the following seven-part flavouring:
Alcohol: 8 oz
Orange oil: 20 drops
Lemon oil: 30 drops
Nutmeg oil: 10 drops
Coriander oil : 5 drops
Neroli oil: 10 drops
Cinnamon oil: 10 drops