Coke Does Traditional Chinese Medicine: Really!

Coca-Cola Co is working to on several prototype beverages using Chinese herbal cures. Analysts have speculated the project could be as important to the company's future as its original 1886 formula, which fused coca leaves with African kola nuts.

The secretive project involves employees throughout the company but executives have only mentioned the collaboration in a short news release issued when Coke and the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences opened a research center in Beijing last October.

Coke might be reluctant to talk about potential drinks inspired by Chinese medicine, but analysts have commented that whatever executives are working on could be important.

With consumers increasingly concerned about their health and wary of sugar-laden beverages, Coke is "looking for exotic herbal ingredients to make a completely new drink and sort of revolutionize the whole soft-drink industry," said Matthew Crabbe, director of Access Asia.

In October, Rhona Applebaum, a Coke vice president and the company's chief scientific and regulatory officer, said the laboratory "will ultimately help us bring the insights and benefits of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which has a history of thousands of years,  to consumers all over the world," according to a company press release.

Source: Austin American Statesmen. See article at Statesmen.com