Kosher Coca-Cola

In the 1930s, rabbis across America kept asking the same question: is Coca-Cola kosher? The answer required knowing what was in it — and nobody outside the company did. Rabbi Tobias Geffen of Atlanta asked, and Coca-Cola handed him the formula itself, on his word that he would never reveal it. He never did. He found glycerin made from non-kosher beef tallow and persuaded the company to switch to a vegetable source; for Passover, a grain-based sweetener was replaced with cane and beet sugar. His 1935 ruling made the world's most famous drink kosher all year. Every yellow-capped Passover Coke still on the shelves today descends from a rabbi who was trusted with a secret — and kept it.

Part of “The Gifts of the Jews” — verified Jewish contributions to the world, with sources.