ELI5: What about Coca-Cola is so hard to replicate? The flavor of lemon-lime, grape, orange, etc. sodas seem pretty consistent. But off brand cola is noticeably just not as good.

It’s not just about ingredients, the process is very important too.
Take sugar turned into caramel. The total length of time spent heating the sugar (total joules) and the temperature curve (at which point there were changes in heating) directly affects the flavor and texture. Too hot and it tastes burnt, too slow and it’s all runny.

In the 90s Ruffles sales collapsed for a few quarters for no apparent reason. Frito-Lay used some very advanced processes, that included photographing every individual chip and rejecting (using timed puffs of air) those that do not meet color, size and shape requirements.

The root cause of the sales dip was a switch to a different blend of cooking oil. There’s a delay between a change in process and a change in sales as new product makes its way out into the supply chain. A month later, sales started to really dip. They checked everything in the machines and the ingredients but the sales kept door dipping. It was only after a chance discussion with a consumer did they discover the oil change had altered the temperature curve, which in turn made the chips taste ‘burnt’ to some palates. But only some people could taste whatever new substance was now in the chip.

Too Long; Didnt Read > The process is as important as the ingredients and way harder to figure out, especially at scale.
Source: I’m a former PepsiCo employee.

Explain Like I`m Five: good questions, best answers.