Just make it a trade secret? A patent is basically making it public in exchange for a guaranteed, albeit short term, exclusive right. Why not just let only a few know and keep it secret from everyone else?
When they say, "nobody knows" it means that nobody who does know is talking.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that there are people that have figured out how to increase yields in the wild or simulate correct growing conditions
Coke is all about marketing not the taste.