While Pepsi and Coca-Cola (and others) closely guard their secrets to making cola beverages, several organizations have released their own recipes. Below is the recipe for homemade "OpenCola," an open-source cola beverage that invites makers to create and modify their recipe to achieve a better beverage. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License.
Ingredients
All ingredients listed are in metric units.
Flavoring
Flavoring
- 3.50 mL orange oil
- 1.00 mL lemon oil
- 1.00 mL nutmeg oil
- 1.25 ml cassia (cinnamon) oil
- 0.25 mL coriander oil
- 0.25 mL neroli oil (similar to petitgrain, bergamot, or bitter orange oil)
- 2.75 mL lime oil
- 0.25 mL lavender oil
- 10.0 g food-grade, NOT ART-GRADE gum arabic (thickener)
- 3.00 mL water
- 5 mL flavoring
- 17.5 mL 75% citric acid or phosphoric acid
- 2.00 L water
- 2.00 kg granulated white sugar
- 2.5 mL caffeine (optional as it won't change taste of drink)
- 30.0 mL caramel color
Steps
Flavoring
- Mix the oils together.
- Mix the oils together.
- Add gum arabic and mix completely.
- Add water and mix well. For this step, use a hand mixer or blender to thoroughly mix together.
- The flavoring can be made in advance and stored for use later. Place in a sealed glass jar and place in the refrigerator or keep at room temperature. When stored, the oils and water will separate. Just mix again before use. When used, the gum arabic will keep things together.
Concentrate
- Mix 5 mL of flavoring with the phosphoric or citric acid.
- Mix the water and sugar and, while mixing, add caffeine if desired.
- Make sure that the caffeine is completely dissolved before moving on to the next step.
- Pour the acid and flavoring mixture slowly into the water/sugar mixture (adding acid to water reduces the risk of acid splashes compared to the other way around)
- Add caramel color and mix completely.
Soda
- 1Mix one part of concentrate with five parts water. In other words, however much you use of the concentrate, use five times as much of water.
- Carbonate the beverage. There are a few ways this can be accomplished:
- Carbonate the beverage yourself,
- Mix soda water directly with the concentrate, instead of water in the previous step, or
- Use a soda fountain that will combine the concentrate with carbonated water at the tap.
Tips
- It can be difficult to find all the different ingredients. They are not always available in supermarkets. Try looking at local specialty shops in their baking section.
- Don't confuse this homemade recipe with the canned cola that's been distributed at trade shows and through other venues or outlets. While the recipe is the same, the process of canning soda is beyond the scope of this article.
Warnings
- Caffeine can be toxic in high doses. Be careful not to add too much to your mixture, to be safe, keep the concentration below 100mg/cup.
- Many of the oils needed for flavoring can irritate skin. Use caution when preparing. They can also dissolve the plastic lining of a refrigerator; store with caution, e.g. in a glass container.
- Gum arabic is available in two forms, art grade, and food grade. Be sure to get food grade Gum arabic, or you could have a very unpleasant toxic reaction.
- Phosphoric acid will burn if it comes into contact with you. If you do get acid on you, flush the affected area with water for at least 15 minutes and get medical attention.
- Lavender oil can cause many dangerous side effects, so you may want to leave this out.
