Make OpenCola
While Pepsi and Coke (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, according to their taste.
Contents
Ingredients
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
Concentrate
- 10 ml flavoring (approximately 2 tsp packed)
- 17.5 ml 75% citric acid or phosphoric acid (3.5 tsp)
- 2.28 l water
- 2.36 kg granulated white sugar (or equivalent sweetener)
- 2.5 ml caffeine (optional but does affect taste)
- 30.0 ml caramel color (optional, should not affect taste)
Steps
Making The Flavoring
- Mix the oils together.
- Add gum arabic and mix.
- Add water and mix well. For this step, use a hand mixer or blender to mix thoroughly.
- 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 (you may need to blend the syrup to break up the gum).
Making The Acid Solution from Powder
You can make a larger batch for future use or just what is needed, either way you want 75% of the total weight to be the powder and 25% water.
- Measure 13 grams of the acid powder and place in a small glass jar.
- Boil a small amount of water (you can microwave 10-20 ml water for about a minute)
- Add 4.5 ml of hot water to the powdered acid (enough to bring the total weight up to 17.5 g).
- Swirl the solution carefully until the powder is dissolved.
Making The Concentrate
- Mix 10 ml of flavoring (2 packed tsp) with the phosphoric or citric acid.
- Mix the water and sugar and, while mixing, add caffeine if desired.
- If your flavoring is solid (gum) it may be necessary to put part of the water into a blender, add the flavoring and acid, blend, then add sugar and additional water to finish.
- If used, make sure the caffeine is 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, as opposed to the other way around.
- Add caramel color(optional) and mix. You could use any coloring you desire, or leave it in its natural state. The coloring should not affect the taste.
Making The Soda
- Mix 1 part concentrate with five parts water. In other words, however much you use of the concentrate, use five times as much 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.
- 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, it is easiest to find an online retailer that carries all of them (there are several, check the discussion page for examples). They are not typically available in supermarkets but can sometimes be found in specialty shops (try the baking section).
- The canned open cola that has been distributed at trade shows and through other venues uses this recipe but 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 or cup.
- 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.
- 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 them in a glass container.
- Phosphoric acid will burn if it touches 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.
