Open Sourced Cola?
Just when I thought I had it all figured out and I have seen it all, something like this comes across my screen: How to Make OpenCola. We’ve got open sourced everything else, why not cola? But I really do love the whole GNU License and the freedom it’s opening up on the web.
Anyway, I thought I might share this little tidbit so I can find it at a later date…and I will have to give it a try. The recipe is actually for the soda flavoring concentrate and then you can use a soda machine or mix it yourself whenever you want. I have yet to find a cola recipe that actually tastes like cola I would want to drink, but it certainly is interesting! All the different oils like nutmeg and lavender I really wouldn’t have expected.
If you’re feeling really adventurous, you can also try out WikiHow’s article on carbonating a beverage with dry ice…which does not seem like something we will be trying anytime soon.
Ingredients
All ingredients listed are in metric units.
Flavoring
- 3.50 ml orange oil
- 1.00 ml lemon oil
- 1.00 ml nutmeg oil
- 1.25 ml cassia oil
- 0.25 ml coriander oil
- 0.25 ml neroli oil
- 2.75 ml lime oil
- 0.25 ml lavender oil
- 10.0 g gum arabic
- 3.00 ml water
Concentrate
- 2.00 tsp (10 ml) flavoring
- 3.50 tsp (17.5 ml) 75% phosphoric acid or citric acid
- 2.28 l water
- 2.36 kg granulated white sugar
- 0.50 tsp (2.5 ml) caffeine (optional. use caution)
- 30.0 ml caramel color
Flavoring
- Mix together the oils.
- 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.
- Add 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.
- Add caramel color and mix completely.
Soda
- Mix 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, as described in the previous step
- Use a soda fountain that will combine the concentrate with carbonated water at the tap
