I have made... COLA!
The official website: http://www.colawp.com/colas/400/cola467_recipe.html
The wiki: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-OpenCola
The directions, plus my commentary:
7x flavouring:
* 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 gum arabic (thickener)
* 3.00 mL water
The oils can be purchased from most any health food store, apparently. The gum arabic I got was off an ebay cake decorating store (it was brand new, and sealed). Apparently it's used in icing as a stiffener. It's a dehydrated powder which mixes well with the oil. The instant I added the water, however, it started to form a very thick paste. A type of "gum" if you will. These ingredients cost me a grand total of about $65. Lavender oil is very, VERY expensive. And yet I've discovered that, surprisingly, it's the lavender oil that seems to give it that distinct "cola" smell. It was smelling kind of citrus/cinnamon up until that last step. Added the lavender and suddenly "woah... yeah, that's cola alright." Fortunately, you only use .25 mL of the oil. There's enough to make a few dozen batches of this mix.
The directions are simple. Add the oils, add the gum arabic, and mix with a spoon. When it's creamy smooth, add the water.
At this point in time, I transferred the slurry to my blender for full mixing.
Ok, so now you've got a wad of ultra concentrated cola. WHAT do you do with it? You make syrup!
* 5 mL flavoring
* 17.5 mL 75% phosphoric acid or citric acid
* 2.28 L water
* 2.36 kg granulated white sugar
* 2.5 mL vitamin b
* 30.0 mL caramel color
The citric acid can be purchased (or ordered) from your nearest shoppers drug mart (or other drug store).
Don't ask for phosphoric acid. They won't sell it to you, and you may end up on the wrong end of a bright light trying to explain why you're buying "hazardous chemicals."
No idea what the vitamin b does. Didn't add it. The caramel colour is just that: colour. I skipped it, leaving my "cola" a milky white, but that's fine. It tastes the same, supposedly.
ALSO! This is the official mix amounts. I cut the amounts in half. At half the listed amounts, you can mix everything into a single 2 L bottle.
ALSO also! Don't add the flavouring right away. I discovered that, in it's gummy lump form, I couldn't get it to dissolve. So I mixed the water, sugar, and acid in a 2 L bottle (half the amounts listed above, remember), and when the sugar was completely dissolved, I put 2.5 ml (half a tsp, half the amount listed above) of the flavour blob back into my blender, filled it with water, and mixed it that way. Poured the mixed water back into the bottle, and all is well. I also added some caffeine caps. Be very, VERY careful with caffeine. 10 grams is enough to kill a full grown adult male. A typical caffeine pill contains 100 mg. 100 pills too quickly will kill you 10 will make you ill, 5 could easily make you a little off kilter. I used 10, ground up, and mixed with syrup. Even highly diluted, It's noticeably strong: I'm thinking I should have used 5.
Ok, so you've got about 2 L of concentrated syrup. NOW what?
Mix it with soda water at 5:1. That is, for every 1 part of cola syrup, add 5 parts of soda water.
You can either make your own carbonated water, buy it, or get a machine that'll carbonate it for you. I just bought carbonated water from Longos.
Warnings: the oils are very, very concentrated. Some can cause irritation of the skin. They recommend using gloves when handling this stuff. I didn't and nothing bad happened to me, so it's up to you.
Also, get a good syringe to measure the amounts. My first was a baby ear dropper, and the volumes wiped off real easy. Friend spontaneousrazz got me a syringe from her lab, and that worked great.
Special note on pricing:
By my calculations: Cost of 2 L of concentrated syrup (enough to make 10 L of soda) was less than 50 cents. The oils may seem expensive, but they can last a long, long time. If you plan on making a few hundred bottles of opencola, then it's worth it.
Final note:
meh. It was a fun experiment, but a lot of work. Over the next few months, I'll probably make a few more batches, experiment a little with the flavour and the mixings, but ultimately I think I'll stick with the pre-made stuff in the red can.
End of line.
Gingerale, however, is still easy, and totally worth it. :D
The wiki: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-OpenCola
The directions, plus my commentary:
7x flavouring:
* 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 gum arabic (thickener)
* 3.00 mL water
The oils can be purchased from most any health food store, apparently. The gum arabic I got was off an ebay cake decorating store (it was brand new, and sealed). Apparently it's used in icing as a stiffener. It's a dehydrated powder which mixes well with the oil. The instant I added the water, however, it started to form a very thick paste. A type of "gum" if you will. These ingredients cost me a grand total of about $65. Lavender oil is very, VERY expensive. And yet I've discovered that, surprisingly, it's the lavender oil that seems to give it that distinct "cola" smell. It was smelling kind of citrus/cinnamon up until that last step. Added the lavender and suddenly "woah... yeah, that's cola alright." Fortunately, you only use .25 mL of the oil. There's enough to make a few dozen batches of this mix.
The directions are simple. Add the oils, add the gum arabic, and mix with a spoon. When it's creamy smooth, add the water.
At this point in time, I transferred the slurry to my blender for full mixing.
Ok, so now you've got a wad of ultra concentrated cola. WHAT do you do with it? You make syrup!
* 5 mL flavoring
* 17.5 mL 75% phosphoric acid or citric acid
* 2.28 L water
* 2.36 kg granulated white sugar
* 2.5 mL vitamin b
* 30.0 mL caramel color
The citric acid can be purchased (or ordered) from your nearest shoppers drug mart (or other drug store).
Don't ask for phosphoric acid. They won't sell it to you, and you may end up on the wrong end of a bright light trying to explain why you're buying "hazardous chemicals."
No idea what the vitamin b does. Didn't add it. The caramel colour is just that: colour. I skipped it, leaving my "cola" a milky white, but that's fine. It tastes the same, supposedly.
ALSO! This is the official mix amounts. I cut the amounts in half. At half the listed amounts, you can mix everything into a single 2 L bottle.
ALSO also! Don't add the flavouring right away. I discovered that, in it's gummy lump form, I couldn't get it to dissolve. So I mixed the water, sugar, and acid in a 2 L bottle (half the amounts listed above, remember), and when the sugar was completely dissolved, I put 2.5 ml (half a tsp, half the amount listed above) of the flavour blob back into my blender, filled it with water, and mixed it that way. Poured the mixed water back into the bottle, and all is well. I also added some caffeine caps. Be very, VERY careful with caffeine. 10 grams is enough to kill a full grown adult male. A typical caffeine pill contains 100 mg. 100 pills too quickly will kill you 10 will make you ill, 5 could easily make you a little off kilter. I used 10, ground up, and mixed with syrup. Even highly diluted, It's noticeably strong: I'm thinking I should have used 5.
Ok, so you've got about 2 L of concentrated syrup. NOW what?
Mix it with soda water at 5:1. That is, for every 1 part of cola syrup, add 5 parts of soda water.
You can either make your own carbonated water, buy it, or get a machine that'll carbonate it for you. I just bought carbonated water from Longos.
Warnings: the oils are very, very concentrated. Some can cause irritation of the skin. They recommend using gloves when handling this stuff. I didn't and nothing bad happened to me, so it's up to you.
Also, get a good syringe to measure the amounts. My first was a baby ear dropper, and the volumes wiped off real easy. Friend spontaneousrazz got me a syringe from her lab, and that worked great.
Special note on pricing:
By my calculations: Cost of 2 L of concentrated syrup (enough to make 10 L of soda) was less than 50 cents. The oils may seem expensive, but they can last a long, long time. If you plan on making a few hundred bottles of opencola, then it's worth it.
Final note:
meh. It was a fun experiment, but a lot of work. Over the next few months, I'll probably make a few more batches, experiment a little with the flavour and the mixings, but ultimately I think I'll stick with the pre-made stuff in the red can.
End of line.
Gingerale, however, is still easy, and totally worth it. :D