Make your own cola

When I was young I made all sorts of drinks. Ginger beer, especially the alcoholic kind, was a favourite to sell at school. I also made beer with real hops, cider from apples and various varieties of wine, the most memorable being from rhubarb and white currents.

Actually, the strongest memory I have of this episode in my life is corks exploding from stone flaggons and sticky liquids leaking out from under the pantry door from exploding bottles.

I never thought to make my own cola and I’m quite tempted to use this open source recipe. In reality though I’m more likely to make open source beer or ginger beer and probably will fairly soon, returning to my brewing roots.
Since the cola recipe is open source I guess I can repeat the recipe here and won’t be targeted by copyright lawyers (although it is tempting to use the Coca prefix for a laugh).

Ingredients

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 flavouring
3.50 tsp 75% citric acid (The recipe also suggests phosphoric acid but citric is probably easier and sounds a little more user friendly)
2.28 litres water
2.36 kg granulated white sugar
0.50 tsp caffeine
30.0 ml caramel color
Method

1. Mix together the oils and gum arabic. Add the water last and mix with a blender. This flavouring can be kept in a sealed jar in the fridge, although it will probably separate.

2. Mix 5ml of the flavouring with citric acid, water and the remaining ingredients.

3. Mix one part of the concentrate (from 2) with five parts soda water.

4. I guess at this point it may be time to tweak the cola to your taste. I always used to add a squeeze of lemon to Coca Cola to take away some of the sweetness. I’d be tempted to adjust the mix of oils.