Continuing my season of homemade soft drink recipes, next up is cola.
My recipe for cola is an adaption of the Cube Cola recipe which is in turn an adaption of the OpenCola recipe. My personal project would not have been possible without the groundwork put in by those guys. Loads of people have told me i’m silly for sharing my drink recipes, but without the sharing and knowledge of other people some of my drinks would not have been possible. Thankyou.
I have made both the Open Cola and Cube Cola recipes and they are both excellent copies of Coca-Cola coming at least as close as the supermarket alternatives This, for me, is the problem… it’s not really anything new. Both processes involve emulsifying essential oils into water using gum arabic then mixing with citric acid, powdered caffeine, sugar, colouring etc. The flavour comes from the combination of essential oils, the main components being sweet orange, lime, lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, lavender, coriander. The end result truly is excellent, entirely drinkable and hardly distinguishable from the stuff in the shops. You can make it in huge batches and it keeps, the process is labour intensive but need only be done once every few weeks. The hardest part is the emulsification which requires lengthy use of an electric drill with a whisk attached in order to make the water and oils bind together.
So moving on from this I decided to devise my own recipe which would not only be easier to make but also produce original unique results. The plan was simple, replace the manufactured oils with real ingredients. I also dropped the caffeine from the drink all together and it turned into a project for a ‘healthier’ cola.
I’ve played around with the recipe a lot over the past year, adjusting levels of ingredients a little every time I make a batch. We’ve also sold a lot of it a long the way and customer feedback has been very useful. I’m not sure of the exact figures (even if I was I wouldn’t publish them anyway!) but we’ve made hundreds of litres of homemade cola over 12 months. So here is my recipe, it can of course be adjusted, if you prefer the fruity citrus aspects simply lower some of the spices down a bit.
Recipe
Fill a saucepan with 500ml water and add:
It will look like a mess and not even smell like cola but don’t worry! Leave it to simmer for 20-30 minutes then strain it through a tea towel into a large container whilst it’s still hot. After straining stir in 450g of caster sugar and 2 heaped teaspoons muscavado or any rich soft brown sugar. It is optional but you can at this point add some food colouring, caramel is the way to go, I was fortunate enough to get a sample (and i’ve still got loads left) straight from DD Williamson – they make the colouring for this stuff I heard of called Coca-Cola…!
In the end what you then have is a very strong cola flavoured syrup. After cooling simply mix 50ml syrup with 200ml soda water, or 1:4 ratio of any quantities. The recipe should make about 15 glasses cola.
Taste wise it is much more comparable to the ‘cola bottle’ sweets which you buy when you’re a kid (or all the time if you’re me!), which is what most people remark. I quite like the idea of making it seasonal, extra spices in the winter, try things like cloves etc. More citrus like lemon in the summer
Good luck to anyone who has a go at this, obviously some of the ingredients are easier to get hold of than others if you need any help please contact me. If you do have a go i’d love to hear your findings.
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I am up for giving it a go!
Would using a blender not work for the emulsification given enough time?
I’d imagine it would, but you would probably have to up the quantities used so that they reach the blender blades!
If I remember correctly you use a small amount of water with gum arabic mixed in then slowly add the oils as you whisk/blend. The end result is only about 50ml of liquid which is enough to flavour 10’s of litres of cola!
Good luck if you go for it.
Good point – though an aerolatte does spring to mind for smaller quantities. Will try your recipe this afternoon.
You just want to use the drill ‘cos it makes you feel manly…
How soon ’til you start manufacturing Cornish Cola for sale to the emmets?
Why, do you want to buy some?!
Unfortunately it seems that bottling throws up quite a lot of issues.
Safety issues
Kola nuts contain high amounts of N-nitroso compounds which are carcinogenic. In Nigeria, where the chewing of Kola nuts is a common practice, there is a high incidence of oral and gastrointestinal cancer which may be related to this habit.
-Found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_nut
Is this at at all a problem in your recipe?
Where can i buy Cola Nuts?
Where can i buy citric acid?
Where can i buy star anise?
Thank you
Jason, thanks for pointing that out, it is valid and something that I should have mentioned (post ammended). Cola nuts are still used to flavour other brands of commercially available cola however so I have used them myself in the past.
Having said that though I rarely include them in my current recipe simply because they can be tough to get hold of and (in small quantities) seem to make little difference to the final product. It is nice to keep them in the recipe though, simply because the name spawns from the nut.
I would also say that despite its carcinogenic effects the drinker of the cola will not be directly ingesting the nut but tasting an extraction, the nut itself will be filtered out.
As far as where to buy them goes, do a google – there are various health food and herbal specialists online which sell cola nuts and star anise (also available from some supermarkets). Citric acid can be bought from baking suppliers and food flavouring websites such as http://www.msk-ingredients.com
I’m going to use this recipe- and I purchased all of the ingredients for only a few dollars from the medicinal herb store in my town……;)
[...] PS. Flattered that you guys are using the homemade cola! [...]
Thanks for posting your recipe. I had recently adapted my own from various sources, including the open recipe, when I ran upon yours. I was pleased to find our recipes differed only slightly … I don’t plan to go to the effort of finding the cola nuts nor had I thought to add anise or ginger. My next experiment: home fermenting using 1) various yeasts 2) water kefir grains. Fun, huh? Glad to know others are as fascinated by these old recipes as I am!
[...] The Wild Drink Blog – Blog Archive ยป Homemade Cola Recipe (tags: cola coke recipe diy drinks) [...]
Thank you so much for your recipe! My 10 year old daughter was recently diagnosed as “slightly” ADHD. I refused to put her on meds and decided to do some research on my own. In my findings I discovered refined sugar or sugar substitutes can alter a childs behavior quite a bit and are not recommended for ADD or ADHD patients.
Determined to help my daughter, we have cut out as much refined sugar as possible and I am experminting with substituting raw sugar for refind sugar. Thanks God, I love to cook/bake/can. While my daughter was never a big soft drink drinker, she does miss the occasional soda for special times.
I’m thrilled to find your recipe and want to give it a shot using raw sugar. I expect the taste will be slightly different adding more of a molasses like flavor.
There is such a noticable difference in her behavior over the last 6 months and if changing a few recipes in our lives or finding substitutes for favorite refined sugar recipes, helps the situation, than I’m all for trying new things! My daughter feels so much better emotionally and physically and her grades in school have improved dramtically.
I’ll let you know how this turns out.
[...] is my favourite and which am I most proud of? To choose from I have the likes of Tonic Water, Cola, D&B, Rosehip syrup, Rhubarb Liquor, Vermouth, Bitters and that’s just the stuff that [...]
hey Tristan.
was bored at mum’s house over Christmas so knocked up a batch of this. I used your exact recipe but no cola nuts, and using a tiny amount (sub-pinch) of fresh lavender leaves from the garden as I didn’t have flowers.
The citrus and spice base is absolutely fantastic, really peppy and deeper than a commercial cola.
My only thing – do you really mean a 1/3 of a vanilla pod? I used this much (i.e. about 3-4cm of a pod with the gunge scraped out and added) and found that the end drink was way too vanilla-y… bit too sweet, with a finish that I can only describe as exactly the smell of play-doh, sweet, almost marzipan-y but without the almonds.
I am gonna try again with less vanilla and playing with a couple of other herbs and spices as well as the lavender, loving your work though. Thanks for putting in the effort, really really appreciated. You are taking homemade syrup making to a new level!
will let you know how it goes.
Anthony
Hi Anthony,
If you’re finding that less vanilla works for you then go for it! Personally I like the vanilla to come through as it adds a sort of pseudo-sweetness to the drink. The recipe isn’t so much about emulating cola as creating a ‘cola style drink’ using natural ingredients.
Let me know if you come up with something you really prefer more and i’ll give it a go. It would be good to evolve the recipe if we can find any improvements.
I plan to make my own cola using your recipe over my holidays. When mixing the syrup and the soda water would you recommend sodium free soda water or just the regular kind?
I would go with sodium free, soda, but I shouldn’t have thought it would matter all that much.
I really want to make an alcoholic cola around 4 or 5% a.b.v.
I think I’ll use this as a base syrup, then add sugar, yeast & warm water.
Have made home brew beer, so have a decent understanding of how to go about it.
Am still researching what yeast will be the best to use, anyone have any suggestions?
Also hoping the fermentation will provide an adequate level of carbonation. May have to store it in a very cold place during secondary fermentation, similar to how lager is mad.e
Pete, I would use a normal brewers yeast to ferment with the syrup and water. The amount of sugar you use will be critical to the overall sweetness and the alcoholic content of the brew.
After fermentation bottle it with some more sugar for a week or two and that will give you the fizz, whack it in the fridge before the bottles explode!
Makes great cola, but I wasn’t really sold as it tasted too real… having been brought up on additives it was quite a surprise. I also think mine may have caramalised a bit, but I suppose it must’ve added something to it as it tastes rather good, but only at near freezing temp, it tastes less good at warmer temps.
Tristan
As a Home Economist I once made this Cola recipe for you on Market Kitchen and can only say how amazed I was at the likeness it bears to it’s manufactured namesake.
You may be interested to know that in the next couple of weeks I will be using this recipe to manufacture the World’s biggest Cola bottle sweet for an online food magazine I will be releasing later this month (May). I will keep you posted on our progress. Thank you again for the recipe because without it our project wouldn’t work!
We may well be attempting other Haribo sweets in the future (can you imagine a life size edible bear?) so will be scowering your site for other recipes.
Keep up the good work.
That sounds incredible! I’d love to try a bit of the sweet (big fan of cola bottles), good luck with it all and do indeed keep me posted.
Interesting web site: I will definitely visit again…
I’m interested in making cherry cola. What would be the best way of adding cherry flavor?
It’s tough to get a decent cherry flavour naturally. Your best bet might be to simply boil up some fresh cherries. Almonds and apricots provide a similar flavour. Once you sweeten it you should find that you get a nice cherry flavour.
I’m a long time home brewer of beer and would like to get into making sodas including cola. I’ve been sampling a number of commercially available colas made exclusively with cane sugar instead of corn syrup and other sweeteners. It’s amazing how much better they taste! I intend to start with Open Cola then Cube Cola and then try your recipe but I’m tempted to start with your recipe!
Anyway my question has to do with kegging instead of bottling my results. I have the ability, space and equipment to keg anything from one to five gallons at a time and store them in a fridge with beer faucets in the door. This would eliminate the need for soda water or yeast for carbonation. Should I use carbonation levels similar to lagers or what? My thought was to carbonate at 15psi for several days then lower to 8psi for dispensing. I could always bottle pre-carbonated soda for trips or sharing.
Bill
great site… i was wondering how long the syrup will store and what should I store it in?
Keep it in a sealed bottle in the fridge and it should last up to a month.
[...] at recipes and concepts, I discovered some really interesting combinations. One of them being this cola recipe and the fact that there is an open source recipe for [...]
Hey Tristan, great blog. I have been thinking about making in house Cola for a while, but until seeing your posting, I didn’t have the info I needed to do it for real. I agree with you on the open cola page; it’s great that someone went to the trouble to decode the formula, but you can already buy it like that. I want a Cuba Libre the hard way, and this looks like a great way to get it.
One Question, are the bottles you show in the photo your own bottling? If so, where did you find the bottles and labels? I’m not trying to start a soda empire, but it would be nice to be able to store it and give it friends etc without having to give them a reused, 2 liter plastic coke bottle.
Thanks for a great blog, August-
The bottles are just empty mineral water bottles that I filled up with the syrup. The labels were printed out and stuck on!
You can buy bottles from home brew websites with either hinged lids, traditional beer cap lids or screw on plastic lids with seals. I’d use them and then customise your own labels.