Projects:Making cola

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I (Sjors) recently saw this video by LabCoatz reverse engineering the Coca-Cola recipe using (among other techniques) a mass spectrometer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkH3EbWTYc

Now I'm a bit of a Coca-Cola addict, so I'm intrigued and want to reproduce it.

Perhaps once we've done this we can also make other kinds of cola, like Toyen Cola, which has its recipe on the back. We could even do a taste test!

Overview

LabCoatz calls the end product of their recipe LabCola. One liter of LabCola is built off of four components:

  • around 100g sugar
  • 1mL of flavor solution A
  • 10 mL of flavor solution B
  • around 1 liter of carbonated water

Flavor solution A is made by adding the following components together (~100mL), then taking 20 mL from that and diluting to 1L using 95% ethanol:

  • 45.8mL lemon oil
  • 36.5mL lime oil
  • 8mL tea tree oil (from Australian tea tree, Melaleuca Alternifolia)
  • 4.5mL cassia cinnamon oil
  • 2.7mL nutmeg oil
  • 1.2mL orange oil (regular sweet orange)
  • 0.7mL coriander oil
  • 0.6mL fenchol (any version of alpha-fenchol should work)

Flavor solution B is made by adding the following components together (~400mL), then diluting to 1L using water:

  • 185mL Durkee caramel color
  • 150 grams food-grade vegetable glycerin
  • 43mL 85% phosphoric acid
  • 10 grams wine tannin
  • 9.65 grams caffeine
  • 10mL 5% vinegar
  • 10mL vanilla extract (or a solution containing 0.95 grams per liter of vanillin)

It's important to note that this is not the Coca-Cola recipe, which uses coca leaf extract. It is supposed to be quite close, though.

Tools


If we don't need to buy the mass scale nor magnetic stirrer, tools come out to approximately €125.

Ingedients

Ingredient Source link Quantity Quantity necessary Order amount Price per piece Price total Makes L solution12 Makes L cola Price per L cola
Overall
Sugar Supermarket Around 100g
Carbonated water Self-made Around 1L
Flavor solution A
Food-grade 95% alcohol Topdrinks.de 1L 1L 1 €23,50 €23,50 1L 1 kL 2.35 cents
Lemon oil Bodystore 30mL 45.8mL 2 €7,59 €15,18 6,55L 6,55 kL 0,23 cents
Lime oil Bodystore 30mL 36.5mL 2 €7,99 €15,98 8,22L 8,22 kL 0,19 cents
Tea tree oil Bodystore 30mL 8mL 1 €9,99 €9,99 18,75L 18,75 kL 0,05 cents
Cassia cinnamon oil Bodystore 30mL 4,5mL 1 €8,90 €8,90 33,33L 33,33 kL 0,03 cents
Nutmeg oil iHerb 30mL 2.7mL 1 €13,97 €13,97 55,56L 55,56 kL 0,03 cents
Orange oil Bodystore 30mL 1.2mL 1 €4,99 €4,99 125L 125 kL <0,01 cents
Coriander oil bol.com 5mL 0.7mL 1 €20,95 €20,95 35,71L 35,71 kL 0,06 cents
Fenchol Pellwall (UK)

lijken een orderstop te hebben? alternatief: eBay of pevgrow

5g (~5mL?) 0.6mL 1 £7 + shipping ~€8 ? 42L 42 kL 0,02 cents
Total flavor solution A ~ €120 1L 1kL €0,03 when produced at scale

€0,12 for first liter

Flavor solution B
Durkee caramel color Pantryful 32 oz. (946 mL) 185mL 1 $14 + shipping ~€12? 5,11L 511L 2,3 cents
Food-grade vegetable glycerin Labshop 1L 150g (~150mL?) 1 €12,04 €12,04 6,66L 666L 2 cents
85% Phosphoric acid Labshop 1L 43mL 1 €20,27 €20,27 23,26L 2326L 0,8 cents
Wine tannin Brouwland 20g 10g 1 €5,99 €5,99 2L 200L 3 cents
Caffeine powder VoordeelkruidenIf we want more: Woele 50g 9,65g 1 €2,60 €2,60 5,18L 518L 0,5 cents
5% vinegar Supermarket

(Double check 5%!)

1L 10mL 1 €0,99 €0,99 100L 10kL <0,01 cents
Vanilla extract Makro.nl 50mL 10mL 1 €15,19 €15,19 5L 500L 3 cents
Total flavor solution B ~ €70 2L 200 L €0,11 when produced at scale

€0,35 for first liter

(1) The essential oils in solution A, quantities as under "Quantity necessary", together make 100mL of pre-solution. "Flavor solution A" then consists of 20 mL of pre-solution, diluted to 1L using alcohol. So for each mL of essential oil in the pre-solution, a fifth (0.2 mL) goes into a liter of the actual solution. So quantity times order amount is the amount of ingredients we have, divided by quantity necessary is the amount of 100mL pre-solution we can make with the order. We can make 5L of solution with that, so the formula is: (quantity * order amount * 5) / (quantity necessary). Since 1mL of solution A goes into a L of cola, 1L solution makes 1000L cola.

(2) For solution B, the ingredients together make about 400mL of pre-solution. "Flavor solution B" then consists of those 400 mL, diluted to 1L using water. So the "quantity necessary" goes directly into 1L of "Flavor solution B". Since order amount is 1 for all of these, the formula is: quantity / (quantity necessary). Since 10mL of solution B goes into a L of cola, 1L solution makes 100L cola.

Expiry

After the first batch I'll have a liter of solution A, which is almost fully alcohol, so I expect it not to expire at all. This bottle is good for a thousand liters of cola, which is probably enough for a lifetime.

I'll also have 80 mL of pre-solution A, which I'll store separately. I also expect it not to expire, but to be sure, I could add alcohol to this as well, and label the bottle as such so I know exactly how much diluted pre-solution contains 20 mL of the original pre-solution.

As for solution B, I'm not sure but I expect that will expire faster. The original ingredients probably don't expire if closed well? If I make 1L that's enough for 100 L of cola, which probably lasts a few months unless it's really popular.

Knowing nothing at all about food safety I asked Claude for secondary advice. ("This is a cola syrup, isn't it?") They said the solution A mixture would remain safe indefinitely, but chemical degradation would affect aroma over the years; they advise to reduce air in the bottle, reduce repeated opening (freshening of the oxygen), reduce heat and reduce light exposure. With that, realistically expiry could be pushed well beyond 5 years. For solution B, they said microbial stability is also very good due to the phosphoric acid (1.0-1.5 pH). Again, chemical degradation is the limiting factor. Sealed, room temperature and out of light, Claude expects 12-18 months for peak flavor, and "probably safe well beyond that". It says the main thing to watch out for is sediment from the tannin, and flavor decreasing. Neither makes it unsafe. Commercial cola syrups like this one carry 6-12 month best-by dates, and it says our threshold for "still good" may be more forgiving.

As for the original ingredient bottles, I should check if they are labeled with best-before dates and label them with the date I first opened them. Claude says the essential oils are most perishable; they will degrade in 6-12 months. For vanilla extract it's often commercially dated 2-4 years. All other things are either really easily purchaseable or very long-lived (5+ years).

Conclusion:

  • Keep the bottles at room temperature (or colder), in the dark, and with little air headspace in the bottle.
  • For the solution A bottles, I'll mark them with their production date and "expected best before date" of 5 years.
  • For the solution B bottles, I'll mark them with their production date and "expected best before date" of 12 months.
  • For the original ingredient bottles, I'll store them the same way. I could consider making more pre-solution with alcohol for preservation.

Financial overview

This is a hobby project, so it's OK if it costs money and isn't cost-effective. However, I wanted to get an overview for myself.

Initial, one-time investment into tools is €125. The initial investments into ingredients for the first run is ~€200. With some margin, that means the first batch costs €350 and we can produce around 200 liters of cola from this. If it tastes great and is popular and people want to drink it instead of Coca-Cola, I could sell it at a cost price of €1,75 per liter.

If we actually (expect to) make more than 200 liters, then for the next 200 liters I'd only need to purchase additional wine tannin. So for the first batch of 400 liters, at a cost of €350, it'd already be €0,88 per liter. So that's what the price becomes if it turns out to be quite popular. Eventually, if it's really popular it would cost €0,14 for the flavor solutions, plus some sugar and carbonated water.

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