I was bumming around Stumbleupon this morning while watching a training video getting ready for my upcoming Microsoft Certification test. The video was on WSUS, which is fairly rudimentary so I was zoning out. Anyway, I came across something really interesting.
We have all heard of Open Source software right? I mean I write about Open Source software on Bauer-Power all the time. Open Source is usually free, and that’s what makes it awesome! Also the fact that the source code itself is freely available, and modifiable is another thing that makes it really great.
What about Cola though? Wouldn’t it be great if Coke or Pepsi released their secret formula so we could make their drinks at home? They of course would never do that because if they did that, you might make it yourself and wouldn’t need to buy their product any more right?
Well, a group of guys got together and did exactly that. They created a Cola that is completely Open Source. By that I mean the recipe is freely available, and also modifiable. You are free to modify their recipe to make your own cola and even sell it as long as you release your recipe under the same GNU GPL.
Want to try to make it yourself? From Wikipedia, here is the recipe:
- 10.0 g food-grade gum arabic
- 3.50 mL orange oil
- 3.00 mL water
- 2.75 mL lime oil
- 1.25 mL cassia oil
- 1.00 mL lemon oil
- 1.00 mL nutmeg oil
- 0.25 mL coriander oil
- 0.25 mL neroli oil
- 0.25 mL lavender oil
Concentrate Formula:
- 2.36 kg plain granulated white table sugar
- 2.28 L water
- 30.0 mL caramel color
- 17.5 mL (3.50 tsp.) 75% phosphoric acid or citric acid
- 10.0 mL (2.00 tsp.) flavoring formula
- 2.50 mL (0.50 tsp.) caffeine (optional)
Dilution:
After mixing up the concentrate to the prescribed recipe, the syrup is diluted 5:1 with ("preferably sodium-free") soda water to make the finished drink; at this dilution, the above combination of ingredients will yield approximately 24 litres of OpenCola.
For more detailed instructions, and also ways of carbonating the concoction (I personally would probably just drop a brick of dry ice into the mix) visit this link here: (ColaWP.com)
Have you ever made Open Cola? Think you are going to try it yourself? Let us know how it went/goes in the comments!