Open-source cola is any

cola Cola is a carbonated soft drink flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, citrus oils and other flavorings. Cola became popular worldwide after the American pharmacist John Stith Pemberton invented Coca-Cola, a trademarked brand, in 1886, which was ...

soft drink produced according to a published and shareable

recipe A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main recipe. Hist ...

. Unlike the secretive Coca-Cola formula, the recipes are openly published and their re-use is encouraged. The texts of OpenCola and Cube-Cola recipes are published under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end user In product development, an end user (sometimes end-user) is a person who ultimately uses or is intended to ulti ...

(GPL).

Recipe

The colas are produced as a flavour concentrate or syrup that is then mixed with bulk ingredients to produce the drink. Completed flavour concentrates are sold by some of the open cola producers. The bulk ingredients include those such as sweeteners ( sugar or

artificial Artificiality (the state of being artificial or manmade) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring nature, naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotations Artific ...

caffeine Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class. It is mainly used recreationally as a cognitive enhancer, increasing alertness and attentional performance. Caffeine acts by blocking binding of adenosine t ...

and the source of acidity, phosphoric or

citric acid Citric acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula HOC(CO2H)(CH2CO2H)2. It is a colorless weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in t ...

. As these are added later, after the flavour blending stage, sugar and caffeine levels per batch can be tailored to a market's particular taste. Coca-Cola's own flavouring syrup is known in-house as "Merchandise 7X", which is cross-referenced in the open recipes. A typical recipe is based on eight essential oils, listed here in approximate order of decreasing volume: * orange oil * lime oil * cassia oil *

lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

oil *

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus '' Myristica''. '' Myristica fragrans'' (fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, ...

oil *

coriander Coriander (;

oil *

lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and from Europe across to northern and east ...

oil * neroli oil These are based on the " Pemberton formula." Although claimed as the Coca-Cola recipe, this has been refuted by

The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrup ...

. This recipe is also similar to the Merory and Beal recipes. One ingredient that is missing from these recipes is the eponymous

kola nut The term kola nut usually refers to the seeds of certain species of plant of the genus ''Cola'', placed formerly in the cocoa family Sterculiaceae and now usually subsumed in the mallow family Malvaceae (as subfamily Sterculioideae). These cola ...

, although this did appear in Reed's recipe. The use of lavender oil is considered something of a personal taste. Neroli is frequently omitted altogether, owing to its high cost and relatively small contribution to the overall flavour. Neroli alone may represent a third of the concentrate ingredients cost. As well as the basic list of flavouring ingredients, there are other ingredients such as food grade

gum arabic Gum arabic, also known as gum sudani, acacia gum, Arabic gum, gum acacia, acacia, Senegal gum, Indian gum, and by other names, is a natural gum originally consisting of the hardened sap of two species of the ''Acacia'' tree, ''Senegalia se ...

and a considerable degree of "art" in its manufacture. The precise quality and sourcing of ingredients makes an appreciable difference, particularly in the process of emulsifying the concentrate. Small quantities of alcohol may be used to facilitate this process; as an open recipe, this is under the control of the manufacturer who may avoid such ingredients if

halal ''Halal'' (; ar, حلال, ) is an Arabic word that translates to "permissible" in English. In the Quran, the word ''halal'' is contrasted with '' haram'' (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification k ...

or similar rules would require it.

Open colas

Examples include OpenCola, produced as a promotion by the Opencola software company; Cube-Cola, an open cola produced by the Cube Microplex cinema in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...

. Tøyen-Cola from

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

is one of the Cube-Cola offsprings.Tøyen Cola is a local Speciality in Oslo, Norway that You need to Try!
on distrita.com (Jun 23, 2017)

References

{{Colas Cola

Cola Cola is a carbonated soft drink flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, citrus oils and other flavorings. Cola became popular worldwide after the American pharmacist John Stith Pemberton invented Coca-Cola, a trademarked brand, in 1886, which was ...

Recipe

Open colas

See also

References