Ann Reardon

Homemade Coke Recipe

 

There are many documents out there claiming to be the secret coca-cola recipe. Coke denies them and when the expensive ingredients have been sourced and the recipes made people inevitably say, “it doesn’t taste like coke”. Instead of putting all the ingredients together in one batch I decided to keep them all seperate so that we could play around with the flavour. After a several failed attempts we narrowed it down to something very close. The only thing missing is the dark brown colour.

When tasting in the developmental stage of the recipe we were comparing to flat room temperature coke. That is because temperature and carbonation effects the flavour. Then for the final taste test it was cold and carbonated.

One of the problems of being in lockdown, apart from not being able to see anyone, homeschooling and the shops being closed, is that the postal system is incredibly slow due to workers being isolated. Note in the video we had not yet received the food grade phosphoric acid, it came the next day. So James and did the whole thing again, off camera, to further narrow it down to get the recipes that you have below. Phosphoric acid was the best choice, it is the acid that they use in coke and it does effect the flavour. At a pinch you can uses the tartaric acid but it’s not quite as good.

James Final Coke Recipe – makes 900mL

800mL chilled water
105mL sugar syrup
6 tsp light caramel syrup
4 drops burnt caramel syrup
15 drops bay leaf
10 drops orange
45 drops green tea
10 drops phosphoric acid
Mix ingredients together well and carbonate using a soda stream.

Ann’s Final Coke Recipe – makes 900mL

800mL chilled water
80mL sugar syrup
3 tsp light caramel
5 1/2 tsp burnt caramel
32 drops bay leaf
3 drop orange
32 drops green tea
16 drops lavender
16 drops rosemary

Mix ingredients together well and carbonate using a soda stream. Alternatively you could mix together everything, except the water, and then add seltzer water. Seltzer water is carbonated water without any other added minerals.

Note: There is phosphoric acid in the burnt caramel, because I used quite a bit of the burnt caramel I didn’t need to add extra acid separately. Above you can see James used a lot less burnt caramel so added more acid.

Recipes for Flavours

If you want to have a go at making your own coke here are the recipes for all the “essences” and sugar syrups that we had on the counter to choose from. Most of these were inspired by different recipes for coke online. We did not use all of them in the final recipe. After trying them in different attempts we found some of them to be the wrong flavour for coke.

Sugar Syrup
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
Heat until the sugar is dissolved, then allow to cool completely.

Light Caramel Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1/4 cup water
Bring to the boil, wash down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush. Heat to crack hard, approx 163C, then remove from the heat and stir in 1/3 cup of water. Be careful of the steam. Allow to cool completely.

light caramel recipe

Medium Caramel Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon glucose
1/4 cup water
Bring to the boil, wash down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush. Heat to crack hard, approx 163C, then continue to heat until the colour deepens but does not burn. Remove from the heat and stir in 1/3 cup of water. Be careful of the steam. Allow to cool completely.

medium caramel recipe ann reardon

Burnt Caramel Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/2 mL phosphoric acid (85% Food Grade Orthophosphoric FCC solution – CAUTION handle with care)
Bring to the boil, wash down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush. Heat to approx 175C, then remove from the heat and stir in 1/3 cup of water. Be careful of the steam. Allow to cool completely.

brunt caramel flavouring coke recipe

Note in the video I used 1/2 tsp citric acid in the burnt caramel because I did not yet have the phosphoric acid. The citric acid is not as concentrated as the phosphoric so I then added more drops of tartaric acid into the drink. The acid makes the caramel go a much deeper colour and effects the flavour. Phosphoric acid was the best choice here, it is what they use in coke, but you could try tartaric or citric if you don’t have food grade phosphoric acid available.

Green Tea
4 twinings green tea bags
1/3 cup boiling water
Place the teabags into a cup and add the boiling water, allow to sit for a minute. Lift the teabags out and gently squeeze and allow the liquid to drip into the cup.

Orange Essence
Rind of 3 oranges
Juice of 1 orange
Place in a pan and boil for 1 minute. Cool completely then strain using a sieve.

orange essence home made

Lime Essence
Rind of 3 limes
Juice of 2 limes
1 tsp water
Place in a pan and boil for 1 minute. Cool completely then strain using a cheese cloth.

lime flavouring home made

Lemon Essence
Rind of 3 lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp water
Place in a pan and boil for 1 minute. Cool completely then strain using a cheese cloth.

Cinnamon Extract
250mL water
2 cinnamon sticks
Boil for 3 minutes, remove from the heat then allow to sit for 3 hours. Strain using a sieve.

Nutmeg Extract
1 tablespoon powdered nutmeg
60Ml water
Bring to the boil then remove from the heat and let sit for 1 hour. Place a funnel in a bottle and add a cheesecloth on top. Pour the nutmeg into the cheesecloth and allow to drip through for several hours.

Salt
1 tsp salt
2 tablespoons boiling water
Heat and stir until the salt is dissolved.

Lavender
4 small heads of fresh lavender
1/3 cup boiling water
Microwave for 30 seconds, allow to cool then strain using a sieve.

Tartaric Acid
1 tsp tartaric acid
2 tablespoons water
Stir until the powder is dissolved.

Citric Acid
1/2 tsp citric acid
1/2 tablespoon water
Stir until the powder is dissolved.

Phosphoric acid
85% Food Grade Orthophosphoric FCC solution – CAUTION handle with care this is a strong acid. Do not taste it when it is undiluted or you will hurt yourself. Not for children to handle.

Bay Leaf
5 fresh bay leaves
1/2 cup water
Boil for 2 minutes. Cool and leave for 1 hour. Blend then strain.

Kaffir Lime Leaf
5 fresh kaffir lime leaves
1 cup water
Boil for 2 minutes. Cool and leave for 1 hour. Blend then strain.

Rosemary
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary chopped
1/2 cup boiling
Combine the rosemary and boiling water. Allow to sit for 1 hour then strain.

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

5 Comments View Comments

  1. Rating: 5

    How would you add color to Jame’s recipe without affecting the flavor?

  2. Rating: 1.5

    Quoting sugar syrup as an ingredient is useless, there are many different strengths of it. you need to specify which (percent sugar percent water abd which type of sugar, glucose vs invert syrup vs sucrose vs fructose).

    • Sugar Syrup
      2 cups water
      2 cups sugar
      Heat until the sugar is dissolved, then allow to cool completely.

      Did you miss this section?

  3. What about a recipe for Sweden’s Julmust or Scotland’s Irn-Bru (similar to Eek’s Snow cap)

  4. That was amazing Ann! Is there anything you can’t find? Loved the video!

    Lots of Love!

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