Darcy S. ONeil
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How to Make Cola Formula Sheet
🕑 Added 2025-06-19 15:04:50 +0000 UTCCola is a wildly popular flavour. Worldwide, cola-flavoured beverages account for approximately 60% of the total carbonated soda drinks market, which is dominated by Coca-Cola and Pepsi. However, there are many regional cola products, such as Thumbs Up and Afri Cola. If you look at all commercial packaged beverages, cola may account for up to 10% of all drinks consumed worldwide.
With such a wide interest in this flavour, understanding it can help you make better beverages and even save a lot of money. The current average retail price for a can of cola is about $1.00 US, but if you make it using the included formula, the input costs for an equivalent serving is about 4 cents. It makes you wonder how much it costs to produce the content of a can of Coca-Cola or Pepsi, probably less than a penny.
This cola formula is excellent, though, as with all formulations, it does need some tweaking and I've made a few. Specifically, this is a completely alcohol-free formula that uses the caramel emulsification method.
It is a fact that recreating an exact Coca-Cola clone is near impossible, primarily due to the use of coca extract in their formula, which only they seem to be able to use. And the fact that they have a sophisticated process for making their emulsions and syrups, which we would have a hard time duplicating on a small scale.
This formula comes from the New Practical Formulary by Mitchell Freeman (1955) and he seems to have been extremely thorough in his recipe investigations. The Dr Pepper formula is excellent, as is this cola formula. I don't know if he had any inside information or just collected formulas, but he seems to have been a highly skilled individual with little to no information available about him.
Our advantage in creating formulas is that we can adjust them and develop varieties that Coca-Cola would have a hard time releasing, such as a non-alcoholic rum-flavoured cola variation. Or other simple things, like a higher cinnamaldehyde content to give the cola some more kick. The combinations are infinite. It only requires you to take some time and experiment. And this cola formula is the perfect starting point.
Check out the video, the formula sheet is attached, and as usual, please post comments and questions below.
Comments
Darcy S. O'Neil
You can use either or, I've found both at homebrew stores. Just use slightly less of the 85% if that is what you are using.
Ryan
Hi Darcy. Are you using75% or 85% phosphoric acid in the cola syrup? The phosphoric acid I found is 85% and I noticed in the Bottlers Formulary he calls for “syrupy 85% phosphoric acid”. Just curious if you adjusted the amounts to use 75% phosphoric acid or if that is really meant to be 85%. The cola concentrate smells great. I’m excited to use it but I’m gonna let it age a couple weeks first.
uncle_sam
Hello, I am planning to try the cola recipe. Just in case anyone is interested i found this website offering the decocainized coca leaf extract from Peru. Not sure if it would be a problem to import https://www.andeanleaves.com/product/coca-leaf-extract/
