Home-brewed cola: essential oils, gum arabic and a whiff of marzipan

What they made

It has been reported that a hobbyist began making their own soft drinks in 2020, and has since posted recipes and a step-by-step “log book” of experiments — including a sugar-free, caffeine-free cola — on a personal blog and a companion GitHub repo. Inspired by Open Cola and Cube Cola, the project reads like part kitchen chemistry lab, part tinkerer’s diary. Who wants store-bought cola when you can reverse-engineer one at home?

How they did it

The method is low-tech but precise: micro‑measures of essential oils to create flavor, gum arabic as an emulsifier so the oils stay suspended, a splash of caramel color, citric acid for bite, and then sweetener of choice. It has been reported that the author made roughly 2 ml of essential oil mix to flavor about 9 L of cola, emulsified it with 2 g gum arabic and a hand mixer, then diluted a concentrated syrup down to a working volume for tasting. Safety note: the blog recommends gloves — essential oils are potent and can irritate skin.

Tastes, tweaks and what’s next

The first taste tests got a thumbs-up: “It’s good! It’s really good!” the author wrote, though there were follow-up tweaks — more citric acid for extra sourness, swapping saccharin/cyclamate for sucralose to reduce bitter aftertaste, and cutting sweetener amounts after finding them too intense. They’ve branched out from cola to blood‑orange + almond + lime blends; the apartment now allegedly smells like marzipan. The post also links to deeper dives into cola chemistry by Jan Krüger and Richard Grove, and notes that Open Soda’s site is allegedly offline as of 2026.

Why it matters

This is more than a kitchen vanity project. It’s part of a wider maker impulse: reverse-engineer commercial foods, learn the chemistry, and regain control of taste and ingredients. Want caffeine-free cola with a custom citrus kick? Apparently you can. Will anyone else take up the mantle and expand the DIY soda canon beyond cola? That’s the fun part — and the experiment continues.

Sources: blinry.org, Hacker News