OpenCola (drink) facts for kids
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| Type | Cola |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 2001 |
| Related products | Free Beer |
OpenCola is a special kind of cola drink. What makes it special is that its recipe is completely open! This means anyone can see the ingredients and how to make it. You can even change the recipe and make your own version. It's a bit like free and open source software, where the code is free for everyone to use and improve. OpenCola was first made in 2001 by a company called Opencola. They wanted to show people how their "open source" idea worked, but the drink became super popular on its own!
Contents
What is OpenCola?
OpenCola was created on January 27, 2001. The first recipe was made by Grad Conn, Cory Doctorow, and John Henson. The newest recipe is version 1.1.3.
The company Opencola first made the drink to help explain what "open source" means. But the drink became famous all by itself! About 150,000 cans of OpenCola were sold. The company, which was based in Toronto, Canada, became more known for its drink than for its software. One of the company's leaders, Laird Brown, said the drink was popular because people didn't always trust big companies. They liked that OpenCola shared everything about its product.
How to Make OpenCola: Flavouring
The flavouring is the part that gives OpenCola its unique taste. Here are the ingredients for the flavouring:
- 10.0 g food-grade gum arabic (This helps mix the oils and water.)
- 3.5 mL orange oil
- 3.0 mL water
- 2.75 mL lime oil
- 1.25 mL cassia oil (This is like cinnamon.)
- 1.0 mL lemon oil
- 1.0 mL nutmeg oil
- 0.25 mL coriander oil
- 0.25 mL neroli oil (This comes from orange blossoms.)
- 0.25 mL lavender oil
How to Make OpenCola: Concentrate
After you make the flavouring, you mix it with other ingredients to create a concentrate. This concentrate is like a super-strong syrup.
- 2.36 kg plain white table sugar
- 2.28 L water
- 30.0 mL caramel color (This gives cola its brown color.)
- 17.5 mL (3.50 tsp.) 75% phosphoric acid or citric acid (These add a tart taste.)
- 10.0 mL (2.00 tsp.) flavouring formula (from above)
- 2.5 mL (0.50 tsp.) caffeine (This is optional, but it's what gives cola a "kick".)
How to Make OpenCola: Dilution
Once you have the concentrate, you need to mix it with soda water to make the final drink. Always follow safety rules when mixing! You mix one part concentrate with five parts soda water. It's best to use soda water that doesn't have much sodium. When you mix everything, this recipe makes about 24 litres of OpenCola! That's a lot of soda!
The full recipe also tells you how to make your own soda water at home. You can use simple things like yeast and sugar. This makes the whole process truly "open source." If you don't make your own, you would need to buy bottled soda water or use a machine with carbon dioxide.
See also
In Spanish: OpenCola para niños
- Cube Cola
- Coca-Cola formula
- Free Beer, open source beer
- List of brand name soft drinks products
- List of soft drink flavors
