Perfectly Replicating Coca Cola (It Took Me A Year)

Video Description

The Coca Cola secret formula is one of the best kept secrets in recent history...and I hate secrets. So, naturally, I deciphered it with the help of mass spectrometry and created a chemically-identical replica! Want a sample of the Lab-Cola? Check out my eBay listing here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/317796601418 A massive thanks to Vince from @Neptunium and Ben from @MassSpecEverything, their mass spectrometry work is truly what made this video possible! Check out their videos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V45lSJJ-d-M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYN5sNOiA6s An additional shoutout to @GlenAndFriendsCooking and @HowToCookThat, who put out excellent videos on making cola, and especially to @Artofdrink, who has several highly educational beverage-related videos, as well as one of the best colas I've tasted! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWaNiwcQK2M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VG-gvzr-8g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2yLvseG5UM Finally, thanks to @Nighthawkinlight for demonstrating orthogonal (Taguchi) arrays in his video! CURRENT RECIPE: same as video, but use 10 grams of tannin and 160 grams of glycerin. And if you use Durkee caramel color (since Shanks no longer seems to be available), use 185mL instead of 320mL, since it's much stronger. PER LITER OF SODA (VERSION 111B): 104 grams sugar (dissolved in a minimum volume of water) 1mL flavor solution A (alcohol-based) 10mL flavor solution B (water-based) Top off to 1 liter with cold carbonated water FLAVOR SOLUTION A: dilute 20mL of the following oil mixture to a volume of 1 liter using food-grade 95% alcohol. 45.8mL lemon oil 36.5mL lime oil 8mL tea tree oil (from Australian tea tree, Melaleuca Alternifolia) 4.5mL cassia cinnamon oil 2.7mL nutmeg oil 1.2mL orange oil (regular sweet orange) 0.7mL coriander oil 0.6mL fenchol (any version of alpha-fenchol should work) FLAVOR SOLUTION B: dilute the following mixture to a volume of 1 liter using water. 185mL Durkee caramel color 160 grams food-grade vegetable glycerin 45mL 85% phosphoric acid 10 grams wine tannin 9.65 grams caffeine 10mL 5% vinegar 10mL vanilla extract (or a solution containing 0.95 grams per liter of vanillin) If you like glass bottle "Mexican" Coke, just increase the lime in the final mix. I haven't actually made an effort to replicate glass bottle Coca Cola, but that seems to be basically the only difference. Here's the research paper I referenced throughout this project: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/jf504954p?ref=article_openPDF WARNING: concentrated phosphoric acid is mildly corrosive and undiluted flavors and essential oils can be irritating or toxic. Never consume, unless properly mixed and diluted to safe levels. Tea tree oil is not GRAS (generally recognized as safe to eat), although the few microliters added to this cola shouldn't cause health issues due to the low dosage and similarity to the chemical makeup of other sodas. You will honestly absorb less of it by drinking this soda than you would by using a tea tree lotion or mouth wash! 0:00 Secrets secrets secrets 1:18 A fool's errand...or not? 2:56 What's in Coke? 3:29 Coca (but not cola) 4:10 Flavor basics and early trials 7:17 Mass spectrometry (thanks Vince and Ben!) 9:12 Research papers and key discoveries 11:54 Spreadsheet time 12:20 The missing flavors 13:44 A year of testing 14:23 A BIG discovery...we nailed it 15:27 How to make Coca Cola 17:16 Mixture A: 7X flavor 18:47 Mixture B: water-based ingredients 19:46 Mixing up the cola 21:41 What do other people think? 23:27 Looking forward