Homemade Cola
A cola-style syrup of citrus zest, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla and brown sugar, mixed with sparkling water.
Photograph credit: Selective Focus of Drink with Coca Cola by Cansın Balcı · Pexels License · Pexels
Don't Make These Mistakes
Measure the cloves.
Add the vanilla off the heat.
Taste and adjust the strength.
Keep the sparkling water cold.
Making Homemade Cola
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Simmer the sugar, water, orange zest, lime zest, cinnamon and cloves over medium heat for 20 minutes.
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Strain through a fine sieve and stir in the vanilla and lemon juice. Cool.
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For each glass, pour about 40 ml of syrup over ice and top with 125 ml sparkling water.
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Why It Works
Orange, lime, cinnamon, clove and vanilla: those are the flavours that most people recognise as cola. Brown sugar adds the caramel note and the dark colour.
Simmer the zests, spices and sugar with the water for 20 minutes, until the syrup has reduced a little and smells like the real thing. Do not use more clove than the recipe says. It is the strongest spice here and a few too many make the drink taste like a dentist.
Strain the syrup through a fine sieve and add the vanilla and the lemon juice after the heat is off, because vanilla loses its fragrance when boiled. The lemon adds the sharpness that gives cola its bite.
To serve, mix one part syrup to four parts cold sparkling water over ice. Taste the first glass and adjust the ratio. The syrup keeps for two weeks in the fridge. The drink is a homemade soda, not a copy of any brand.
After You've Cooked It
The syrup keeps in the fridge for 2 weeks.
Ingredient Swaps
- Lemon is the everyday swap for lime in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.
What to Serve Alongside
- Burgers
- Hot dogs
- Pizza
- Ice cream
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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