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Open Cola

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Re: Open Cola

#41

Post by gravypod »

linsomniac wrote: post #36
golemotron wrote: post #16

The picture on the wikipedia page makes it look very sickly compared to any other cola. It looks like cloudy tea and there's no visible carbonation.

You can adjust that if you make it. When I made it, I didn't put any caramel coloring in it, and it came out cloudy white. As far as carbonation, mine was WAY more carbonated than store bought soda, I was carbonating it to 50psi in the bottles, and shaking up and recarbonating until it wouldn't take any more carbonation. Then I'd let it sit a couple minutes, it was super carbonated.

What did it taste like and where did you buy the materials for carbonating?

Re: Open Cola

#42

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

linsomniac wrote: post #36
golemotron wrote: post #16

The picture on the wikipedia page makes it look very sickly compared to any other cola. It looks like cloudy tea and there's no visible carbonation.

You can adjust that if you make it. When I made it, I didn't put any caramel coloring in it, and it came out cloudy white. As far as carbonation, mine was WAY more carbonated than store bought soda, I was carbonating it to 50psi in the bottles, and shaking up and recarbonating until it wouldn't take any more carbonation. Then I'd let it sit a couple minutes, it was super carbonated.

I love carbonated water. I drink flavorless, heavily carbonated water for fun. Or did, until our SodaStream broke. So honestly, I don't know if I'd actually make Open Cola if given the chance. I might just drink the water.

Re: Open Cola

#44

Post by agentgt »

sjwright wrote: post #22
bad_user wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given you drink diet sodas, you must care about your health, but drinking diet sodas is more unhealthy than coffee. For one, you're clearly concerned about sugar intake (and you should be), but you see one problem with our sugar intake is that it makes our taste buds tolerant to sugar, so in time it dulls our senses for fruits or milk or other healthy foods with naturally occurring sugar. And the problem is that arti…

My advice is to learn to enjoy plain soda water – it's my absolute favourite beverage for fine dining as it's fundamentally refreshing and cleanses the palate. It means you enjoy the food more without getting weighed down by liquid sugar or alcohol. If it's not to your taste, one way to make unsweetened soda water substantially more palatable is to add lemon juice. A particularly convenient way to do this is to use b…

I agree.

While in Paris and Nice France I noticed many diners would order sparkling water. In the US I'm one of the few that will order it at a meal when I go out.

I drink an enormous amount of plain soda water (aka sparkling water aka seltzer aka club soda). Like 64oz to 96oz a day.

My intake has gone up even more now that I fast most of the day, have a soda stream, and vacuumed seal stainless steel tumbler (yeti, rtic, etc). I highly recommend one of those cups.

I swear but don't have proof that soda water curbs appetite more than flat water.

My only annoyance is that soda stream while I suppose helpful to the environment is actually not that cost effective.

Re: Open Cola

#45

Post by petra »

lgbr wrote: post #6
dspillett wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it seems like making soda at home is really catching on ... but the availability of syrups is presenting some serious supplier risk. Wouldn't the answer there be to try making your own of those too? I'd bet good money that a "plain" syrup isn't difficult to make and that relevant flavouring agents are easy to come by.

> Wouldn't the answer there be to try making your own of those too? The difference with carbonation is that I can get CO2 and carbonation equipment really easily, and in different forms from different suppliers. I could even get some yeast from my local store and make it. Carbonating water takes less time and effort than making a cup of coffee. The problem with syrups is that, as you can see from the recipe here on O…

>> Cola, lemon lime, orange, or other syrups don't have this kind of availability

Sure, they're not on every grocery store. But Amazon has them, and it's a great distribution channel for that.

Re: Open Cola

#46

Post by Nursie »

abritinthebay wrote: post #38
raving-richard wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ecigarettes are actually better for you than real ones, and not only that, they basically make it easier to quit using nicotine altogether (according to reports I've seen).

They are better in terms of addiction- but in terms of cancer risk it's a wash. Due to how poorly regulated the liquids are it has the potential to be worse as well.

Sorry what does "it's a wash" mean here?

We have on the one hand a known bad thing, cigarettes contain all sorts of nasties, tars, combustion products etc etc

On the other we have propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin, nicotine and food flavours that get vapourised (not burned). These have no proven links to cancer, PG and VG are already used in food and in medicines, some for inhalation. Also stage-smoke. There's no reason to think they are anywhere near as hazardous as smoking, though we haven't got good long-term data yet.

Regulation of ingredients would be good, but smoking cigarettes and vaping is very far apart in expected health outcomes.

Re: Open Cola

#48

Post by gravypod »

linsomniac wrote: post #37

I made Open Cola years and years ago, and here's the thing that surprised me most: You won't drink it and say "Hey, this tastes just like Coke!" It tasted good, it had some of the same sorts of flavor things going on that Coke does (sweet/tangy, neroli finish), but you would never mistake it for another cola. The basic set of oils costs around $75 (most of that the neroli, IIRC), the carbonation setup I was able to d…

Approximately, for your 75$ initial investment, how many cans of cola did you make? Also would you make it again?

Re: Open Cola

#49

Post by 1123581321 »

bad_user wrote: post #5
lgbr wrote: post #2

I'm actually dreading the day that I go to the store and find that my favorite soda syrups have been discontinued. I prefer diet sodas over coffee for my daily caffeine intake. I started using a SodaStream a couple years ago, and I've come to really enjoy a few of the flavors that they offer, but some of them are already completely impossible to get anymore. This seems mostly due to them being acquired by Pepsi, and…

Given you drink diet sodas, you must care about your health, but drinking diet sodas is more unhealthy than coffee. For one, you're clearly concerned about sugar intake (and you should be), but you see one problem with our sugar intake is that it makes our taste buds tolerant to sugar, so in time it dulls our senses for fruits or milk or other healthy foods with naturally occurring sugar. And the problem is that arti…

Artificial sweeteners don't raise sugar or trigger an insulin response. I thought this until I used a Dexcom and tested it for myself (I'm type 1 diabetic so any changes would be immediately noticed.)

Re: Open Cola

#50

Post by brianwawok »

robotmlg wrote: post #35
brianwawok wrote: post #27

> 2.36 kg plain granulated white table sugar http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/sugar-guid...

Let's see: 2.36 kg of sugar makes enough syrup for 24L of OpenCola, according to the wiki article. So, 12oz of OpenCola contains 34.9 grams of sugar [1]. 4 grams less than the equivalent amount of Coke [2]. Not to say that this isn't still a lot of sugar, just that it's comparable to the product it's trying to emulate. [1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=solve+for+x:+2.36+kg+%2... [2] http://www.coca-colaproduct…

Yes it's not WORSE than cola.. but even 12 ounces has more sugar than WHO suggests for the entire day[0].

So while the concept of "OpenCola" is cool, it's closer to "OpenDiabetes".

[0] https://authoritynutrition.com/how-much-sugar-per-day/

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