How To Make Homemade Cola [Step By Step Guide]

Last Updated on 7th June 2023 by

The Secret recipe of Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola

Coca Cola and Pepsi have both kept the formula for their unique beverage carefully guarded for decades and it is rumoured that only a handful of people at anyone time ever know the real secret. It is also rumoured that no one person knows all of the ingredients at any one time.

How To Make Homemade Cola [Step By Step Guide]

Throughout the years many brands have tried to compete with the success of Coke and Pepsi but very few have managed to recreate their distinctive taste. Whatever you choose to call it, Coke, Cola or Pepsi we have a few recipes for homemade coke that we think you are going to love. If cola isnt your thing we also have a great recipe for lovers of homemade mountain dew.

Table of Contents

What makes Coca-Cola such a distinctive taste?

Today’s homemade recipe yields an excellent cola creation using all dried and fresh ingredients, promptly accessible in most home spice cupboards and refrigerators.

The one item you may need to look for is gum arabic, which is only included in the recipe for texture, not for flavour. So, if you don’t have it lying in your home you can try to order it online or you can just leave it out altogether, your homemade cola will, in any case, still taste great.

How to Make Homemade Cola Recipe

Here’s how to make homemade cola for your family! There are quite a lot of ingredients but its not as complicated to make homemade coke as you would think. Follow the video carefully and remember to leave a review and tell us how it tasted.

2 Litres

Homemade Coke Recipe

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

This homemade cola recipe is perfect for parties or freezing and bringing out to play the coke challenge with your friends. Let's see if you can match up against the legendary taste of Coke and Pepsi.

Ingredients

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
7 1/4 cups Sugar
2 tsp coriander seed
1 tsp gum arabic
1/4 tsp citric acid
1 lime juice and grated zest
1 lemon juice and grated zest
2 oranges juice and grated zest
2 tbsp dried orange peel
1/4 cup browning sauce
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups carbonated water

Instructions

This homemade cola recipe will need you to combine orange zest, orange peel, lime zest, lemon zest, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander seed, citric acid, and gum arabic in a non-stick cooking saucepan.

Bring them to a boil and whisk these ingredients together until the gum arabic disintegrates.

Once the gum arabic dissolves, add in the sugar and bring to a boil for one minute or until the mixture has liquified.

Remove from heat and blend in orange, lemon, and lime juices, along with the vanilla extract and browning sauce. If you don't have browning sauce available, you can use brown sugar with a little bit of water as an alternative.

Let it cool for 30 minutes to one hour, and then strain the homemade coca cola syrup with a sieve or cheesecloth for a smoother consistency.

For every 1 1/2 cups of carbonated water, add in 1/2 cup of homemade cola syrup. Stir the mixture until it's fully combined and blended. For best results, add ice and enjoy!

Note: You can keep this homemade cola syrup recipe refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

Notes

Please try and play around with some of the measurements and sweeten the mixture according to your taste and please share your results with us. To make diet coke you could try substituting the sugar for a low cal homemade diet coke.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 1518Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 1267mgCarbohydrates: 390gFiber: 3gSugar: 383gProtein: 2g

Nuka Cola is the most popular flavoured soft drink from the fallout universe. What gives the Nuka cola its powerful and addictive flavour is the essence of 17 different fruits mixed in the exact right proportions. It turns out Nuka cola homemade is the easiest summer drink you can make in a hurry! Or you can grab our step by step guide to making your own Gatorade.

With numerous experiments, we believe this is the closest approximation to the original recipe created by John-Caleb Bradberton.

Step by Step Guide to Making Cola

How to Make Homemade Self Freezing Cola

Don’t have a slushie machine or blender at home? No problem! This recipe is perfect for you. It only requires a few ingredients, and it’s an enjoyable and easy method of making a slushie.

Self Freezing Cola Slurpee

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes

This is really simple to make and great if you have any leftover homemade cola syrup. Great for kids parties or hot sunny days. You will need a ziplock resealable bag.

Ingredients

1 Cup of Homemade Cola
5 tbsp Salt
12 Ice Cubes

Instructions

Take your sealable plastic bag and put salt and ice cubes. This will create a chemical reaction, keeping the ice colder for a more extended period of time.

Take a second sealable bag and pour the cola into it. Make sure to seal it tightly and put it in the other bag with salt and ice.
Completely seal the second bag and remove any air bubbles that may be stuck, making sure that it's not leaking.

Wrap the bags well in a towel to protect your hands from the cold. Then, shake both bags and make sure the ice cubes can move freely inside the bag.

Do this for 3–5 minutes until you see the cola is forming a slushie type of texture.
Your Coca Cola Slurpee is ready! Just open the bags and pour it into a tall glass

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 26Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 8726mgCarbohydrates: 6gFiber: 0gSugar: 6gProtein: 0g

Homemade Coke Slush Machine

Nothing beats a super cold Coke on a hot day, well aside from this pleasant Cola slushie recipe! If you’ve been thinking about how to make a slushie with a blender or a machine, you’re in for a treat! Why not try a Red Bull slush with our best ever homemade Redbull recipe, it’s even lower in calories too.

When you realise how to make slushies at home, there’s no compelling reason to go to the closest slush, icee, or Slurpee machine next time you want a slushie!

Here’s what you’ll need to do.

Homemade Cola Slush machine

Prep Time: 4 hours

Cook Time: 2 minutes

Total Time: 4 hours 2 minutes

Ingredients

5 Cups Homemade Cola
10 Cubes Iced Cola

Instructions

You'll need to make three cups of homemade coca cola and pour them into an empty ice cube tray. Leave the tray in the fridge for a minimum of four hours. Personally, I leave it to freeze overnight until it's fully frozen.

Remove the cola cubes from the ice cube tray and transfer them to your blender or slush machine. Blend around ten cubes, along with 1 1/2 cups of cold cola you have leftover.

Enjoy and serve with a spoon or straw.

Making Coca Cola at home is not only a fun activity for you and your children; it’ll also make a delicious treat. It might seem difficult at first, but you’ll be surprised by how simple it is, as long as you have the main ingredients.

You’ll be able to make several varieties of coke and other homemade soda drinks, including slushies, Nuka Cola, and even homemade coca cola cake. Mix up a batch for yourself, and tell us what you think!

How to Make Homemade Nuka Cola

A favourite with gamers this is how you make your own version of Nuka Cola just like you see in the games, and of course its using your very own syrup with your homemade cola recipe featured above.

Homemade Nuka Cola

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

No cola recipe would be complete without one of the favourites from the gaming world of Fallout. Its just a bit of fun but now that you have a batch of frozen homemade cola you may as well give it a try.

Ingredients

1/2 cup coca cola
1/2 cup crush cream soda
1/4 cup fruit mix (raspberry, apple, pineapple, pear, orange and grape)
1/4 cup Del Monte Guava, golden kiwi and mangosteen
1/4 cup SunRype tropical blend
1/4 cup SunRype pure raspberry
1/8 cup tart black cherry juice

Instructions

In a large measuring cup, combine the fruit mix juices all together and blend well.
Add in the Crush Cream Soda and the Coca Cola together with the fruit juices.
Add ice and enjoy!

FAQs About Homemade Cola

Is it easy to make homemade cola

The recipe is quite easy to make but some of the ingredients may be tricky to get hold of. If you have been wondering how to make coke then it’s basically combining all the ingredients into one big bowl to create a thick syrup and then adding some soda water to give it that fizz.

Do we really know the coca cola recipe

While we are not 100% sure of the ingredients we are pretty pleased with the results and we things it not too far away. So finally we know how to make coca cola at home.

What are the ingredients to make Coca-Cola?

You would be surprised what the cola recipe is. Its is mainly citrus based ingredients and sugar. Lots of sugar. You have some coriander, citrus zest and peels, a pinch of nutmeg and some cinnamon.

How do you make homemade soft drinks?

It’s really easy to make homemade soft drinks if you have the right ingredients, it usually consists of adding everything to a bowl and then combining with sugar and heating up until the sugar turns to a thick syrup, you then just add soda water to add some fizz.

What makes the cola flavor?

The unique flavour of cola is created from the blend of spices and citrus ingredients alongside a few distinctive additions such as cinnamon and nutmeg.

More How to Guides

References

The History of Cola – https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/history-of-cola.htm

Cola Ingredients Revealed – https://www.mashed.com/274597/heres-whats-really-in-the-secret-ingredients-of-coca-cola/

4.6/5 - (37 votes)

Pauline Loughlin

Website | + posts

I'm Pauline, a retired patisserie chef, mother of four and now a full time food blogger! When i'm not cooking i love long walks, reading thriller novels and spending time with my grandkids. Head to my about me page to learn more about the woman behind the food! You can find my Facebook here

Cindy Fox

Sunday 15th of January 2023

I'm looking forward to making your recipe. So glad I found it. How long does the carbonated soda last unopened if I stock up on some? Thanks

Shane

Saturday 26th of March 2022

The cola recipe step one mentioned adding a bunch of dry ingredients and bringing them to a boil. Is there supposed to be water added to this step?

Fact

Thursday 2nd of March 2023

@Ben, that's a really stupid comment and you know it

Ben

Tuesday 22nd of November 2022

@Shane, do you usually boil stuff without water?

Emerald Princess

Monday 4th of July 2022

@Shane, I am wondering the same thing? Clearly it needs water but it does not say how much. Other recipes call for 4 cups of water with similar ingredients except for way less sugar than this recipe calls for so I am at a loss

Lee

Saturday 19th of December 2020

The Nuka cola recipe is fantastic the kids loved it. Cuodnt find the cherry juice though so switched that