DIY Soft Drinks Like Cola, Fanta and Sprite (Part 1)

I somehow stumbled over a video on how to make soft drinks with a simplified recipe yourself. To my surprise, the recipes were really simple and effort was small. That got me hooked: does this really end up with soft drinks that taste like the commercial ones we all know?

There is only one way to find out.

My primary focus was the DIY Sprite. I was curious about the taste of the DIY Cola especially after seeing the rather short list of ingredients. And my wife was interested in DIY Fanta. So I had to make all three of them myself.

Here is the recipe from the video:

• 🍋 Sprite Syrup Recipe (makes about 500ml)
  • 400g sugar
  • 300ml water
  • zest of 3 lemons
  • zest of 2 limes
  • 7,5g citric acid

You have to mix everything up in a pot, heat it up and cook it a bit. Then you bottle it through a sieve and that's it. For more details, watch the video.

Be careful with your fingers:

After a while, the mixed ingredients in the pot look like that:

Be sure to use a proper sieve when bottling the syrup:

The whole procedure took maybe twenty minutes or so. Even a cooking-noob like me is able to get to the finish line without issues. The recipe is not complicated at all.

I have to say that the result really impressed me. When mixed with self-made soda water, it really resembles the original quite well or even better.

This was definitively not the last time I do this.

• 🍊 Fanta Syrup Recipe (makes about 500ml)
  • 400g sugar
  • zest of 3 oranges
  • juice of 3 oranges
  • juice of 2 tangerines
  • top up with water or adjust by drinking until you have 300ml juice total
  • 7,5g citric acid

The process for creating the Fanta is quite similar.

In my case, the syrup is a bit on the viscous side, just like honey. The beverage is good but it doesn't resemble the original that well. However, it is far from being bad. I won't change the recipe for the purpose of getting a different taste.

And now for the final one: self-made Cola:

• 🌰 Cola Syrup Recipe (makes about 500ml)
  • 400g sugar
  • 300ml water
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • zest of 1 orange
  • zest of 1 lime
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
  • 1 stick or 1/2 tsp of cassia or cinnamon, freshly ground
  • 2 Tbsp coriander seeds, crushed
  • 1/4 tsp dried rosemary, or a small twig of fresh
  • 1/8 tsp ground clove
  • 7,5g citric acid

Here are the ingredients. I would not have assumed that this ends up with something that tastes like a Cola:

The solid ingredients need to get into a grinder:

You can get caramel color by heating up sugar:

Here is the final result:

Although the Cola recipe is far from being as complex as other people do, it is really a good result. It reminds me more of a mixture of Cola and Fanta which is not unpleasant to me.

With self-producing soft drinks you do have a clear understanding on the ingredients. You can use more or less syrup to your liking. The result is really awesome - I would not have expected this.

With rather low temperatures outside these days, I also like to mix the syrup with 60°C water in order to get an instant hot drink.

Try it yourself and drop me a link to your result as a comment below!