OpenCola (drink)
Template:Short description Template:Infobox beverage
OpenCola is a brand of open-source cola whose list of ingredients and preparation instructions are freely available and modifiable. Anybody can make the drink, and anyone can modify and improve on the recipe. It was launched in 2001 by the later-defunct free software P2P company Opencola, to promote their company.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Background
The original version 1.0 was released on 27 January 2001 by Grad Conn, Cory Doctorow, and John Henson under the GNU General Public License. The released version is 1.1.3, as of 20 February 2001.<ref name="Soft Drink Formula" /> Although originally intended as a promotional tool to explain free and open source software, the drink took on a life of its own and 150,000 cans were sold.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Toronto-based company Opencola shut down in 2003, having become better known for the drink than for the software it was supposed to promote. Laird Brown, the company's senior strategist, attributed its success to a widespread mistrust of big corporations and the "proprietary nature of almost everything".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Flavouring formula
The flavouring formula for OpenCola is:<ref name="recipe">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Soft Drink Formula">Template:Cite web</ref>
- 10.0 g food-grade gum arabic
- 3.5 mL orange oil
- 3.0 mL water
- 2.75 mL lime oil
- 1.25 mL cassia oil
- 1.0 mL lemon oil
- 1.0 mL nutmeg oil
- 0.25 mL coriander oil
- 0.25 mL neroli oil
- 0.25 mL lavender oil
Concentrate formula
- 2.36 kg plain granulated white table sugar
- 2.28 L water
- 30.0 mL caramel color
- 17.5 mL (3.50 tsp.) 75% phosphoric acid or citric acid
- 10.0 mL (2.00 tsp.) flavouring formula
- 2.5 mL (0.50 tsp.) caffeine (optional)<ref name="recipe"/><ref name="Soft Drink Formula"/>
Dilution
After mixing up the concentrate to the prescribed recipe (including all recommended safety precautions), the syrup is diluted 5:1 with ("preferably sodium-free") soda water to make the finished drink; at this dilution, the above combination of ingredients will yield approximately 24 litres of OpenCola.Template:Cn
The full recipe also includes instructions for home-made soda water produced from basic ingredients such as yeast and sugar in order to make the entire process open source, otherwise there would be a need to use commercially produced bottled or canned soda, or consumer carbonation machines with commercially manufactured carbon dioxide canisters.<ref name="recipe"/><ref name="Soft Drink Formula"/>
See also
- Cube Cola
- Coca-Cola formula
- Free Beer, open-source beer, formerly known as Our Beer (Template:Langx)
- List of brand name soft drinks products
- List of soft drink flavors
References
External links
Template:Cookbook Template:Commons category
- OpenCola soft drink
- Cube Cola, Bristol, UK
- How to Make OpenCola - WikiHow
- The recipe from Wiki-How, condensed into a single, easily printable page
- OpenSoda.org, a defunct continuation of the OpenCola work for recipe and methodology
- OpenCola on GitHub