
Open Cola - vasanthagneshk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCola_(drink)
======
lgbr
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 this
has caused them to redo their entire lineup due to either lackluster sales or
corporate politics.

I would love it if Open Cola were not only available from manufacturers, but
also covered more flavors, because it seems like making soda at home is really
catching on (one only needs to look at the sales of the carbonator cap on
Amazon to see this) but the availability of syrups is presenting some serious
supplier risk.

Edit: SodaStream wasn't acquired by Pepsi, they merely had a distribution
deal. My mistake.

~~~
bad_user
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
artificial sweeteners can make this problem even worse. This is like nicotine
addicts switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes. It might be slightly
healthier, but doesn't do anything for your addiction.

If you're a diabetic, there have been studies suggesting that some artificial
sweeteners can raise your blood sugar and can trigger an insulin response. If
you're concerned about your weight I saw a study suggesting that artificial
sweeteners can lead to weight gain. Of course, you know how nutrition studies
are - most of them are flawed or questionable, but clearly it's a warning
sign.

And sugar is not the only bad ingredient in sodas. Another problem is citric
acid, linked to tooth decay. Phosphoric acid has been linked to osteoporosis
and also tooth decay. Coca Cola has been using Aspartame in their diet
products, which has been found to cause cancer. The list goes on.

I'm in the same boat as you, I simply want something to drink. Personally I
drink plain water (which tastes really good after you cut your sugar intake),
coffee with milk in the morning and tea during the day, all without sugar. And
I eat fruits for my sugar intake. Grapes taste great this time of year.

Or when I have a craving for Coca Cola, which happens from time to time, I
simply drink the one with sugar in it, because it tastes better. If my health
is going to suffer, at least it has to be worth it.

~~~
sjwright
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 bottled lemon juice. When I'm in a fancy mood I'll
also add mint, ice and a few good shakes of bitters.

In Australia, Schweppes sells bottles of sparkling water (soda water) infused
with various flavours, including my personal favourite, raspberry[1]. While
it's essentially sugar free it still has a very very slight echo of sweetness.

[1] Despite being available for many months they don't list the product on
their website. Here's an image: [http://shop.coles.com.au/wcsstore/Coles-
CAS/images/2/0/4/204...](http://shop.coles.com.au/wcsstore/Coles-
CAS/images/2/0/4/2047606.jpg)

~~~
cyphar
> 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.

I personally never liked the taste of soda water. However, I just stopped
drinking sugared drinks entirely and just drink water or tea (with no sugar,
just a bit of milk). It was quite easy to make the switch once I realised that
I actually don't like drinking Coke (the "bite" is what acid dissolving your
insides tastes like). It's quite amazing how different things taste. Food
(mainly fruit and even vegetables) taste much sweeter because I'm not being
(as) bombarded by sugar.

~~~
sjwright
> I personally never liked the taste of soda water. However, I just stopped
> drinking sugared drinks entirely

Try it again, with your palate shifted, you might like it now. As I said, a
good squeeze of lemon can make an enormous difference to its palatability.

------
linsomniac
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 do for around $100 (most of that the pressure
regulator).

~~~
teslabox
> You won't drink it and say "Hey, this tastes just like Coke!"

The Coca-Cola company has a monopoly on coca leaf extract [1], so nothing
tastes 'just like a Coke'. ;)

[1] [https://mises.org/blog/coca-cola-cronyism-and-war-
drugs](https://mises.org/blog/coca-cola-cronyism-and-war-drugs)

------
apatters
This is such a cool idea. Since distribution is the real secret behind the
success of Coca Cola and the beverage giants, I bet this would pair well with
a Dollar Shave Club type of business model. Deliver a crate of Open Cola to
people every month. Undercut the outrageous markups the big guys apply to
fizzy sugar water in order to maintain their distribution monopoly. Pass the
savings along to the customer. Heavy cola drinkers would love it. Massive and
global market.

Need to figure out what to do about the product getting a bit shaken up in the
mail though :)

~~~
wodenokoto
If you shake a bottle and let it rest, it will "unshake" itself. So that is
not really the problem.

The problem is people are religious about their Cola and basically nobody has
managed to convince consumers that theirs taste as good as the big brand.

There are plenty of very cheap store brand cokes available in stores, none of
them have managed to compete with Coca Cola.

~~~
kbutler
Even Coca Cola couldn't compete with Coca Cola...

------
beefield
I think there should be some kind of open source licence for branding stuff
like this.

So that anyone would be allowed to sell a drink under Open Cola brand as long
as it is produced as defined in the specifications, and especially face legal
penalties if someone tries to sell something else as Open Cola.

Then we would need an app that tells where is the closest place to get open
burger with cheese and fries to compete with the convenience of knowing the
quality I am getting when I opt for Big Mac.

~~~
abritinthebay
Basically Open Source Franchises?

An interesting idea...

~~~
ctack
The big thing behind franchises is standards enforcement. Could you enforce
standards without a centralised storehouse and tons of onsite training?

------
golemotron
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.

~~~
linsomniac
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.

~~~
qwertyuiop924
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.

------
rjl
Has anyone tasted this? What was it like?

------
dangravell
It'd be cool if they published it on GitHub and allowed people to improve or
adapt the recipe with PRs.

Bit tenuous, but...

~~~
michaelfeathers
I'd want to see an automated test suite for the build.

~~~
Keyframe
Jenkins with diabetes?

------
brianwawok
> 2.36 kg plain granulated white table sugar

[http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/sugar-
guid...](http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/sugar-
guideline/en/)

~~~
robotmlg
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...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=solve+for+x:+2.36+kg+%2F+x+%3D+24+L+%2F+12+fl+oz)
[2] [http://www.coca-colaproductfacts.com/en/coca-cola-
products/c...](http://www.coca-colaproductfacts.com/en/coca-cola-
products/coca-cola/)

~~~
brianwawok
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/](https://authoritynutrition.com/how-much-sugar-per-day/)

~~~
robotmlg
I mean, it's a non-diet soda. What did you expect?

------
JorgeGT
This reminded me of this Ubuntu Cola that I saw the other day:
[http://i.imgur.com/tsbvnuk.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/tsbvnuk.jpg). Sadly, it
appears to be closed source!

------
a-no-n
If there were an open-source low/no calorie formulation of MegaBrand Zero that
didn't contain carcinogens, I'd try that out.

------
qwertyuiop924
This is pretty cool. I don't know if it tastes any good, though, so it's not
supplanting coke for me until I can ascertain that.

------
Nursie
This is making me want a sodastream.

