Craft Cola

Written By Allison Ventura

This craft cola recipe is meant to serve as a guideline for creating your very own craft cola recipe. After all, craft cola and its ingredients are all about intention. Change out the spices, fruits, sugar, anything and create a combination that speaks to you. If you do make your own craft cola, please share and tag us!

Serve over ice with sparkling water in a 1:3 ratio or mix with milk or milk alternative in a 1:4 ratio!

Craft Cola

Craft Cola

Craft Cola is all about creating a spice-forward syrup that features tasty fruits in fun and flexible combinations. Please experiment with this recipe in any way you like - add or remove spices, use different fruits, test different types of sugar, anything! Enjoy the journey!

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 25 MinInactive time: 12 HourTotal time: 12 H & 35 M

Ingredients

  • 500ml Filtered water
  • 550g Cane sugar
  • 50ml Yuzu juice
  • 1 orange, sliced
  • 1 lemon, sliced
  • 3g allspice
  • 4g star anise
  • 3g Coriander seeds
  • 7g black pepper
  • 5g Clove
  • 3g Cinnamon
  • 5g Green Cardamom
  • 1 Vanilla Bean
  • 1g kola nut
  • Pinch of ground nutmeg

Instructions

  1. Cut the vanilla bean in half the long way and scrape out the "caviar"
  2. Crush the cardamom pods to release the seeds
  3. Slice the orange
  4. Slice the lemon
  5. Add the whole spices and the fruit slices to a pot with the water
  6. Bring to a boil
  7. Add the sugar and mix thoroughly
  8. Cover and keep the heat on medium (below boiling 180F-200F) for at least 20 minutes, stirring occasionally
  9. Add the yuzu juice and mix
  10. Transfer to a container and allow to steep overnight
  11. Strain all the spices and fruits
  12. Mix with sparkling water in a 1:3 ratio of syrup:water or mix with milk/milk alternative in a 1:4 ratio of syrup:milk
  13. Enjoy!

Notes

  • Use any sugar you like, but I recommend keeping the ratio of 1:1 water to sugar by weight! You can even mix sugars (sometimes I add brown sugar for a more caramel taste)
  • If you don't have yuzu juice, try another citrus juice (or a new fruit entirely!)
  • If you don't have kola nut, try making this recipe with some black tea
  • You can use ground spices if you prefer, but you may want to use a tea bag to strain it
  • Steep time is flexible. Steep according to your strength preference.
  • I recommend keeping the pot covered while steeping to prevent water from evaporating, which will affect sweetness level.
Allison Ventura