With market season amping up we’ve been hard
at work perfecting what has been one of our most challenging recipes to date: a
Brooklyn Soda Works original cola.
The complexity in the recipe creation process was embedded in the very
essence of what makes a cola what it is: it’s famously intangible but
unmistakable flavor. While we certainly
haven’t set out to recreate Coke, it was important to us that our rendition be
inspired by the taste of colas past, so research played a heavy role in the
process. Our quest began with a look to the flurry of recent reporting that has
centered on cola and cola production— starting with the widely publicized article from the Atlantic that gives a history of the split of the beverage from its two
primary original formative ingredients: cocaine and alcohol.
Marketed originally as an all-around medical remedy, cola
was first formulated in the United States by Dr. John Pemberton of Atlanta— likely
in response to the grand success of the French coca wine Vin Mariani. When prohibition
struck in Atlanta in 1886, 34 years before the rest of the nation, Pemberton removed
the alcohol from the concoction but without the wine, the bitterness of the
cocaine and caffeine was overpowering. Pemberton masked this off-putting taste
with strong sugar syrup and spices, and remarketed it as “the temperance
drink”, inching the beverage closer to its modern form. Following a racially-fueled
backlash against the use of cocaine (as detailed by The NewYork Times) and increasing restrictions on narcotics in the early 1900’s, the drug was also
removed from the formula. What was left become the foundation of what we know
as cola today. Although no formula changes as drastic as the ones that occurred
in cola’s early years have happened since, the industrialization of the food
and beverage industry and the controversies surrounding high fructose corn
syrup and so-called “natural” ingredients have had a profound effect on the
making of cola
An earlier version of the tightly-guarded recipe purportedly
became available in 2011 when This American Life aired its broadcast “Original Recipe”— sharing in it an article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution
that closely matched an entry from Pemberton’s diary detailing the famed
formula.
(image credit: This American Life)
What interested us about this was not so much the mystery of
the story (although we were admittedly intrigued!), but rather the essence of
the drink: the herbs and spices that make up that classic taste. We wanted to
shy far away from the syrupy sweetness that is the mark of so many colas today
and get back to the root of the flavors. We looked to this recipe and countless
others to get a feel for the “soul” of cola. Lime, orange, lemon, nutmeg, coriander,
and cinnamon, kept popping up, as did kola nut. Despite being the origin of the term “cola”, kola nut is
surprisingly flavorless and used primarily to caffeinate the beverage. With our
knowledge as our starting point, we set out to create our own cola extract,
which in and of itself was a new process for us juice enthusiasts! Extracts
take 3-5 weeks to make, so modifying a recipe is as slow as well, the molasses
we use later in the process:
But back to the extract: we let cinnamon, lime peel, orange
peel, lemon peel, nutmeg, and coriander steep in alcohol until all of the
flavors are just right:
After about a month it emerges looking like this, and ready
to be mixed:
Next we add lime juice, molasses, a touch of cane sugar, and
at long last we carbonate.
All our hard work testing and retesting different extracts and flavor combinations paid off, and what emerges is a light refreshing cola that makes our taste buds here at Brooklyn Soda Works do a jig. We are excited to have created something so unique that still manages to honor the traditional flavor of cola and are already thinking of all the delicious things we can mix it with come summer...Cuba Libre anyone? Speaking of mixins' the Strand Smokehouse in Astoria, Queens (25-27 Broadway, Astoria, NY 11106, Phone: 718-440-3231) will have a custom Lime Cola on tap which will be mixed with a barrel aged rum by Ballast Point for a summery Coke and rum cocktail. Delicious!
Our cola will be making its debut by in a couple of weeks at Brooklyn Flea and Smorgasburg, come by and see us for a taste!
