THIS PROJECT IS GOING FAST...COCA COLA UPDATE (Patreon)

Man, I started this project on Saturday, and four days later, I've managed to spend $300 on vials, micropipette kits, kola nuts, Everclear, and more essential oils than you'd find in hippy's fanny pack. Not only that, but I've also managed to involve not one, but TWO other YouTubers with access to mass spectrometers: Vince from "Neptunium" and Ben from "Mass Spec Everything", whose mass spectrometer operates with liquid chromatography, while Vince's uses gas chromatography. Do I have a problem with over-committing to spontaneous projects? I'll let you decide...hopefully the final video is worth it!

Today, I received the last of my stuff from Amazon, and I managed to test two different coke clones: "Glen and Friends Cooking" squozen cola (no squeezed fruits, despite the name), and a variant of my own invention.

Glen's coke, as he admitted himself, doesn't taste like Coca Cola...he was intending to "riff on the original 1886 Coca Cola", and he tweaked it until he had something he preferred. Basically, he bumped up the nutmeg, coriander, and lemon oils slightly; SIGNIFICANTLY beefed up the orange oil (from 1mL to 7.5mL); and added a LOT of lime oil (7mL) and a bit of lavender. Obviously, it tasted far too citrusy. I don't know about the quality of Glen's essential oils, but when I shared it with my Dad, he found it similar to lemon/lime-scented floor cleaner lol.

Knowing what I was getting into now, I tried making my own variant. Based on the smell, I can confidently say that nutmeg oil or a derivative of it is a major component of most Colas or coke-flavored candy, so I bumped it's concentration up. Coriander oil also has something Cola-reminiscent about it, so it got bumped up too. Orange was reduced, and both lemon and lime were mostly removed (lime will probably be left out of further iterations). Most importantly though, I brought in my own secret ingredient that I think really changes the game: tea tree oil!

Tea tree oil was chosen for two reasons. For one, coca leaves were a critical part of the original Coca Cola, and they are rumored to still be a part of the recipe (albeit with the cocaine removed). Based on many accounts, coca just tastes like green tea, so I suspect it's oil is naturally similar to that of tea tree oil. The other reason is the composition: "Mass Spec Everything" found a significant amount of a-terpineol, terpinen-4-ol, and sabinene in Coke Zero, and those are all components of tea tree oil. Is tea tree oil used in Coca Cola? Probably not, but it does make a good substitute for whatever leafy extract (likely from coca) that they do use! The odor is also definitively cola-adjacent.

Upon tasting this cola clone, my first reaction was literally "coke...huh". Granted, my taste buds were pretty much saturated in various Colas and oils at this point, but it was significantly closer to Coca Cola then Glen's, and I'd bet it could actually pass as a type of cola! Tasting it side-by-side with the real deal though, there were some differences. Real coke is more sweet and less flavorful by comparison, so mine had too much flavor oil in the syrup. The other difference was still the citrus flavors. Lime doesn't belong in coke, and the lemon is also kinda off...orange can stay though! It really doesn't come through as "orangy" and I think it's still a major ingredient kept since 1886, like nutmeg. Speaking of, I might've added just a bit too much nutmeg...the flavor was a bit like those cola-flavored Bottle Cap candies. The other components were a bit too weak to really tell what impact they have.

At the end of the day, more tests are needed. If all goes well, I'd like to improve my Cola clone to the best of my abilities and then send it off to "Neptunium" and "Mass Spec Everything" to have it analyzed, along with some of the individual oils, the caramel color, and a few other solutions. If certain peaks in the mass spectrum are too high, I'll try lowering the component(s) with the troublesome peaks, and if some are absent, I'll either bump up certain oils or just purchase the required chemicals to add! Either way, we're not stopping until we beat Coca Cola and uncover their secret formula!