How should I prepare kola nuts for creating a soft drink?
I have recently gotten into making my own soft drinks, and I would like to attempt making a cola. I found an online spice retailer that sells Kola Nut and bought some, but I have no real idea how to prepare them for use. I also don't know how much I should use for a liter or two of soda, but I can figure that out via experimentation if I have to.
But what should I do with the kola nuts? Do they need to be ground before I boil them in a simple syrup, or should the pieces just be dropped in as-is? How much time does it take to extract the flavor from them?
Edit: I have made my own ginger ale using fresh ginger and my own berry soda using a bag of frozen berries, and I am a homebrewer and have a kegging system and a carbonator cap for soda bottles. I really just want to know if there are special considerations for how to treat kola nuts.
Best Answer
There are several cola recipes on this site. Recipe 2.6 references a kola extract recipe from the following book: Food Flavourings, by Joseph Merory, AVI Publishing Company, 1960.
I'd assume that the kola nuts are added as in pieces, similar to how they are consumed - Kola nuts are consumed by breaking them open and into pieces.
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How do you make kola nut extract?
simple extraction, Grate or coarsely Grind Kola Nuts, Place in alcohol overnight strain and discard the nuts. and you should have a crude extract. it is likely to have a strong Musky flavour and should be used in trace amounts.Is kola nut used to make coke?
Kola nuts are perhaps best known to Western culture as a flavoring ingredient and one of the sources of caffeine in cola and other similarly flavored beverages, although kola nut extract is no longer used in major commercial cola drinks such as Coca-Cola.How do you process kola nuts?
The processing of kolanut is in two stages viz: the removal of kolanut from its pod followed by the peeling of the testa on each nut. Traditionally, processing of kolanut is done manually in a rigorous and time consuming way by rural dwellers who are mostly women.How do you make your own coke?
IngredientsMake Your JOYSTICK Bigger \u0026 Stronger Using BITTER KOLA
More answers regarding how should I prepare kola nuts for creating a soft drink?
Answer 2
simple extraction, Grate or coarsely Grind Kola Nuts, Place in alcohol overnight strain and discard the nuts. and you should have a crude extract. it is likely to have a strong Musky flavour and should be used in trace amounts.
There are more complicated methods of extracting Ie caffeine Extraction.
Have fun.
Answer 3
Here is a video with instructions. The principle is pretty simple, make an extract from the nuts and mix with water & sugar to taste and carbonate either with CO2 (for a soda) or by fermenting yeast (for a beer or ale).
[Edit] If you treat the kola nuts the same as you would ginger root in order to create your extract you will get where you want to be. A little trial-and-error may be required do discern the preferred concentration.
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