"Moe DeLoughan" wrote in message
...
On 1/29/2013 1:05 AM, Danny D. wrote:
On Mon, 28 Jan 2013 20:01:10 -0500, gfretwell wrote:

I don't know what grades of CO2 are offered, but
I doubt if the grade we were buying would be safe
for consumer use.

If you are buying the CO2 in a Bevco 20 pound bottle, most of these
will end up attached to soda machines and the gas is food safe.
They still consider it a dirty gas compared to medical grade oxygen

Thanks for the warnings - but I'm not the least bit worried about
contaminants in the C02. As gfretwell stated, these tanks are used every
single day in millions of beer kegs and soda dispensing machines.

The problem I'm having is that the C02 and water are only a couple
pennies a liter, but the Soda Stream cola syrup (at $5.00 + 10% tax for a
bottle that makes only 12 liters) is hugely expensive.

Wikipedia lists the "Merchandise 7X" formula for Coca Cola syrup (the
supposed secrecy of which is a carefully orchestrated MARKETING coup),
but almost NONE of the ingredients were easily obtainable at any of my
local grocery stores.

Do you know where I can get these ingredients, at a reasonable price?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_formula
Ingredients:
1 oz (28 g) caffeine citrate
3 oz (85 g) citric acid
1 fl oz (30 ml) vanilla extract
1 qt (946 ml) lime juice
2.5 oz (71 g) "flavoring," i.e., "Merchandise 7X"
30 lb (14 kg) sugar
4 fl oz (118.3 ml) cocoa leaf fluid extract --isn't gonna
happen
2.5 gal (9.5 l; 2.1 imp gal) water
Plus caramel sufficient to give color

Where the "Flavoring (Merchandise 7X)" is as follows:
1 qrt alcohol
80 oil orange
40 oil cinnamon
120 oil lemon
20 oil coriander
40 oil nutmeg
40 oil neroli


First suggestion would be to contact any local restaurant/bar supply
stores in your area and find out if they carry soda syrups. The commercial
syrups are a 5-to-1 concentration, so a 5 gallon container will make
roughly 30 gallons of soda. The shipping cost would make it uneconomical,
which is why I suggest you phone your local stores and get quotes.

Second - if you wish to mix your own recipe, the ingredients are easily
obtainable from several sources. The caffeine citrate you can probably
special order from a drugstore. The citric acid can also be gotten from a
drugstore, as well as from beer/winemaking shops and also candy/baking
suppliers. You can just compare sizes and prices and go for what works for
you.

Vanilla extract - obviously, candy/baking suppliers again, but it's also
commonly available in up to pint or quart containers at many grocery
stores and bulk suppliers like Costco or Sams Club. You can buy either the
artificial flavoring, which is considerably cheaper, or the pure vanilla
extract.

Now, as for all the essential oils - again, multiple options. These are
usually sold in small bottles, generally 1 dram or 1 ounce. You can buy
most of them at candy/baking supply stores. They are very frequently sold
at health food/organic grocery stores, or food coops. And again, you can
often have a drugstore special order them for you. The common food oils
(orange, cinnamon, lemon) are very inexpensive and easy to find. Essential
oils of coriander and nutmeg will be harder to find. If necessary, you can
do a work-around by steeping some nutmeg and coriander seed in some water.
Neroli oil is extremely expensive; you'll probably give up on using that
one.

Caramel coloring is also very available; again, candy/baking suppliers
will have it in various quantities. You can make your own easily enough -
it's just burnt sugar dissolved in water.

But first - call your local restaurant supplier. If you have a bottler in
town (Pepsi or Coke or whoever) you might also phone them and see if
they'll sell their syrups to you, and if so what the minimum quantity is
they'll sell to you.


GFS (Gorden Food Service) carry's coke-cola in bag in box.

Robert