OpenCola (drink)
- For the company see Opencola.
OpenCola is a brand of cola unique in that the instructions for making it are freely available and modifiable. Anybody can make the drink, and anyone can modify and improve on the recipe as long as they, too, license their recipe under the GNU General Public License.
Although originally intended as a promotional tool to explain open source software, the drink took on a life of its own and 150,000 cans were sold. The Toronto-based company Opencola became better known for the drink than the software it was supposed to promote. Laird Brown, the company's senior strategist, attributes its success to a widespread mistrust of big corporations and the "proprietary nature of almost everything". The company's marketing strategy has since taken a different turn and they no longer promote the soft drink on their web page.
Flavoring Recipe
- 3.50 ml orange oil
- 1.00 ml lemon oil
- 1.00 ml nutmeg oil
- 1.25 ml cassia oil
- 0.25 ml coriander oil
- 0.25 ml neroli oil
- 2.75 ml lime oil
- 0.25 ml lavender oil
- 10.0 g food-grade gum arabic
- 3.00 ml water
Syrup Recipe
- 2.00 tsp. flavoring formula
- 3.50 tsp. 75% phosphoric acid or citric acid
- 2.28 l water
- 2.36 kg plain granulated white table sugar
- 0.50 tsp. caffeine (optional)
- 30.0 ml caramel color
In Italy
Some FLOSS ethics activists have started an Italian OpenCola project, but without any commercial purpose. The only thing the Italian OpenCola and the "official" OpenCola have in common is the name. The Italian version is clear and has never been sold.
Other Opendrink projects
There is also an "open source" beer called Vores Øl.
External links
PDF File
- OpenCola's soft drink formula (Right-click to save)
- For copyright information: Image:OpenCola_soft_drink_recipe.pdf
