Perfectly replicating - apart form where everyone says it tastes really like coke, but clearly not exactly.

I highly recommend the This American Life episode "Original Recipe" in which they discover the original recipe visible in a newspaper photograph and attempt to recreate it. *edit: hyperbole

Since carbonated water is such a big part of a Cola, wonder if there's something that needs to be to reverse-engineered there?

Pretty freaking cool work.

I don't like coca cola nearly enough to actually make this though.

I'm very interested.

I would do it if the ingredients would be cheaper.

It isn't expensive per bottle (he mixes 100ml of flavouring that is good for 5000l) but the available quantities are just too big of an purchase and I don't know how else I could use it for.

I think I tried something with the essential oils and food and because I needed only few drops the rest of the bottle still sits unused somewhere.

Once you find out it contains peppermint oil you always notice it.

Now do pepsi max

Watched this the other day, he really puts the work in

Fascinating video. Over two million views already. I'd say we'll see large supermarkets do own brand versions in weeks.

TL;DW:

The flavor mostly comes from essential plant and spice oils such as nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon, lime, and quite a few others.

Surprisingly, there seems to be a small amount of vinegar that's essential to getting the correct flavor.

There's also a mandatory heating step that allows the phosphoric acid to "develop" some of the raw flavor compounds from the essential oils into more complex compounds with different flavors.

In the end, it's all stuff you can buy yourself. The start-up cost of getting all the ingredients and equipment is high, but once you have them you'd basically be set for life and could make your own coke for much cheaper than buying the "real" stuff at the store.

This guy made pure fluorine in his home and toyed around with it, which any chemist would clench their ass just reading about.

Messing with Coca-Cola might be more dangerous than that.