OpenCola (drink)

OpenCola
Type	Cola
Introduced	2001; 25 years ago
Related products	Free Beer
Website	https://www.opencola.io/

OpenCola is a brand of open-source cola. This means anyone can find or change its recipe.^[1]

History

OpenCola was created by a company of the same name, which was started in Toronto, Canada in 1999 by Grad Conn, Cory Doctorow and John Henson.^[2]

The drink was first released on January 27, 2001 under the GNU General Public License. It was made to explain open source software and promote the company's P2P program of the same name. However, the drink became more well known and sold 150,000 cans.^[3] Laird Brown, the company's senior strategist, said a distrust in big corporations and "almost everything" being proprietary made it popular. The latest version of the drink, 1.1.3, was released on February 20, 2001. The company later closed in 2003.^[4]

Ingredients

Flavouring

10.0 g food-grade gum arabic
3.5 mL orange oil
3.0 mL water
2.75 mL lime oil
1.25 mL cassia oil
1.0 mL lemon oil
1.0 mL nutmeg oil
0.25 mL coriander oil
0.25 mL neroli oil
0.25 mL lavender oil^[5]^[6]

Concentrate

2.36 kg plain granulated white table sugar
2.28 L water
30.0 mL caramel color
17.5 mL (3.50 tsp.) 75% phosphoric acid or citric acid
10.0 mL (2.00 tsp.) flavouring formula
2.5 mL (0.50 tsp.) caffeine (optional)^[5]^[6]

Dilution

1 part of syrup is added to 5 parts soda water, preferably sodium-free. This makes about 24 litres of OpenCola.

A series of basic ingredients such as yeast and sugar can be used instead of a carbonator.^[5]^[6]

References

↑ Paul Heltzel (9 April 2001). "OpenCola-Have Some Code and a Smile". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 5 September 2020. A software company that happens to produce a soda, OpenCola uses peer-to-peer searching to find information on the Web. Its soft drink, OpenCola, helps to promote the company.
↑ "Opencola". Crunchbase. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
↑ Malyn (18 February 2007). "OpenCola - Open Source Coca Cola". Digital Journal. Retrieved 13 February 2019. The soft drink was originally intended to be a promotional tool to help explain open source software but since its launch it's taken on a life of its own. The company that launched it has become more well known for the drink than the software they offer... the website selling the drink has sold over 150,000 cans!
↑ Ian Steadman (13 April 2013). "Open source cola and the 'Napster moment' for the food business". Wired. Retrieved 13 February 2019. It's called Open Cola, a product first produced by now-defunct Toronto software company Opencola as something of a joke. Taking inspiration from Richard Stallman's famous dictum that free software was "free as in speech, not as in beer", it was meant as a kind of promotional tool. The recipe was published online for anyone to take and adapt. Version 1.0 was published on 27 January 2001 -- the latest version is 1.1.3. Opencola closed in 2003, but Open Cola's recipe is still around.
1 2 3 "OpenCola.com - Soft Drink Formula - Internet Archive". 2001. Archived from the original on 2001-02-18. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
1 2 3 Amanda Foubister (2001). "OpenCola Soft Drink Recipe" (PDF). OpenCola.com. Retrieved 2008-12-28.

Other websites

OpenCola soft drink
Cube-Cola, Bristol, UK
The recipe from Wiki-How, condensed into a single, easily printable page
OpenSoda.org Archived 2009-06-01 at the Wayback Machine, a defunct continuation of the OpenCola work for recipe and methodology
OpenCola on GitHub

[1] Paul Heltzel (9 April 2001). "OpenCola-Have Some Code and a Smile". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 5 September 2020. A software company that happens to produce a soda, OpenCola uses peer-to-peer searching to find information on the Web. Its soft drink, OpenCola, helps to promote the company.

[2] "Opencola". Crunchbase. Retrieved 1 January 2024.

[digitaljournal-3] Malyn (18 February 2007). "OpenCola - Open Source Coca Cola". Digital Journal. Retrieved 13 February 2019. The soft drink was originally intended to be a promotional tool to help explain open source software but since its launch it's taken on a life of its own. The company that launched it has become more well known for the drink than the software they offer... the website selling the drink has sold over 150,000 cans!

[4] Ian Steadman (13 April 2013). "Open source cola and the 'Napster moment' for the food business". Wired. Retrieved 13 February 2019. It's called Open Cola, a product first produced by now-defunct Toronto software company Opencola as something of a joke. Taking inspiration from Richard Stallman's famous dictum that free software was "free as in speech, not as in beer", it was meant as a kind of promotional tool. The recipe was published online for anyone to take and adapt. Version 1.0 was published on 27 January 2001 -- the latest version is 1.1.3. Opencola closed in 2003, but Open Cola's recipe is still around.

[recipe-5] 1 2 3 "OpenCola.com - Soft Drink Formula - Internet Archive". 2001. Archived from the original on 2001-02-18. Retrieved 2008-12-28.

[Soft_Drink_Formula-6] 1 2 3 Amanda Foubister (2001). "OpenCola Soft Drink Recipe" (PDF). OpenCola.com. Retrieved 2008-12-28.

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