How to Make an Energy Drink

Check out these videos as "food grade" is just a made up term. The reality is that that is a catch all phrase. https://youtu.be/9SZLCedj1JI https://youtu.be/FSL6pVrV8Pw

Darcy S. O'Neil

Hey! Thanks so much for this! I have just one question. I bought my ingredients from scentfriends and tried your recipe and it came out really nice! However I'm unsure if I can consume it because I read that the ingredients must be food-grade otherwise there might be residue and other stuff in small quantities while in food-grade it's extra clean. Is this something I should worry about? I find it hard to find the ingredients in their food-grade variant in small quantities. Thanks so much for your content and have a nice day!

imx

To make an extract of those compounds follow this video: https://youtu.be/EvkbCkg9bPs

Darcy S. O'Neil

That is the way to do it. Look forward to hearing how the first iteration comes out.

Darcy S. O'Neil

I like the Monster Ultra Orange, so I'll be putting the concepts from 3 of these videos together this weekend. The orange soda extract, the diet syrup and the energy drink. My plan is to keep the acid separate until I build it in the glass at the end. I'll report back how it goes!

Patrick Jaszewski

Can you use liquid caffeine in place of the powdered version, and if so, what's the conversion?

Bolera Blaze

Hi . I would like to ask you how do I add up an Extract from green tea in it or something like Shilajt . What will be the count of it adding it up . I mean how many gm should I add in it for the sheet which you have given in it.

Abdul Rawoof Rehman

Possibly, some of the Lorann oils contain oils like canola which won't work in drinks. But they do have beverage-type flavours, so if that is what you are using then yep, they work just fine.

Darcy S. O'Neil

You can find it here: https://www.fusionflavoursusa.com/products/pure-caffeine-powder-anhydrous-in-canada-fusion-flavours-copy

Darcy S. O'Neil

Hello. As far as flavors go, could I use the same flavors i use in making candy in making energy drinks? I use the Lorann oils super concentrated flavors

Bolera Blaze

You can find it here: https://www.fusionflavoursusa.com/products/pure-caffeine-powder-anhydrous-in-canada-fusion-flavours-copy

Darcy S. O'Neil

Hi, I was wondering where can you get caffeine powder. Only the tablet ones are available online.

G

If im intrest in making a sugar free versión or use another sweetner ,like some Honey or edulcorant do you have some Sort of guide to find the Propper amount to add AND how this would affect the adecuate citric ácid amount AND pH .?

David Moreno

Hi, I was just wondering were did you purchase the caffeine powder. I saw caffeine tablets on Amazon but not just pure caffeine powder. The closet I found was guarana extract, would that be a suitable supplement?

Cadell Simpson

Safe level for B12?

Darcy S. O'Neil

If I wanted to use this recipe and add B12 powder what would be the safe amount to use?

Trinity Archdale

For a green apple flavour you would have to basically swap out almost all of the ingredients and create an apple flavour, which is much more complex and you would need about 20 ingredients to make it. Your best bet is to just buy a preformulated green apple flavour and follow the instructions in this video on how to use them: https://youtu.be/6TIOy0tqO4U

Darcy S. O'Neil

That is a complex question, it has many different variables to answer. But check out this video I did on preservation in beverages; it will help: https://youtu.be/ig754vu8F9U

Darcy S. O'Neil

how do you know when the drink will go past the best before date like how do you calculate or find that out?

Rayaan Samad

If I wanted to get a different flavor profile, lets say sour apple, what items would I need to swap out? I can get the green apple flavoring from the linked website on the sheet, but in the video you also go over some of the other items as a red fruit flavor. Which items in the flavor concentrate will be the same across most flavors I make and which will specifically make the strawberry cotton candy flavor that need to be changed out?

Skylar C

Hello, My goal is to provide everyone with the tools and knowledge to formulate their own recipes so they can create something they like through experimentation. The formulas I provide are a starting point and then you can take that and modify it until you get the flavour you want. For me to recreate an exact Red Bull clone would take too much time and I don't drink a lot of Red Bull, but this is easily something you can do with a little effort.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Hi thank you so much for your high quality content and providing this info. (Sorry if this has already been asked, I tried reading through comments but didnt see anything). Could you provide a Red Bull specific version of this recipe that uses natural ingredients (organic if possible) with a low or no sugar sweetener? I have been trying to come up with a recipe using Nature's Flavors with half sugar half Erythritol/Monkfruit and I have gotten some decent results experimenting with Pear/Passionfruit flavors, but nothing resembling Red Bull which is my goal. I drink a lot of energy drinks so the goal is to make something myself that is as healthy as possible. To clarify, I know it would be hard to make it 100% from naturally sourced ingredients, my concern is mostly with all the synthetic sweeteners in the flavour concentrate, not with the Base Syrup. Thank you in advance for any help you can give on this!

Mikael

Is it possible to use an alternative for ethyl acetate? I'm about to make this but ethyl acetate is only available at large quantities and it's expensive. I see you said it's optional so I'll go without it for now. Quality content, thanks.

Mark Bliss

That is a complex question, it will depend on how the product is manufactured and who does the manufacturing/packaging.

Darcy S. O'Neil

If we want to sell this commercially, what variations would we make to improve shelf life?

Qasim

It may be something with citric acid & baking soda but mixing these two is tough because baking soda kills the citric acid bite.

Justin Wiechman

Does anyone happen to know what gives Redbull its bite. Citric acid does help but its something else. The right carbonation helps as well. still not 100% there. Also notice that redbull holds it's carbonation well, what helps this?

Justin Wiechman

Most capsules have a filler in them that is not water-soluble, but the capsules from Bulk Supplements are free of them, so should work. And if you go to a site like https://flavorjungle.com and search for "energy drink" they have some premade flavours that will work.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Caffeine powder is illegal to buy in the states, would just popping open something like “Nutricost Caffeine Pills” work the same? And instead of doing all the flavor components is there something i can buy as an all in one? I really want it to taste like the peach nectarine red bull, or even just red bull, i don’t care too much for strawberry but don’t know how to pick flavoring things.

214k

I have a second video/formula coming up. I'm just awaiting the delivery of the compounds to test it out.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Are you able to narrow down the redbull flavoring in particular? This was my goal when discovering your channel. I find the flavor of Monster to be disgusting

tickly0

Yes, it seems ethyl acetate is somewhat hard to come by. I've order from this supplier (India) and had good results with a quick delivery: https://us.vedaoils.com/products/ethyl-acetate-1?_pos=3&_sid=c7815aa07&_ss=r

Darcy S. O'Neil

Apparently the link for the ethyl acetate is no longer available on that website. Do you have an alternate site you would use? I don’t know the concentration of the ingredient that was on the original site, so I couldn’t try to find another one.

John Puccino

Yes, ingredients can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer so it can change the flavour. You can test whether an ingredient is causing a poor flavour by making the flavour one step at a time and then testing each step in a simple solution of 10% sugar, 0.5% acid and then the rest water. Or you can just reduce the amount of flavour compound added to the syrup to see if the flavour gets better at a lower dose.

Darcy S. O'Neil

I have followed the recipe and done everything accordingly but the taste is not very pleasant, it feels more concentrated, could it be my ingredients are more concentrated?

vijaysinh gohil

Thanks for letting everyone know. And yes, I should probably do an update on the sheet.

Darcy S. O'Neil

I made the energy drink and it turned out as expected. Now I'm going to give it a whirl making the sugar-free syrup from the other video. Prices have gone up (and shipping even more) since the original publication, but it's still a good value.

Valerie Cudnik

This recipe pretty muchs scales in a linear fashion, so if you want 10x the volume, just multiply everything by 10 and if you want 100x the volume multiply everything by 100.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Thank you for all the information. How do we go about rescaling this for larger batches and slightly bigger serving sizes? I have a project I’m working on but need some direction. Thank you

Israel

Often if you get a chemical flavour, you might be using too much. But, it could also just be certain ingredients. Try to get the compounds evenly dispersed in the beverage with lots of mixing. The more uniform the flavour, the better it tastes and it can help avoid the chemical taste.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Ive made this three times now in the last couple of days. The first time I got quite a chemical flavor. I used ingredients mainly from Mystic Moments. The first time I used strawberry flavor from Mc.Cormick (ingredients lists, Water, Alcohol, Strawberry Juice, Natural Flavor (including extracts of strawberry), & lactic acid. This gave more of a strawberry note on the aroma. The second time I used Strawberry Liquid Fruit Extract from Mystic Moments Water, (ingredients - Glycerin, Fragaria Vesca (Strawberry) Fruit Extract). This gave a slightly better flavor, with less aroma. Then, I wanted to add a citrus element. I added the following essential oils to the P Glycol solution - 2 drops Orange (Sweet), 2 drops Orange 5 Fold, 2 drops Citral, 1 drop Lemon, 1 drop Lime. The oils gave a little haze to the syrup, which I expected. I'm a development chef (used to work for a very well known "F" celebrity chef), so I know how much work goes into developing something. I'm in Thailand and I am going to buy a range of the energy drinks available here, both carbonated and the still varieties and do some taste testing. I have just also tried with a strawberry clone of your cherry syrup recipe. 30ml of my 2nd recipe energy drink with a shot of the strawberry syrup, topped with a little more soda to reduce the sweetness, but definitely has some potential and a nice pink hue.

Darran Ridley

how do you store the syrup after …?

alexandre rodier

I made this as-is as my first home made soda. Only difference is I used the sugar free syrup formula adjusted for the reduced sweetness. Very good but more of a lighter energy drink style. Now I am trying to mimic more of a monster energy style. Looking at the ingredients for monster, it has about 58g sugar per 16oz, which would be about 928g for 32oz of syrup. So I'll up the sweetness. But Monster also appears to be more acidic, supposed it has a Ph of 2.7. I can't really figure out how much acid is in monster, but citric acid is the first ingredient after water and sugar, and before taurine at 2g/16oz, so I know it should have more than 2g/16oz or 32g+. Monster also has sodium citrate next after taurine. I was thinking I could estimate the amount going by the 380mg sodium content in the drink, which would work out to about 1.5g/16oz can. But that would be 24g/l of syrup which is way higher. Don't know if there are other sources of sodium in the drink, I may have to do a lot of tastings to try to figure it out.

octopunch

I think that is grams, they are a Canadian company and no one here uses grains, it's all metic. And 100 grams will be sufficient for small scale testing.

Darcy S. O'Neil

The link for the Caffeine at fusion flavours seems really expensive. They list 100GR as the quantity for $29. That would only be 100 grains to 6.5 grams. That would only make 2 batches from your info sheet. Is that right? Do you have another suggested supplier for caffeine?

Ryan Coultas

Hello, To capture a fruit flavour can be quite expensive using distillation, and you would need vacuum distillation to collect some of the higher boiling point compounds. It can be done but it is quite expensive and they often aren't as expressive or as strong as the formulated flavours. As for using chemical compounds, most of them can be sources as natural. Those natural compounds are often distilled from fruit pulp (peels, leaves, waste pulp, etc) and can be easily sourced. You probably don't need to formulate your own strawberry (or other) fruit flavour; most flavour houses will have products that their sensory lab scientists have developed over decades. Most of the ingredients are natural. Ethyl vanillin is not but can be substituted with vanillin, which is natural, but you'll need 2x to 3x as much. Ethyl Maltol is not natural, but can be replaced with Maltol, which is, but it will have more of a caramel bread element and less of the caramelized sugar, cotton candy "energy drink" flavour. Some people might not notice a difference, but you may. The strawberry flavouring can be sourced in an all natural form. And yes, you can use sucralose, I did sa video on it here: https://youtu.be/2V9ZGT4ibhg

Darcy S. O'Neil

Very interesting In this method VS the video where you make strawberry syrup using berries directly - broadly, if you want to make a flavor from “berry X” - what’s the preferred way between the two methods of doing it - from chemicals, or from distilling berries? How would you pick the chemicals to make a flavor of another “berry X” using chemicals in a similar way? Also, how much of the ingredients in this sheet can be positioned as “natural”? And in the method with making syrup using berries directly: there are large amounts of sugar that go in - is it possible to replace with sucralose?

Iaroslav Afonin

Any flavour syrup you like should work.

Darcy S. O'Neil

I want to make this energy drink syrup purely for the functional, energizing part, not so much for the flavour. I live in Europe and the ingredients for the flavour concentrate are hard to get where I live. What could I combine the functional part of the syrup with for a nice flavour? Thanks in advance!

Leona Happ

It would probably work out fine, experimentation is good, so give it a try.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Hello, and yes, you can substitute the sugar with an equivalent amount fo the zero calorie sweetener formula.

Darcy S. O'Neil

If I want to use strawberry furanone instead of strawberry flavor*, how many mg will it be?

Majid

Hey, if I want to make this sugar free would I add the equivalent of a sweetener ?

Nick Poole

If you make a quart/litre of syrup and use 30 ml (1 oz) of syrup per drink you get roughly 32 drinks per bottle of syrup. If you want 100 mg of caffeine per drink, then you need 100 mg in 1 oz (30 ml) of syrup. Since there are 32 serving per bottle, that makes 3200 mg of caffeine per litre of syrup. And no, ethyl acetate is not dangerous. It is an ester comprised of one molecule of ethanol (drinking alcohol) and one molecule of acetic acid (vinegar). When you digest it, your body breaks it donwe into those to compounds and proceeds as usual.

Darcy S. O'Neil

How exactly does the Caffeine formula work cause I see you say 3.2g is a 100mg Caffeine but if you look at the g to mg conversion then 3.2g should be 3200mg which is way to much. Could you please explain? And then also isn't Ethyl Acetate dangerous?

Brandon

You can skip the caffeine and this flavour is more strawberry cotton candy.

Darcy S. O'Neil

I'm here just for the flavor of energy drink (blue berry cotton flavor) not necessary for the energy or the sugar rush, i know it defeat the purpose of it. Like I said I just want the flavor. Can i skip all the energy component? or any suggestion?

t chau

Natural acidity can range from less than a gram per litre all the way up to 60 grams per litre (limes). Typically, humans like it in the 5 to 15 grams per litre range, but energy drinks seem really soft on the acidity level. Some ginger ale recipes use almost no acid. It is always going to vary. There is no right or wrong here, it's just what you like.

Darcy S. O'Neil

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this question (new around here). I am working on mastering acid to sweetness ratios in various types of drinks. In one of your previous videos, I believe you mentioned at most drinks are in the 1-2% acidity or 10-20g/l. Maybe I misunderstood this. If my calculations are correct, this energy drink is 0.23% or 2.34g/l acidity for the final drink. Did I misunderstand something in the acidity video when it comes to acid balance or are my calculations off for this energy drink recipe? Another way to ask it is, what do you find is a good acidity percentage or g/l for a final drink for, say, a conventional soda?

Nathaniel Jerry Brown

Ethyl Acetate is optional, so if you can't get it, it won't make a huge difference. This company (Mystic Moments in the UK) has a good range of compounds, including Ethyl Acetate, and they ship to Canada so maybe they'll ship to Australia. I use their products and they are decent. https://www.amazon.ca/Mystic-Moments-Ethyl-Acetate-500ml/dp/B096XS95PL/

Darcy S. O'Neil

Hey Darcy, ethyl acetate seems to be really expensive to get to Australia, do you have an alternative that would suit, or do you think it's worth just leaving out? Cheers.

josh wells

Hey Tyler, thanks for being a fan and I'm glad to see the content I'm putting out is keeping you around. Thanks for the heads up on Creating Perfumes, I wish Perfumers Apprentice carried ethyl acetate but they only have a diluted version). As for where I get ideas a good source is The Bottler's Formulary (1910) https://artofdr.ink/bottlersform

Darcy S. O'Neil

I've been a fan of yours for a long time -- started out buying Lactart and Acid Phosphate for cocktails from you about 8 years ago -- but this is the first recipe I've tried and it came out pretty well! (BTW I can't recommend Creating Perfumes for the Ethyl Acetate. UPS lost my order and they wouldn't even help me file a lost package claim, which is free for them, even with insurance.) You have videos about creating EOs and how to determine concentrations of flavor compounds, but do you have any tips on deciding what oils to use in a new formulation? e.g. really common flavors or profiles in the beverage industry, tips on iteration, how you got started, etc?

Tyler Menezes

Guarana is roughly 25% caffeine; most suppliers will put it somewhere on the label, so you'd just use 4 times the amount of guarana to get the same level of caffeine.

Darcy S. O'Neil

I noticed above that you said guarana powder should still work if we aren't able to get caffeine powder. Since they are different, would the amount used change? How would you adjust the recipe for the guarana instead of caffeine?

Emily Kuster

If you want to create a variation on the flavour, but still have the energy drink "flavour" you would keep the ethyl maltol and some of the vanillin and then substitute the other flavour compounds. For example if you wanted an orange element to it you would add some octanal and decanal. Once you start working with flavour compounds you will realize it is just liking painting, there are millions of combinations of flavours, just like paint, that will allow you to formulate your master piece.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Great video!! Curious: What if I wanted to create new flavors? Do I still use the same Ethyl Maltol, EthylVanillin, AldehydeC16, Methyl Cinnamate, etc And add more flavors or sub them out? Also, how do I make a low calorie Energy drink like Celsius?


oj drinks

For sweetness you'll need to add something like sucralose or other high-intensity sweetener. And for fruitiness, you can increase the strawberry flavour, but beyond that you will need to look at adding different fruit essences, depending on your taste preferences. Fruit flavours are a huge topic.

Darcy S. O'Neil

I made 2 batches of Energy Drink per the recipie. The aroma is awesome cotton candy red fruity. It is lacking 2 things I would like some advice on where to start regarding how to modigy for more upfront sweetness and the big fruity taste. so more surgary sweetness and more fruit flavor.

Nick Utrie

Hey Art of Drink! Just had a quick question is it possible to create an energy drink syrup and turn it into powder. Similar to the tubs big company are selling let's say GFUEL's tubs (selling energy powder : marketed especially for gamers) . If yes how can you do it with spray drying or another method? Thanks.

Ecommerce Podcast

Thanks and glad the info is useful. Yes, just store the excess syrup in the fridge, it should last months. Cheers

Darcy S. O'Neil

I will always use alcohol over glycerin, but I just used glycerin in this video to demonstrate you can use alternatives, plus worldwide, alcohol can sometimes be difficult to get. But when given a choice, go alcohol and diluting to 60% is typically good..

Darcy S. O'Neil

Dexter Sandel

Going to give this a run, any reason to use glycol as opposed to ethanol ? I remember in past videos you mentioning alcohol being the most efficient & I have plenty 190 around. Would you dilute if using ethanol ?

Greg

The complete formula is found in this document: https://www.patreon.com/file?h=78180090&i=13353170

Darcy S. O'Neil

dear what is the secret compound you did not say in your vedio

MOHD ABRAR

Hey James, Thanks and glad to hear it is working out well for you. Making a large batch of flavour concentrate would be perfectly fine and should last at least a year if kept in a cool dark place. You don't need to put it in a fridge but do avoid sunlight.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Hey again. I've been enjoying this recipe for many months and I'm up to my 4th batch now. I even gave some to a friend who likes energy drinks and he enjoyed it. I'm about to gift one to another friend. I have a question though, to save on disposable pipets, I want to make a large batch of the flavour compound. Maybe 4 at once. What is the shelf life on this? Keep up the great videos.

James Heazlewood

It is 100 mg of caffeine per 240 mL, so about a cup of strong coffee.

Darcy S. O'Neil

How powerful is the energy drink in this video only?because I am not too sure if it is ok to drink for me or not

Llywelyn wislocki

This video on diet simple syrup is equal to 600 g of sugar per litre. https://youtu.be/2V9ZGT4ibhg

Darcy S. O'Neil

Yes, it should work, though it may change the flavour of the drink. And unfortunately, the US placed legal restrictions on caffeine sales to individuals a few years ago, but if you plan on developing a drink formula, let a supplier know that you are a drink formulator, as it is not illegal to sell caffeine. The suppliers just want to know you are working with caffeine properly so they don't get in trouble.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Will Guarana powder work in place of caffeine powder. I haven't found a way to get caffeine powder in the US. The link provided is only for Canada and would not let me use a US address.

John Watson

I have watched that video but I am curious as to how much diet simple syrup is equal to 600 grams of sugar in your energy drink recipe.

John Watson

Check out this video I made on the subject: Diet Simple Syrup with Sucralose and Allulose (or Erythritol) https://youtu.be/2V9ZGT4ibhg

Darcy S. O'Neil

I am looking to create a sugar-free version. what is the better sweetner and how does that change the base formulation?

Nick Utrie

Awesome and thanks for letting me know. And yes caffeine is much harder to get, but since you are now a "beverage formulator" that is what you need to tell companies and it makes it much easier. Cheers

Darcy S. O'Neil

Hi there. I made up a batch of your energy drink syrup yesterday. It came out great. It matches the flavor profile of the commercial products quite nicely. Next, I would like to try the actives with a basic citrus flavor. I made a version of your orange crush syrup with fresh zest (orange tree in the back yard). If I do end up making it, I'll let you know how it comes out. I'm having a lot of fun playing with your recipes. Thank you for your videos. P.S. I had a devil of a time finding an online source for the caffeine powder in the US. No one wants to sell it "to the public." Apparently we can't be trusted. :-D

Monique de Gomez

Caffeine and taurine are the only two ingredients that would be used for energy.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Can you please tell us about ingradients related to the flavoour and those related to energy effect. Because i want the flavour only without alertness or sharpness

For Registration

Thaks a lot. I will try this.

Christoph Altmann

A simple way is to simply dilute each ingredient (1 drop of ingredient with 9 drops of vodka) and then taste a drop. If you find one of the ingredients to be bitter, simply remove it from the formula. It could be genetics, and some people are sensitive to certain ingredients where others don't get the same taste sensation.

Darcy S. O'Neil

I don't understand. I followed your recipe exactly but the taste is bitter. I don't know what ingredient it is. I suspected Beta Ionone, but it wasn't. It is to despair. All of your other recipes work perfectly. Do you have an idea what it could be?

Christoph Altmann

The flavour is a rough approximation of Red Bull, but nobody know the real formula so. If you want something simple, just use the ethyl maltol and the strawberry flavour, you might find it less "perfume" like.

Darcy S. O'Neil

still as prefume. I want to ask about final flavor you end with, is it like red bull 90% , 80% or less or more?

For Registration

I didn’t catch the flavor

For Registration

600 gram

For Registration

How much sugar would be in one litre?

jax _

Essential oils will not dissolve it water so it won’t be accurate. You need to use alcohol to dissolve oil.

Darcy S. O'Neil

1ml=1 drop

For Registration

Im trying now to put 1 ml of essential oil in 20 cc still water ,then i will calculte my drops like this=1ml- 1 drop. Is that ok?

For Registration

Hello, when you've added too much of the flavour compounds it can taste like perfume. To fix it, you can add less of the flavour essence to the syrup. So to start, add half the amount and see how it tastes. For reference: 1.0 mL is equal to 20 drops. And 1.0 mL of essential oil should weigh around 0.9 grams so a single drop weighs 0.045 grams (45 mg). So if you have a 2-digit scale (Amazon sells them for $30 to $40 you can calibrate your dropper by weighing 20 drops and it should weigh roughly 0.9 grams. It's more accurate if you weigh 100 drops which should give you 4.50 grams. Try that and see what happens. If you have questions please let me know and thanks for joining Patreon. It does help.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Problem*

For Registration

it tastes like prefume( undrinkable) i dont know what is my mistak, i thought i have -roboem with drops , roughly each drop how many ml dor better calculation?

For Registration

I made the recipe yesterday

For Registration

Thanks for joining. There will be more info on sugar-free drinks, I plan on working with some other sweeteners in the future. Cheers

Darcy S. O'Neil

I drink a lot of energy drinks and this video really spoke out to me. I look forward to the coming videos on more low-calorie/calorie free types of methods. I only drink the sugar free kind. Working on getting my lab gear together to experiment a bit.

Brian

That is what I like to hear, and yes, most of my formulas are on the less sweet side, intentionally for me. But, I want people to do exactly what you did and modify the drink to suit your tastes because that's the goal. And thanks for posting the details, it will definitely help people out. Cheers

Darcy S. O'Neil

I made this the other day and after tweaking the flavours and sugar a bit I really love it. Some notes I took during the process (I'm a beginner at soda making so some of these might be obvious): - I found the chemical flavour was very strong, after making the syrup, I halved the mixture, and added more strawberry flavouring and more sugar which sorted it out. - methyl cinnamate is a huge pain because it's solid at room temprature. I also found that if not mixed into solution at a temprature high enough to melt it, it will not dissolve properly and start to crystalise out if the syrup is in the fridge. I assume that's what I'm seeing sparkling in there as the crystal structure is ling and thin crystals. - You mentioned in the video that you used your preferred sweetness, which I found to not be sweet enough for me. I fixed this (and the flavouring issues above) by splitting the final mixture in half (measured out 500ml of remaining) adding double the sugar that would have been in the mixture, topping it up with water to make 1000ml and heated it up (to properly dissolve the crystals from the other issue). Then I added more strawberry flavouring (only). The mix now doesn't have as much taurine or caffeine (which I could have also done, but didn't bother this time especially since testing flavours with so much caffeine involved would probably give me a heart attack eventually haha) but I think the taste is spot on. I can make a double glass of it now so they are similar to the size of the 500ml cans of Monster. Thanks so much for the recipe BTW. I ordered all the flavour compoinds from the site you reference - which I was a bit concerned about as I'm in Australia and customs/police could have been suspicious, and I was unable to find reliable sources for them within Australia. but they all came in a week and were pretty cheap! I now have a month's supply (or more - since I have remaining syrup) and I'm saving a heap of money. Keep up the awesome work on your videos. Top quality content.

James Heazlewood

Yes, in general that should work but some commercial flavours have different usage rates so do some taste tests.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Thank you for the formulation but having some questions if I need to do another flavor can I just do the step 1 and add the commercial flavor?

Math

It’s not really important, it may help smooth out the caffeine buzz but I’m not sure it is effective. Most of the claims are marketing, not science base.

Darcy S. O'Neil

I am working on a batch of this today. Is the Taurine a meaningful addition in your mind? It sounds like many of the other additives were not really.

Chris Carlson

Great, looking forward to the upcoming content

Chris Carlson

Yes, 40% abv should work fine. And I am working on a video about low-calorie products. It's a common question I get. I just have to order some products and hopefully it will get done in the next month or so.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Thanks Nancy, and it gets even better down the road, I'm just getting started.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Thanks again for the great content. Two questions: 1) Could 40% or 80% Ethanol be used in place of the Glycerin? 2) Have you worked on zero or lower calorie versions? I have played around with aspartame which can be a pain to get incorporated into a "syrup" and would appreciate your perspective.

Chris Carlson

Another great video

Fernando Plata

This is great! I didn't even think of making my own energy drink, and now I definitely want to do it.

Nancy Ellis