How to Make Lemon-Lime Soda
Added 2022-10-07 16:52:54 +0000 UTCNational brands have to consider storage stability when formulating a soda because those bottles can sit in warehouses, backrooms or on a shelf for many months, often 6 or more. With lemon-based soda, an essential flavour compound (citral) can degrade over time to form p-cresol, which can smell like dung, ping or animal barn. To prevent this, bottlers keep their pH above 3, but you don't have to because you can make the syrup and add the acid when you make the drink. This gives you a serious advantage.
Below I've attached some documents that I used for this video. Check them out if you want to dig deep into the subject.
Comments
Which other compound? Citral is quite easy to find, just google "citral buy"
Darcy S. O'Neil
2025-03-03 14:36:56 +0000 UTCSeems difficult to source citral essential oil, can I use the compound instead?
Big Worm
2025-02-27 02:58:15 +0000 UTCIn theory, yes, but oil/terpenes will always float on water so that emulsion will separate out and form a floating layer on the syrup/beverage. In the industry, this is called creaming or ringing. This is why you may have heard of weighting agents like brominated vegetable oil, which mix with the oil emulsion to give it the same weight as the beverage, giving it neutral buoyancy, like the weights on a scuba diver so they don't sink or float. There is a section in the Flavour & Beverage DEvelopment course that talks about this. Hope that helps.
Darcy S. O'Neil
2024-06-03 10:19:43 +0000 UTCAssuming that you don't want the favor profile of an emulsion of the whole essence recipe (all of the orange oil in the extract) could you in theory emulsify the essence after removing the oil layer to help keep any terpenes that have remained in solution for a longer shelf stability by using polysorbate 80? And is that something that is recommended over using magnesium carbonate, if you want to bottle the finished soda?
Darran Ridley
2024-06-02 08:15:54 +0000 UTCI left the extraction (90% ABV) on the stir plate overnight, then put it in a freezer to bring the oil up to the surface. I used a coffee filter to get all visible oils out of the essence. I just use 1-2ml/Litre + 1ml Phosphoric acid and this works great.
Jan
2023-10-28 20:31:15 +0000 UTCThe essence floats on top without emulsification once the essence is added to the water. The syrup helps emulsify the flavour compounds and disperses them in the carbonated water. Even with basic mixing, oil will always rise to the top, and it can create an overly intense first sip and then the rest of the drink can be bland.
Darcy S. O'Neil
2023-10-26 12:14:54 +0000 UTCThanks for great video! To be honest I don't see the point of doing the syrup step at all. Why not just add 1ml essence + citric acid directly to carbonated water?
Jan
2023-10-25 12:04:20 +0000 UTCI ordered several oils to start experimenting with, but New Directions Aromatics did not have citral. I didn't remember that you don't just need lemon and lime oil for lemon lime soda. I'll see if my local health food store has some. If not, have you tried a lemon and lime oil only recipe, and would it potentially work if I did like a 50/50 split? I might try it. I'm going to be trying to make small batches for recipe testing.
Isaac Holzwarth
2023-05-12 12:36:14 +0000 UTCYes, lemongrass can add that cleaning product flavour. A complimentary flavour (grapefruit, cinnamon, vanilla) often help move away from those flavours.
Darcy S. O'Neil
2023-02-10 16:29:02 +0000 UTCThis was my third syrup... I used regular lime and lemon (not key lime or 5-fold lemon) and I didn't have citral, so I substituted in lemongrass oil, which purportedly has a high quantity of terpines. Then I also added 5ml of my sweet orange essence. It's not bad, but the result is a bit too "cleaning product"-y for me. It might be the lemongrass throwing off the flavor, which needs some rounding out... HOWEVER, I'm enjoying experimenting with the ingredients and process, and I that you encourage your audience to do so.
Siege
2023-02-09 23:46:24 +0000 UTC
