From-Scratch Cola Syrup (and the Cola You Pour From It)

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

Real cola is a citrus perfume built on spice and burnt sugar — and once you taste it made from whole zest instead of a bottle, the supermarket version stops making sense. This syrup starts with an overnight citrus oleo-saccharum that pulls the aromatic oils out of orange, lemon and lime peel, layers in cinnamon, star anise, coriander, nutmeg, lavender and vanilla, then gets its color and bittersweet backbone from a small batch of deliberately scorched caramel. A splash of citric acid at the end gives it that tongue-tingling snap. Two tablespoons in a tall glass of cold seltzer and you have a cola that's darker, spicier and far more interesting than anything canned.

Ingredients

• 3 large oranges, zest peeled in wide strips
• 2 lemons, zest peeled in wide strips
• 1 lime, zest peeled in wide strips
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

• 2 cups water
• 1 cinnamon stick (3 inches), broken
• 1 whole star anise
• 1 tsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed
• 1/4 whole nutmeg, smashed (or 1/2 tsp freshly grated)
• 1/2 tsp culinary dried lavender
• 1/2 inch fresh ginger, thinly sliced
• 1/4 tsp dried gentian root, optional (or 4 dashes aromatic bitters)
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar (for the caramel)
• 2 tbsp water (for the caramel)
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp citric acid (or 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice)
• 1/4 cup reserved fresh orange juice (from the zested oranges)

• 2 tbsp cola syrup
• 6 oz cold seltzer or club soda
• ice cubes
• 1 lemon or lime wedge

Instructions

1. Make the oleo-saccharum first: using a vegetable peeler, take the zest off the oranges, lemons and lime in wide strips, pressing lightly so you get almost no white pith (pith turns the syrup bitter in the wrong way). Toss all the peel with 3/4 cup sugar in a bowl or jar, muddle it hard with a wooden spoon for 30 seconds, cover, and leave at room temperature 8 to 24 hours. The sugar will pull the citrus oils out and turn into a fragrant orange slurry. Juice one of the zested oranges and refrigerate 1/4 cup of the juice for later.
2. Combine the spice infusion ingredients in a small saucepan: 2 cups water, cinnamon, star anise, crushed coriander, smashed nutmeg, lavender, ginger, gentian root if using, the split vanilla bean (scrape the seeds in too) and the salt. Bring to a bare simmer over medium heat, then reduce to low and steep, uncovered, at 190–200°F for 20 minutes. It should barely shiver, never boil hard. Turn off the heat and let it sit while you make the caramel.
3. Burn the sugar: in a separate small heavy saucepan, stir together 1/3 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons water. Cook over medium heat without stirring, swirling the pan occasionally, 6 to 9 minutes, until the caramel goes past amber to a deep mahogany brown and you smell the first sharp whiff of smoke. This is intentional — the faint bitterness is what makes it taste like cola and not like cream soda. Do not let it go black.
4. Immediately and carefully pour the hot spice infusion into the caramel pan (stand back — it will hiss and steam violently). Stir over low heat 1 to 2 minutes until every bit of hardened caramel dissolves. The liquid should be the color of strong iced tea.
5. Scrape the citrus oleo-saccharum, peels and all, into the pan along with the remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar. Stir over medium-low heat until the sugar fully dissolves and the mixture is just steaming, about 4 minutes. Do not boil — you want to keep the volatile citrus oils in the syrup, not in your kitchen air. Cover, remove from the heat and let steep 30 minutes.
6. Strain the syrup through a fine-mesh sieve set over a bowl, pressing on the peels with the back of a spoon to extract everything, then strain a second time through the sieve lined with a double layer of cheesecloth or a coffee filter for a glossy, clear syrup. Discard the solids.
7. While the syrup is still warm, whisk in the citric acid and the reserved 1/4 cup fresh orange juice (add vanilla extract now if you used it instead of a bean). Taste: it should be aggressively sweet with a puckering edge, since it gets diluted 1:3. Add up to 1/2 teaspoon more citric acid if it tastes flat. Cool completely, then funnel into a clean bottle or jar. You'll have about 2 1/2 cups.
8. To pour a cola: fill a tall glass with ice, add 2 tablespoons (1 oz) syrup, top with 6 oz cold seltzer and stir once from the bottom with a bar spoon so the syrup lifts without knocking out the bubbles. Squeeze in a lemon or lime wedge and drop it in. Refrigerate the syrup up to 1 month.

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Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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