Is Pepsi ok?

I've actually been making various cola recipes in the meth lab I call a kitchen for the past ~2 years now, ranging from the leaked 1950s Coke recipe, Cube Cola, OpenCola, and a number of other variations, including my own sets.

In these experimentations I've started noticing the actual flavour differences between different colas. The issue is that these flavours are not something you'd recognise as they're incredibly diluted. For example one recipe calls for a total of 15 MILLILITRES of various flavour oils, to make approximately 70-80 LITRES of cola. Yes you read that right, about half Oz of flavourings (sugar not included) to make 37-40 bottles of 64oz cola. In comparison, when I made my orange soda, I had to use approximately 60ml of flavourings to make TWO litres. 2oz of flavourings to make one bottle of 64oz orange soda.

And it's insane how just a slight imbalance can alter the flavour. This recipe I mentioned calls for 0.7ml (about 6 drops) of cassia oil (basically, cinnamon). The cassia oil I sourced was so pure that that amount waaaay overpowered the other flavours and I had to tone it down to 0.25ml, nearly 1/3. Mind you that cinnamon coke wasn't bad, just... incredibly cinnamony. Great for a bourbon mixer, pretty solid for a Long Island, but in itself it was just too strong.

Once I made it right I started experimenting, reducing it by 10-20-30%, and the flavour profile shifted a TON. We're talking barely recognisable. under 0.2ml (so 20% reduction from baseline), the lavender (yes, lavender is part of the cola flavour ensemble!) started coming through real strong. Upping the coriander/cilantro oil from 0.02ml to 0.03ml shifted it into an incredibly spicy range - you could literally top it up with white rum and people would think you used spiced rum! Or reducing the amount of nutmeg to increase the warmth of the drink - with the slightly higher cassia oil ratio, and reduced nutmeg, this ventured into a hot choc drink made of Terry's Choc Orange... Without the creaminess of the chocolate.

I've also experimented with about a dozen different citrus oils - bitter orange, sweet orange, bitter orange leaf, mandarin, tangerine, the list goes on. And they all subtly changed the flavour, like the transition between coke and pepsi. You can't put your finger on it at first, because the main cola flavour - the same you'd get from any cola drink, including the cheap supermarket brand ones - was there, but the subtle background flavours were all so different, and again, they're so dilute, you can't name them proper. Just guess on what makes it different.

I would be able to tell immediately. I'm not proud of it but I could probably name most American sodas by taste alone

I saw a show on Food Network or the History Channel about the history of soda in the US and they said Pepsi rose to number 3 in the US during the depression era from people doing that. A bottle of Coca-Cola was something like 5¢ for an 8oz bottle and Pepsi was also 5¢ but for a 16oz bottle. If you had guests over people would offer them a Coke but pour the glass in the kitchen from a Pepsi bottle then bring the glass out to wherever the guest was sitting.

The number 2 cola in the era was Moxie, but it declined in the soda fountain era. Originally it was only sold in bottles. If the soda jerk gave an extra pump of syrup with Coke or Pepsi it wasn’t a big deal, maybe even better. Get the ratio wrong on Moxie, though, and it was apparently bad.

Probably the end result and differences depend a lot on the local factory that made it. I remember not liking the taste of some other product that much and then after going on a travel, I noticed a huge difference to a product labeled the same.