Homemade soda: Getting back to the medicinal origins

I’ve been craving cola, dr./mr. whatever, and root beer. Dark, caffeinated, heavily seasoned sweet beverages. I looked for some healthier options, but none of them fit my requirements. I’m following SCD, so sugar(and any disaccharide) is out. I found some with glucose syrup, which is a monosaccharide, but still not something I want in my diet. Some advertise honey, but still contain other sweeteners I don’t want. Fake sweeteners make me feel far worse than high fructose corn syrup or sugar do, with the exception of pure monk fruit.

Other ingredients are often problematic as well. Yet, I remember these drinks soothing my gut when I was younger in spite on the unhealthy ingredients.

So I started looking into making cola. Lots of recipes with bad reviews and they just don’t sound like the right ingredients anyway. A few videos on YouTube replicating the original Pemberton Coca Cola recipe caught my attention. Aside from the sugar, they looked pretty healthy. I’ve used a ton of herbs over the years for Crohn’s.. I’ve got a pharmacy here in the basement basically. So I wouldn’t be going too far out of my way to get these ingredients for a Pemberton recreation. I like this Glen guy the most…



Then I watched his video where he made a modern, supposedly better tasting version…



I think I would combine the two. I’d stick to the modern version, but I don’t want to use gum arabic. I’d rather use alcohol as the emulsifier, like the original. And for a sweetener, just honey. Can anyone foresee a problem using honey? (Other than the fact I’ll have to change the quantity)

Then I watched his Dr. Pepper video, which looked even easier. Finally, I watched his root beer video, which looked the easiest. The whole time I’m thinking “so many medicinal herbs in all of these, this would actually be good for me”. I feel it’s essential to my health to mix up the antimicrobial herbs I take from time to time to keep SIBO and other dysbiosis from building up again. This could be a fun, tasty way to do that. What started as a craving started to seem like a smart thing.



I think I’ll start with the root beer recipe. I trust this guy because of little comments he makes that show his knowledge of taste. For example, in the root beer video he says he diverges from many other root beer recipes by cooking the roots for a shorter period, then cooling it quickly to avoid an overly astringent taste. He’s careful to leave the sediment at the bottom, also to avoid too much astringency.



In Ayurveda, astringent is one of the six tastes. Overly bitter or astringent extracts can be hard on the gut for starters. I used to brew Chinese medical herbs when I went to a TCM school. The root beer video reminded me of those days. I’d like to get back to making TCM porridges too.

Has anyone tried making any of these beverages?

Unless someone convinces me otherwise, I think I’ll start with the easiest one: the root beer made from his syrup(substituting honey) +carbonated water spring water. Then, maybe I’ll try the root beer with natural ginger ferment(I haven’t watched his ginger beer video yet). This recipe also seems the easiest to substitute honey into since the sweetener is added at the end when it’s cool. I can use raw honey.

Hi,

This may be a little off of your topic and you sound well versed in this particular area but, ... what about Kombucha?

I mean .. I can make Kombucha taste like a Margarita with the right ingredients.

When I was searching for the herbs I found many people who said they make kombucha root beer. So you’re not alone. However, kombucha gives me horrible digestive issues. The ginger bug thing is new to me. Sounds cool, but I’ll have to look into it. Not sure what microbes are involved in that.

Yes, I actually looked up SIBO last night. My Mom had IBS and also would find it hard to hold down after meals. I fermented and pickled some Ginger I grew to ensure it was organic.  We didn't test over time which made the difference and she favored the pickled version. However, it did stop the vomiting and helped with the IBS.

And of course you know that whatever else you add to the ferment for taste will result in more and other varieties of microbes if it is allowed to ferment with it.

Ok, I wish you Success

I've brewed a few natural sodas/tonics, mostly using ginger-bug technology, and this is my favorite ginger beer recipe. I don’t really have any contribution about the health benefits.

If you're still looking to purchase some, while you figure out how to diy, you could check into the Zevia brand sodas. They're sweetened with stevia, some flavors are caffienated, some aren't. They do have dr & mt flavors, as well as 2 root beers (we like the ginger one), a squirt type one, fruit flavors, and others - and we like some and not others. The first time I tried them, I thought they were mediocre. I'm not sure if my taste buds have adjusted, or if they have improved. We've found them mostly at healthfood stores and upscale groceries, and I'm sure they can be found online. I'm not sure I'd want to pay shipping for something as heavy as soda, though.

Will Wit wrote:Yes, I actually looked up SIBO last night. My Mom had IBS and also would find it hard to hold down after meals. I fermented and pickled some Ginger I grew to ensure it was organic.  We didn't test over time which made the difference and she favored the pickled version. However, it did stop the vomiting and helped with the IBS.

And of course you know that whatever else you add to the ferment for taste will result in more and other varieties of microbes if it is allowed to ferment with it.

Ok, I wish you Success

Thanks Will. Typical fermentations and pickles are usually helpful for me too. It’s the yeast added to kombucha which is the issue. I should mention there is also SIFO, the F being for fungus(yeast). So like candida that is troublesome in the small intestine. This is also why some people with IBD or IBS struggle with kefir and do better with yogurt. Kefir having yeast. I personally have given up on kombucha and kefir even though sometimes kefir greatly helped me in the past. It feels like an unstable, unreliable solution to me.

I think it’s also worth noting that kombucha was traditionally cooked, so these microorganisms would have died. Sauerkraut and other traditional fermented foods were cooked as well. My understanding is the benefit actually comes from the dead organism’s byproduct of lactic acid being a food for the microbes in our guts…something like that. And now the new thing is ‘post biotics’.

If you're still looking to purchase some, while you figure out how to diy, you could check into the Zevia brand sodas.

Carla, Stevia gives me horrible digestive issues, which rules out a lot of soda at the health food store. I put stevia in the artificial sweetener category, unless one is talking about green stevia. However, I don’t think that is very sweet.

I've brewed a few natural sodas/tonics, mostly using ginger-bug technology, and this is my favorite ginger beer recipe. I don’t really have any contribution about the health benefits

Christopher(Tim?), I’m guessing the sugar is fully eaten by the microorganisms, right? I would try this and use sugar since you guys were talking about how long is takes with honey. I also feel kind of bad making the honey lose all its antimicrobial properties. Kind of feel like I’m teaching the microorganisms to make honey less antimicrobial the same way repeated antibiotic use teaches resistance…..I’m guessing this doesn’t actually make sense, but it’s where my mind goes…it also just sounds easier to use sugar.

Kevin David wrote:

Thanks Will. Typical fermentations ....

Ahhh, Thank You for the knowledge.

excuse me - yeast in kombucha???
We make a sweet drink: tea, juice, whatever you like as long as it has sugar. And then we add it to a big jug where the kombucha "scoby" lives. The scoby is a bunch of good probiotic bacteria.

They will use up the sugar and make the drink bubbly, tasty and nicely fermented.

SCOBY is an acronym for Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast.

I don't want to contribute to a huge thread-shift, but for serious stomach problems, maybe look into BPC-157.  It's truly fascinating stuff with a real impressive record for healing gut issues, including IBS, as well as number of tendon, ligament, bone, and organ issues.  It's a naturally occurring peptide in the human stomach.

Completely separate from that, thank you for this thread.  It's something I am going to look into now.

Christopher Weeks wrote:SCOBY is an acronym for Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast.

Yes, as far as I know, all of these modern kombucha preparations will contain yeast since it’s essential to the process. If the leaves are brewed(which is my understanding of the traditional way to drink the tea) then a lot of that stuff if going to die.

I don't want to contribute to a huge thread-shift, but for serious stomach problems, maybe look into BPC-157.  It's truly fascinating stuff with a real impressive record for healing gut issues, including IBS, as well as number of tendon, ligament, bone, and organ issues.  It's a naturally occurring peptide in the human stomach.

Thank you for this info. I did a quick search and it looks like I’ll have to read more. I’m reading about a lot on new approaches these days. Much appreciated.

Hi Kevin

I read your first post a few days ago, but took this long to reply.  I’ve fact checked what I wasn’t sure about, and maybe someone else has already chipped in the idea that honey is also a disaccharide.  Maybe it’s enough of an odd ball with all its enzymes and antimicrobial components, that it doesn’t bother you, but it’s a disaccharide, formed of linked glucose and fructose.  Sucrose is two glucoses.

How is your soda coming along?

I make kombucha for the same reason you want to make your beverage, healthy substitute fizzy cold refreshing drink.  I drink it because I like it.  I have no idea if it performs the many miracles attributed to it, but I am happy with mine, which I brew without a scoby (still likely has yeast).  In the summer, the best ever (to me) is when I make a very weak hops infusion to flavor the kombucha, which I ferment from honey. I cut back on the honey, using just enough to get the fizz.  I get dry, bitter, fizzy and cold.  Just right for hot weather and sweaty activity.

I had another thought for you, I have never tasted it, but there’s a thing called water kefir.  Related to kefir that ferments milk, but different enough that they don’t cross over well, again no experience on that.  It doesn’t ferment water, but a flavored water base to which some form of sugar(s) are added… or something like grape juice.  It might be worth looking into.

You can probably order from “cultures for health” a great online resource for all us food experimenters and fermenters.😊

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Hi Kevin

I read your first post a few days ago, but took this long to reply.  I’ve fact checked what I wasn’t sure about, and maybe someone else has already chipped in the idea that honey is also a disaccharide.  Maybe it’s enough of an odd ball with all its enzymes and antimicrobial components, that it doesn’t bother you, but it’s a disaccharide, formed of linked glucose and fructose.  Sucrose is two glucoses.

Hi Thekla, I respectfully disagree with your fact checking conclusion. I started a topic on disaccharides a while ago. Rather than turn this thread into a disaccharide discussion, I’ll link to the thread on disaccharides. I’ll make a post with some links about honey and a clarification about the way people who follow my diet tend to colloquially refer to a food as “a disaccharide” (spoiler: most carbohydrate sources have some amount of disaccharide, it’s about quantity to people on these diets)

permies.com/t/217967/Challenging-SCD-GAPS-guidelines-Deep#1844112

How is your soda coming along?

I got the final ingredients today. I do however still need a large jug. I may buy one of those big jugs of apple cider or something else in a big glass jug next time I go to the health food store.

I had another thought for you, I have never tasted it, but there’s a thing called water kefir.  Related to kefir that ferments milk, but different enough that they don’t cross over well, again no experience on that.  It doesn’t ferment water, but a flavored water base to which some form of sugar(s) are added… or something like grape juice.  It might be worth looking into.

Your hunch may be correct. I recently had a drink made with water kefir and it was surprisingly easy on my digestive system. I also recall water kefir being used by some people in a private Facebook group I was a part of for those with digestive illnesses. They seemed to think of it as a stepping stone to milk kefir, which they couldn’t tolerate at the time.

You can probably order from “cultures for health” a great online resource for all us food experimenters and fermenters.😊

I very well may do that. The name sounds familiar. If it’s advertised or talked about on permies, that’s probably why. Thanks Thekla.

Thanks!

I’ll take a look at your other thread.  It sounds interesting.  I’m not familiar with the condition you are living with or the diet you’re following.  I took several chemistry classes in college.  

I finally made my first batch of root beer following the instructions in the description of the video. I’ll link the video again in this post. I made a few mistakes that I think will be easily correctable with the next batch.



1) it wasn’t brewed strong enough. I didn’t get all the ingredients in right after turning off the heat

2) I probably reduced the water content too much during the ginger/cinnamon boiling step by boiling those two ingredients too long.

3) since this method is more like an infusion(heat is turned off right before adding roots, bark), it probably would have been a good idea to break those large pieces of sassafras down to small pieces to extract more from them.

That said, it was still enjoyable. It was gone quickly. It was very refreshing. I added enough honey to make it taste good. No sugar in mine, which reduced the quantity of syrup significantly. And yeah, it tasted like root beer. Just, weak root beer. I’m optimistic about the next batch. I have plenty of the ingredients, except sassafras(which is the key ingredient).

Sassafras is harder to find due to some concern about it’s safety. However, I personally think it’s safe. Andrew Weil has written about this: https://www.drweil.com/diet-nutrition/food-safety/sassafras-tea-safety/

In the video, Glen recommends trying the herbs individually to get a feel for the flavors. I think I’ll do this next with sassafras, sasparilla, and cherry bark. The sassafras and sarsaparilla smell great. Sassafras essentially smells like root beer. And, as he mentioned in the video, sarsaparilla used to be a stand alone drink anyway.