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Drink

Champagne Kola

A fizzy drink made from grape jelly, tartaric acid, kola extract, vanilla extract, acetic ether, pelargonic ether, and rock candy syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,596 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Champagne Kola

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve grape jelly and tartaric acid in a little hot water.

  2. Strain the mixture and combine it with kola extract and vanilla extract.

Finish and serve

  1. Add acetic ether and pelargonic ether to the mixture.

  2. Stir in the rock candy syrup.

  3. Serve without foam.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Grape + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,596 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Vanilla + syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Grape + syruptop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grape jelly
Provides sweetness, body and fruity flavour to the base.
Tartaric acid
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Rock candy syrup
Adds sweetness and bulk, making up most of the liquid volume.
Kola extract
Supplies the characteristic cola flavour.
Vanilla extract
Adds aroma and a rounded, sweet background flavour.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vanilla, syrup):

  1. Peachfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, syrup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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