Rare oils in soft drink

Essential oils (EOs, also called volatile or ethereal oils are aromatic oily liquids characterized by a strong odour and produced by different plant material (flowers, buds, seeds, leaves, twigs, bark, herbs, wood, fruits and roots) as secondary metabolites.

Essential oils are liquid, volatile, limpid and rarely colored, soluble in organic solvents generally with a lower density than water. Caleb Bradham creation, a unique mixture of kola nut extract, vanilla and rare oils, became so popular his customers named it "Brad's Drink." Rare oils obviously the essential oils of lemon and lime.

Oil of lemon is one of the most important flavoring oils, used widely in all kind of beverages, soft drinks, soft drinks powders and tablets, and in baked goods, such as cakes, pastries, pie fillings, confectionery, soft and hard center candies, gelatin desserts, ice creams, etc.

The composition of the volatile fraction of lemon oils varies even among the same species according to the season of production and the area of cultivation. Lemon essential oil are complex mixtures of chemical compounds like limonene, γ-terpinene, citral, linalool and β-caryophyllene among others, which can be represented by three main classes: terpenes, oxygenates and sesquiterpenes.

Sesquiterpenes are a class of terpenes that consist of three isoprene units and have the molecular formula C15H24. Like monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes may be acyclic or contain rings, including many unique combinations.
Rare oils in soft drink

Essential oils

Essential oils extracted by solvent form herbs and spices found ready used in the rapid evolution of the soft drinks. They formed the backbone of the raw materials used by the early flavor industry.

Cola concentrate contains essential oils from coca, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, neroli" lemon", lime, orange and vanilla. Citrus soda concentrates contain citrus oils. It orange oil dominates in orange concentrate while lemon, lime and neroli oils dominate in lemon-lime-concentrate.

In fruit flavored beverages, the flavorants are mainly essential oils extracted from the fruit. Using the essential oils as an emulsion keeps the flavoring oils in suspension in the beverage in the same way as in a neutral cloud.

For example, usually a citrus essential oil, suitable prepared and ‘weighted’ with an oil soluble gum/resin component. This is dispersed and homogenized into an aqueous solution containing gum arabic or other similar acting hydrocolloid.

Such an emulsion now contributes the flavor to the product as well as acting as a cloudifier for the beverage.

Flavor chemicals are often very reactive and some are particular susceptible to oxidation. The most unstable flavorings are usually those based on essential oils, particularly citrus oils, which are especially vulnerable to auto-oxidation.

The terpene fractions of essential oils are the most reactive components and detrepenated oils are thus somewhat less vulnerable to repaid degradation than either whole oils or the terpene fractions.
Essential oils

Flavors of softdrink

Except for seltzer water, all soda drinks contain added flavoring. Some of the more popular flavors are colas, lemon-lime, orange, ginger ale and herbal types such as root beer and birch beer.

Most of the drinks are prepared from extracts or infusions of various roots, berries, barks or herbs with a suitable solvent or diluents, or they may be made from the juice and pulp of various fruits.

Essential oils are sometimes added in some of the flavors and in a few cases synthetic flavors are used. Synthetics flavors are very complex and may easily contain hundreds of distinct compounds.

Flavors used in soft drinks can be divided into main types based on solubility in water.

Water soluble flavors present no major problems when used in beverages, as there is ample water in a beverage formulation to dissolve and disperse the relatively small amounts of flavor required.

A flavor containing oil components that are not soluble in water cannot be used directly in the formulation as the oil is not miscible with sugar solution.

Normally, there are two common methods are used to utilize essential oil to flavor the beverages.

The first method involves separating out the water-soluble fraction of the essential oils by extraction and distillation and the second method is to convert the oil into a water dispersible emulsion such as beverage flavor emulsion.
Flavors of soft drink