Okay so the ingredients for this are not what you'd expect to go into Cola. A couple of the ingredients are harder to source than the rest, but mostly you can get hold of them easily. Grated zest - 2 Medium OrangesGrated zest - 1 Large Lime Grated zest - 1 Large Lemon 1/8tsp - Ground Cinnamon1/8tsp - Ground Nutmeg (preferably fresh) 1 section of a star anise pod, crushed1/2tsp - Dried Lavender Flowers 2tsp - Preferably fresh Minced Ginger (I used jarred stem ginger and chopped it finely) One-and-a-half inch piece of Vanilla bean, spilt1/4tsp - Citric Acid 2 cups + 2tbsp - Plain Sugar1tbsp - Brown or Demerara SugarOptions 3/4tsp - caramel colouring The citric acid can be bought at most health food stores or the homebrew section of some supermarkets. I got mine from Tesco in the home wine making isle. Dedicated homebrew shops will almost certainly sell this also. The Dried lavender I sourced from my garden. I happen to have some lavender growing in my back garden. So I simply picked some of the flowers and dried them in my fan oven at 100•c. I left the door open slightly as to avoid burning them. I kept checking to check when they had dried and then took them out and jarred them in an old empty spice jar. If you don't have lavender growing in your garden you can source this from health food stores and other similar shops. I haven't tried this recipe without the lavender but if you fail at finding this I'm sure the syrup will still taste delicious. I didn't use the food colouring. I'm a big fan of no artificial colouring foods and drinks so opted to leave this out. It does give the cola a good dark caramel colour if you so desire, as without this the recipe makes for a very pale orange coloured cola. Utensils neededZester or fine graterTsp and tbsp measurementsHeavy based pan Large bowl SieveMuslin or cheesecloth

In a heavy based pot over a medium heat, bring 2 cups of water to a simmer. Add the zests, cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, lavender, ginger, vanilla pod and citric acid. Reduce to a lower heat, cover and leave to simmer gently for 20 minutes.

If you have a food processor to hand it is best to whirl the sugars together then transfer them to a large bowl. If you don't have a food processor simply transfer the sugars to a large bowl and mix them together with a spoon or by hand. It's being dissolved at a later stage so this doesn't make much difference. If you are using the food colouring add this to the sugars at this stage.

Line a sieve or colander with a double thickness of cheesecloth or muslin. Place this on top of the bowl containing the sugars.Once the ingredients have simmered for 20 minutes pour them through the lined sieve onto the sugars.Gather up the corners of the cheesecloth or muslin and twist the top making sure to squeeze all of the lovely flavourful goodness out of the cloth. You can press the cloth against the side of the bowl with a spoon to squeeze and remaining juices as to not burn your hands.

Stir the sugars and the flavourful hot liquid until the sugars are dissolved. This can take a few minutes as there is a lot of sugar.

Jar the syrup and chill in the fridge. Once chilled, mix 1/4 cup of syrup with 1 cup of soda water (seltzer). It doesn't taste like store bought cola very much but the flavours in this drink seem to scream COLA!! It is very pale in colour but that's because the real stuff has dark food colourings in it. This is how it should look. It's the closest you're going to get at home using real and fresh ingredients.I'm sure if you added some extra vanilla flavouring you could make vanilla cola. And mixing it with Rum is delicious. Serve ice cold and enjoy your home made Cola.