How to go about reverse engineering and deformulating a beverage at home

I'd start by buying a few. Open one and let it decarbonate. It's must easier to discern flavors for uncarbonated drinks.

As an example, Coca-cola has cinnamon in it, which is almost impossible to taste when it's carbonated. It pops out when Coke goes flat.

Most sodas will have a citrus component. Japan has odd ones like Yuzu, so try to pick up some essential citrus oils that aren't normal in your home country and are plentiful there.

Then really, just put it onto stuff that you know the flavor of and taste/smell it to see if you can tell what's been added. Dip some white bread into it and see if anything comes out, etc. Don't be afraid to swirl it around in your mouth (like wine) or just breathe it in.

FYI, I was just in Japan and realized that their Sprite has a lot more lime than other countries, which I didn't really like. Normally Sprite is great in hot weather, but the lime just didn't work in the heat IMO.

First stop would be a mass spectrometry service to analyze it with an LCMS. If you can’t find one cheap enough, check your local universities for a professor or postdoc that might be willing to help - the issue is usually finding out who has the mass spec and getting some time on it.

If none of that is a possibility, try to find a certified sommelier, preferably a class where you can have a teacher and students taste test it. Their training involves learning to distinguish a bunch of aromatic compounds using an essential oil kit so they might be able to isolate some of the flavors.

If you really want to do it using just the stuff in your kitchen, you could order an aroma training kit and try it yourself. Otherwise, I’m afraid reverse engineering it yourself is really hard. There are over 2,600 flavoring food additives recognized by the EU, alone. The benefit of doing it with a trained sommelier is that they can help figure out substitutions even if they can’t identify the exact flavor.

You might like Claire Saffitz's attempts to recreate snacks [0] in the kitchen.

She generally found it very difficult and laborious to get right.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS6YJJfBYag

What is the soda? As many Japanese sodas have recipes online already. You don't need to go to the lengths of reverse engineering.

In case it was Green Dakara[1]:

> 果汁（ぶどう、レモン）、糖類（果糖、砂糖）、食塩、レモンエキス、シークワーサーエキス、うんしゅうみかんエキス、ゆずピール、ドライトマトエキス／香料、乳酸、塩化Ｋ、酸化防止剤（ビタミンＣ）

TL:

> Fruit juice(grape, lemon), sugars(fructose, sugar), table salt, lemon extract, C. depressa extract, C. unshiu extract, yuzu peel, dry tomato extract/flavoring, lactic acid, potassium chloride, antioxidant(vitamin C)

it's not always this detailed for Japanese beverages tbc - e.g. for that reportedly horrendous liquefied frisk[2]:

> GABA（国内製造）／炭酸、酸味料、香料、甘味料（アセスルファムＫ、スクラロース）

TL:

> GABA(domestic sourced)/carbonic acid, acidulant, flavoring, sweetener(acesulfame potassium, sucralose)

1: https://products.suntory.co.jp/d/4901777336704/

2: https://www.dydo.co.jp/products/detail/1148

I follow https://www.youtube.com/@Artofdrink He recreates recipes and gives the basics on how to replicate drinks.

You could ship a sample out to get a liquid chromatography mass spectrometry analysis done.

Maybe you can hack up a crude gas chromatography-olfactometry[1] setup at home?

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_chromatography-olfactometr...

I wonder if you could use a centrifuge to separate the drink's ingredients into layers like nurses do with blood samples?

> would love to be able to recreate at home as it isn't available stateside.

Why not just import it? Or is this for fun.

What is the soda in question ?

Check if someone has already done the work for you. It's fairly likely you can find instructions to make a similar drink. For example, try doing a search for "Japan melon soda".

1. Buy the ingredients listed on the back

2. Look up basic proportions & recipes for canned sodas online, just to get an idea about how much to use

3. Start experimenting, varying the ratios of each ingredient in each batch

What soda. Is it calpis?