Inca Kola

Ingredients

Hierba luisa syrup

• 40 gfresh lemon verbena leaves (hierba luisa), or 15 g dried
• 500 gwhite sugar
• 500 mlwater
• 2wide strips lemon zest, no pith
• ¼ tspcitric acid
• 1 tsppineapple juice, for the sherbet note

To build

• 1 litresparkling water, very cold
• ice cubes

Directions

1. Bring the sugar and water to the boil, stirring until dissolved, and boil for 1 minute.
2. Take the pan off the heat, add the lemon verbena and lemon zest, cover and infuse 30 minutes, then chill overnight. Do not boil the leaves: heat turns their perfume grassy and bitter.
3. Strain through muslin, pressing lightly, and stir in the citric acid and pineapple juice. The syrup should smell sweet and sherbety, like lemon boiled sweets, not like herbal tea.
4. Bottle in a sterilised bottle and keep refrigerated; it holds 3 weeks.
5. To build a glass, fill a tall tumbler with ice, pour in 60 ml syrup and top with 200 ml sparkling water. Stir once, from the bottom, to keep the gas.
6. Serve it colder than you think is reasonable. Inca Kola is drunk straight from the fridge, and its sweetness is the point.
7. Drink it with food: with chifa, with a plate of ceviche, with chicharrón. Peruvians drink it through the meal, not before it.

Technique

• The commercial drink is carbonated water, sugar and a proprietary flavour base led by hierba luisa, with a marked vanilla and bubblegum character, and its famous yellow comes from added colouring. No home syrup is identical; this is an honest approximation of the flavour, not the formula.
• It was created in Lima in 1935 by the Lindley family, British immigrants, for the city’s 400th anniversary. By the 1980s it outsold Coca-Cola in Peru, which is why Coca-Cola bought half of Corporación Lindley in 1999 instead of competing with it.
• Hierba luisa is lemon verbena, Aloysia citrodora. It is not lemongrass, lemon balm or lemon thyme, and the substitutes taste noticeably different.

Substitutions

• Dried lemon verbena at half the fresh weight works; steep it a little longer.
• At a push, one bruised lemongrass stalk plus extra lemon zest gives a related citrus-herb note, cleaner and less floral.

Variations

• Inca Kola Sin Azúcar, the zero-sugar version, is now as common in Lima as the original.
• Poured over vanilla ice cream it becomes a Peruvian float, a fixture of children’s birthdays.
• A rough highball of Inca Kola over ice with a measure of pisco is drunk at parties across the country.

History

Created in Lima in 1935 by the Lindley family for the city’s 400th anniversary; it outsells Coca-Cola in Peru.

Frequently asked questions

What is Inca Kola?

Inca Kola is a drink from Peru: bright yellow soda flavoured with lemon verbena, drunk with every meal. Created in Lima in 1935 by the Lindley family for the city’s 400th anniversary; it outsells Coca-Cola in Peru.

How long does Inca Kola take to make?

Inca Kola takes 15 min of preparation and 12 hr infusing and chilling of cooking. The recipe makes 1.5 litres, about 8 glasses. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Inca Kola?

Yes, within limits. Dried lemon verbena at half the fresh weight works; steep it a little longer. At a push, one bruised lemongrass stalk plus extra lemon zest gives a related citrus-herb note, cleaner and less floral.

What is the most important thing to get right in Inca Kola?

Take the pan off the heat, add the lemon verbena and lemon zest, cover and infuse 30 minutes, then chill overnight. Do not boil the leaves: heat turns their perfume grassy and bitter.