Dr Pepper first attempt notes

3¼ cups water
6 cups white sugar

2 pcs dried ginger (15g)
2 tbsp or 111 whole cloves (10g)
8½ star anise pods (10g)
2 ceylon cinnamon quills (7.5g)
16 allspice berries (3.75g)
1½ tsp licorice (3.75g)
1½ tsp sarsaparilla (3.75g)
50 peppercorns (2.5g)
⅔ kernel of nutmeg, cracked (2.5 g)
6 tbsp dried mint (2g)
14 juniper berries (1.25g)
4 cardamom pods (1.25g)
½ tbsp coriander seeds (1.25g)

1⅓ cups prune juice
½ cup black cherry juice
3 tbsp blackberry saccharum
2½ tbsp lemon oleo-saccharum
2½ tbsp orange oleo-saccharum
1¾ tbsp molasses
1 tbsp caramel syrup
1 tsp key lime juice

2 tbsp almond extract
2 tbsp vanilla extract


Add spices to water. Bring the water to a boil, remove it from the heat, cover it, and let it sit for 45 minutes. Remove the spices and add the liquid ingredients to the water. Turn on the heat and stir in the sugar until it dissolves. Cool down your pot and add the extracts.
This recipe is suppose to make ½ gal of syrup. I spilled a bunch of mine, but it just about filled up a 2 liter.
I tried it and it tasted alright. I couldn't think too deeply about the flavors because the kitchen was a mess, but it tasted sort of like a Dr Pepper. I'm starting to think that the vanilla I'm using is low quality though. The soda had this gross sour taste that's in a lot of other drinks I made with that vanilla.
Tips for next time:
-use better vanilla
-make & strain saccharums ahead of time. seriously those things are a pain in the ass. some of them didn't even liquify right
-filter better (not sure what to do differently but the coffee filters I used were trash)
-use a tall narrow pot instead of a flat wide one. a ton of syrup went down the drain because that thing is so hard to pour