Dr Pepper second attempt notes

3¼ cups water
6 cups white sugar

3½ inches fresh ginger (25g)
2 tbsp or ~100 whole cloves (10g)
2 ceylon cinnamon quills (7.5g)
16 allspice berries (3.75g)
1½ tsp cut-sifted licorice (3.75g)
1½ tsp cut-sifted sarsaparilla (3.75g)
50 peppercorns (2.5g)
⅔ kernel of nutmeg, cracked (2.5 g)
11 leaves fresh mint (3g)
14 juniper berries (1.25g)
4 cardamom pods (1.25g)
½ tbsp coriander seeds (1.25g)

1⅓ cups plum juice
½ cup black cherry juice
5 tbsp raspberry pulp
2½ tbsp blackberry pulp
[I crushed the berries in a strainer, added the pulp to the mixture, then filtered it to leave just juice]
2½ tbsp lemon oleo-saccharum
2½ tbsp orange oleo-saccharum
1¾ tbsp molasses
1 tbsp caramel syrup

2½ tbsp almond extract
2½ tbsp vanilla extract
2½ tbsp anise 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. Filter the liquid and allow it to cool. Filter again to remove the berry pulp. Turn on the heat and stir in the sugar until it dissolves. Cool down your pot and add the extracts
This one also made about a 2 liter full of syrup

I was a lot happier with this recipe than the last one. I cleaned up the kitchen a lot easier this time and I bought this cloth jelly strainer that stood on its own, so it was a lot easier to filter stuff. The one problem I had was that we didn't have any deli containers, cause otherwise I would've made better saccharums and I could've filtered the berries a lot better.
The taste was better with this one but it didn't taste like Dr Pepper at all. The anise was really overpowering. A lot of people say there's anise in Dr Pepper, but if there is, it must just be a really small amount, because it tasted really out of place with everything else. Last time I said that I got a bad flavor from the vanilla, but now I'm thinking that it was the star anise I used. I like star anise but it just tastes different when you drink it.
Tips for next time:
-less anise
-more vanilla
-more fruits maybe
-get like 4 deli containers ahead of time
-filter the berries better