Prickly pear margarita drink

Procedure 1: Flavor oil blend

1. Combine 1x fold and 5x fold orange oil.
2. Add MCT to orange oil blend and mix using mechanical agitation at room temperature.

Procedure 2: Standard orange oil emsulion

1. Dissolve the required amounts of sodium benzoate in water.
2. Dissolve citric acid in the above solution.
3. Add Q-NATURALE® high-efficiency emulsifier with moderate agitation (may foam if over-agitated).
4. Make pre-emulsion by slowly adding the flavor oil blend (procedure 1) using LCI Ross high shear mix or equivalent, for 3 minutes at 7000 rpm.
5. Homogenize the above pre-emulsion using high pressure homogenizer; two passes at 5500/500 psi.
6. Check particle size of the emulsion. Particle size should be less than 1 micron, preferably 0.3 to 0.4 micron, to ensure emulsion stability.

Formulation guidelines

1. It’s important to follow the procedure of dissolving sodium benzoate in water first, followed by citric acid. Otherwise, precipitation may occur.
2. You may increase the MCT level in the oil blend if the oil density is too low as the emulsion will tend to separate faster when the oil density is much lower than the water phase.
3. It is recommended not to use high shear mixing in preparing the Q-NATURALE emulsifier water phase, as it will increase the formation of foam.
4. Increase the Q-NATURALE emulsifier level in the emulsion if the emulsion droplet sizes are larger than 0.3-0.4 micron.
5. Optimize homogenization pressure and number of passes to obtain a stable emulsion.