[alexander]

Me personally? I would do it through, as i said, limited anticipatory experience of orally ingesting it, personally... Then it simple:

taste the bubbly stuff? thats CO2
get a rush after ldowning a 2 liter bottle? thats caffeine
get a crash after 2 hours of the rush? that's sugars
Shake it up, taste it, taste bitter, a bit? thats vitamin C
open up a fresh bottle, does it smell like rotten eggs? no, so no SO2

[Michaelangelica]

Sounds like agood start
Some NZ students just embarrassed a big producer of blackcurrant syrup showing the drink contained hardly any of the Vitamin C long claimed in their advertising and on the bottle. How did they do that?

How would you test for water purity -iron and mineral content, bacteria,wee beasties, viruses?
How would you test for environmental contaminants like pesticides,herbicides and heavy metals?
How would you test for stuff leached from the plastic bottle or can, such as PCBs (?) a-biscopal(sp?), aluminium?
How would you test for trace contaminants of production process that may cause allergic shock in some like eggs, peanuts milk. Egg and milk products are often used to clarify wine for example.
How would you test for a terrorist additive like LSD ??

Seems for these you would need at least a gas chromatograph and someone skilled in reading the results of one.
Probably the reason few of us know what we are actually drinking.

[alexander]

How would you test for a terrorist additive like LSD ??

simple, just continue the test i started above:

if you start hallucinating within an hour of drinking it, make a note on your calendar for the next morning to go and buy the rest of it on the shelf, while you are still low, sit back and enjoy the rest of the afternoon...

jk, i do not condone taking drugs, drugs are bad, especially Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, destructive, addictive, made in US, by US, for US.... i mean does that spell Ford yet? LSD is like a Ford vehicle, in a way, extensive use of either one, basically leads to the same result....