A handful of Mentos candy dropped in a Diet Coke bottle produces an explosive soda geyser — and a multitude of internet videos of giddy people trying the experiment in backyards and bathtubs.
Hundreds of videos have sprung up on the internet of people carefully slipping four or five Mentos into the two-litre diet-soda bottles and high-fiving each other as they watch the Coke fountain jet about 2m high.
The amateur films, which can be seen on popular websites such as Youtube.com and Google, have been welcomed by Mentos, while Coca-Cola appears less enthusiastic about the phenomenon.
Two Americans, Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, took the stunt a step further as they aspired to duplicate a huge fountain from a Las Vegas casino with 523 Mentos and 101 Coke bottles.
Their two-minute feat, posted on Eepybird.com, grabbed the United States media’s attention and has pleased Perfetti van Melle, the Italian company that makes Mentos.
“We have spoken with the gentlemen of Eepybird,” said Pete Healy, vice-president of marketing at Perfett van Melle USA.
“It’s possible that we sponsor them to do bigger demonstrations for example,” he said.
Coca-Cola has a different take on the furore that has sparked a bevy of internet videos.
The “crazyness with Mentos doesn’t fit the brand personality” of Diet Coke, company spokesperson Susan McDermott told the Wall Street Journal. “We would hope people want to drink [Diet Coke] more than try experiments with it.” — AFP
On the net
Video of Mentos/Coke combination