There are some food and beverage pairings pretty much everyone finds complementary. Wine and red meat. Milk and cookies. Draft beer and edamame soybeans.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are certain combinations we’ve learned to stay away from. Soda and Mentos, for example, are well-known to produce a volatile reaction if consumed together. But just where exactly is the human body’s threshold for these two incompatible mouth-mates?
Or, more specifically, where is RocketNews24 reporter P.K.’s body’s threshold?
I don’t mean to brag, but we have a sophisticated protocol for delegating assignments here at RocketNews24. Whenever we feel the need to do something that might cause physical or psychological pain, we flip a coin. If it comes up heads, we hand the project off to Mr. Sato, and if it’s tails, it goes to P.K.
This time it was tails.
Mentos and cola aren’t mutually exclusive loves, and many people will tell you they like both treats. P.K., though, is unique in that he swears by the flavorful delight of enjoying carbonated soft drinks and Dutch Freshmakers simultaneously.
P.J. was prepared to push himself to the breaking point for the sake of crazy-science. We were doing this experiment in our office, though, and at the risk of being called soft, we’re quite fond of our vomit-free carpeting. So instead of having him swallow the notorious combination, we asked him to simply place the Mentos in his mouth and see if he could swallow a gulp of cola.
Then we stuck a camera in his face and had him do his thing.
P.J. started off easy with just a single Mentos. As shown at our video’s 0:35 mark, things got a little foamy, but not so much that any of P.K.’s beverage came spurting out or that people would think he needs to get his rabies shots.
Next up was a double dose of Mentos. This time, there was a little leakage, but not even enough that our test subject needed a napkin to dry himself off.
But could P.K. handle three Mentos?
No, no he could not.
OK, let’s take a moment to review the data so far. One Mentos isn’t so bad, but two is a challenge and three is too much. So what will happen with four? Is it possible somehow the effects will roll over, and it’ll be as easy to handle as a single piece?
No such luck, as another geyser of cola burst forth. Still, despite the mess it caused, P.K. decreed the four Mentos mix to be the most delicious of the bunch. So…that means upping the flavor factor with seven Mentos should be even better, right?
Once again, our logic proved flawed, as the mixture couldn’t even occupy P.K.’s mouth long enough to register with his taste buds.
So what did we learn here? Your mouth can handle up to a two-Mentos cola cocktail, and your tongue might like four the best. Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to grab some paper towels and clean up the office.
▼ Stay tuned for more exciting experiments we hope to perform on Go’s body, such as “Just how many times can you wipe poison oak on your inner thigh before you actually get a rash?” and “How many ravenous coyotes is really too many to share your studio apartment with?”
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