Who would have thought that Diet Coke and Mentos Eruption videos that are posted in several video sharing websites would become a big hit in the Internet scene? I guess nobody saw that one coming. The video that I am talking about is the one that was shot and produced by Eepybird—an entertainment company—that famous for creating viral videos with style. For those who do not know their Diet Coke and Mentos Eruption video, it is a simple (yet entertaining) experiments that now have been viewed for more than 120 million times. In 2007, they bagged first ever Webby Award for Viral Video.
Overview of the Diet Coke and Mentos Eruption videos
I assure you, the videos are extraordinary stuff that you have never seen before. To help those who want to understand the whole thing, it started with two men dressed in scientists suits. While I am really not sure if they are trained scientists, they sure knew their thing.
Anyway, the two showed a two liter bottle of diet Coke and 4 Mentos chewy candies. They tied the candies in thin strings and dropped them on the bottle that was filled with diet coke. Afterwards, the cola suddenly popped out with force, setting up a mild eruption.
Now, the video didn’t end there! The succeeding video clips showed the two with several diet cola bottles. They started dropping Mentos on them and the colas started popping out like crazy. They were moving the bottles in a specific pattern to imitate geysers or say fountains and it was a sight to watch. People became really fascinated because who would have thought that something that was founded in such a simple concept can be entertaining. And yeah, the video soundtrack is also quite awesome too!
How the Diet Coke and Mentos Eruption Began
Anyway, upon seeing the video on the Internet, I got a little curious, so I decided to do a little research and found the official website of the Eepybird. As it turned out the two supposed scientists in the Diet Coke and Mentos Eruption videos were indeed scientists—mad scientists—that is! Eepybird is a creative team that is pioneered by Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe. Fritz is a professional juggler and is the short bearded guy in the video while Stephen is a lawyer and is the tall and bald guy on the video.
As stated in their website, they first heard of the Coke and Mentos thing in late 2005, when the friend of them who have a fixation of odd experiments mentioned it to them. As soon as they dropped several Mentos in a bottle of Diet Coke, it sprayed ferociously up to six to eight feet. They looked at each other and figured that they should do something crazy about it. Soon enough, the Diet Coke and Mentos Eruption project began.
The very next night, they presented the first choreographed version of their Diet and Mentos Eruption project at a live theater in Maine called the Early Evening Show. At the event, they used 10 liter bottles of Diet Coke and 60 Mentos chewies. They drilled holes in the bottle caps and created and utilized geyser angles to add an entertaining effect. The audience surely loved it and the two decided to do more extravagant experiments.
Eepybird spent the next six months formulating Diet Coke and Mentos Eruption sequences before they started to shoot the first video. They planned to swing bottles on ropes and to roll them down on ramps. On April 2006, they put their plan into action. The video that is posted in countless video sharing websites was the shot when they did it for the first time. It included around 100 liters of Diet Coke and about 500 Mentos chewies. They have tested each element and practiced the choreographed moves without setting the “homemade geysers,” but the biggest they have don prior to the video was about 20 bottles.
After careful planning and strategizing, they took a deep breath, crossed their fingers and started recording. Three minutes later, the whole Diet Coke and Mentos Eruption project worked. Stephen and Fritz were extremely animated and they wanted find out what others think of their one of a kind project. The video was uploaded on Eepybird’s website and the rest is history.
The phenomenon behind the Diet Coke and Mentos Eruption
Basically, carbon monoxide from Diet Coke formed the bubbles. When Mentos is dropped in a bottle of soda, the gelatine and gum Arabic from it dissolves and it breaks the surface tension. This obstructs the water mesh, with this, it takes less effort to expand and develop new bubbles. Therefore, as soon as the Mentos comes in contact with the Diet Coke, bubbles form in an instant and minor “explosion” takes place.
Conclusion
I advise those who have not seen the video to watch the video themselves. I assure you that it will be one a hell of a viewing experience. You will be amazed of the creativity the Stephen and Fritz displayed and best thing about it is they did not use special effects at any form. Simply put, they did wonders with some Diet Coke and a handful of Mentos! Who would have thought of that? Now it is time for you to watch the Diet Coke and Mentos Eruption video to find out yourselves of what I am talking about.
