There's a craze sweeping the world at the moment which involves dropping a full packet of Mentos mints into a large bottle of Diet Coke. There's something in the sugar coating of the mint that reacts incredibly violently with the sweetener in the Diet Coke (this doesn't work with other brands of cola) and so you get a very satisfying fountain erupting from the bottle at heights of about 15 feet.
You can view a video of this taken to extraordinary lengths here.
I was invited to a Barbeque this afternoon to celebrate my friend Paul's girlfriend Verity turning thirty. I knew there'd be kids present at the party whom I could entertain, but also wanted to try out the experiment for myself, so made myself late by scouring newsagents and supermarkets for a packed of the seemingly lethal sweets. Either this craze has caught on to such a degree that every child has bought up every packet, or they just aren't widely available, but I had quite a lot of trouble eventually tracking some down. Don't by fooled by getting the Sugar Free variety that come in a square box, no, these will not do, you have to get the tube of original, white mints. These are the best ammunition. They are the good stuff.
I did eventually find some in a newsagents on Hardman Street and gleefully turned up at the party with these and two large bottles of Diet Coke. I took other stuff too, adult stuff like gin, but these were my prized possessions.
The kids seemed wise to this ritual, and apparently they'd done it in the playground of their school a few days earlier but it even so there was tangible excitement around the patio as I, with a young helper, like a tiny Debbie McGee, set up our apparatus. The trick is introducing all the mints to the liquid immediately, in unison, because as soon as the first mint hits, the reaction starts. You need a sort of tube delivery system, for which we used an empty tube of Smarties that I'd procured from the same newsagent. You open the bottle of diet coke, place a flat, solid object on top (we used a coaster) and then you put the empty Smarties tube vertically on the coaster, above the entrance to the bottle, load it up with Mentos mints, then pull the coaster away so they all tumble in at once - then you jump back. The fountain is short lived but highly impressive and I like to think that I have in some way added to a thirty year olds birthday party by covering her patio with Diet Coke for the purpose of a childish trick. She can surely now enter into the fourth decade of her life with her head held high.
Because of the rapid spread of people performing this 'trick' on the internet, both Mentos and Coke must be aware that their products aren't be using for precisely the purpose they were initially intended, but I wonder if they care too much? Surely Mentos must have noticed an astonishing rise in sales over the past few months, and would they care if their mints aren't being eaten and used to freshen breath, rather being fed into Diet Coke by enthusiastic teenagers and 30's something's? Their mint is now one of the most famous in cyberspace, and by making them out of some horrible reactionary ingredient they've probably propelled themselves ahead of their closest rivals. Perhaps now other mint manufacturers will concentrate less on how their product tastes, but make sure it reacts better with Diet Coke. Drinks manufacturers, by the same token, might forgo any sort of taste just to make sure their drink goes extra mental when Mentos mints are added.
"Drink Uber-Cola! Tastes like elephant wee but boy does it go berserk when you drop those mints!"
Why not try this cheap experiment for yourself and rediscover your inner-child?
Drinks of a slightly higher order were on the menu for the first (hopefully of many) cocktail nights down at The Lion this evening. It was a splendid success, the participants looked great in black tie, and the night was not without it's fair share of tasty martinis and other inventions. Realistically we could look to do this once a month so I'll advertise the next one and before long it'll be the toast of Liverpool society and all sorts will want to get in. Not that they'll be allowed. That's how exclusive our nights are, the exclusive people aren't permitted access. Only good, decent folk like ourselves.
We could be on the cusp of a revolution here. Imagine if all pubs suddenly started running black-tie cocktail evenings and indeed it became the done thing to only go down the local ale house dressed for a ball or awards ceremony? We at The Lion would take enormous pleasure in knowing we got the ball rolling, and by that time we'd have invented a brand new night to stay one step ahead of the pack. I personally believe that within two years The Lion Tavern will have been converted into a Tiki bar.
The only disappointment for me personally was that I didn't manage to tie my bow tie properly at home, got stressed with it and eventually opted for a standard clip on. I don't think it spoilt anyone's enjoyment of the night. I hope not. And I went for the white tux jacket over the black, which in retrospect might have been a bit showy. Start with black, then start with the crazy combinations. We live and learn, that's the beauty of cocktail evenings.
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