When we say Coca – Cola, we don’t just say “one of the largest and most famous brands in the world” – if not THE most famous, but we also say a soft drink that is available in over 200 countries world – wide (according to the official website) and loved by millions of people. Having a rich and interesting history, from its past tradition of adding coca leaves into the mix, to the “secret ingredient” everybody is talking about, Coca – Cola is on everybody’s minds when it comes to get a refresher to share with your close ones. However, in the last years, the Internet also found room to present, explain and even experiment with a lot of weird uses of Coca-Cola and since then, debates are still vivid on the drink’s alternative effects, household uses, DIY projects and experimental trials.
From this point on, we have to get clear on some issues: many of the most common weird uses of Coca-Cola represent individual experiments which are not bullet proof in the eyes of true experimental science, as even if popular belief and perpetuated Internet facts sometime converge to confirm certain results, there are also weird uses of Coca-Cola which are unconfirmed, debunked as myths, not verified and certified by science as true. There has been a lot of experimenting around and many variables involved and even if some people shared their own personal results, not many of them can be considered hard facts. With this in mind, you all probably know already the famous Mentos – Diet Coke experiment and heard about a lot of other strange uses of the soft drink. Today we will go through 20 weird uses of Coca-Cola and see what are people playing with, what are their personal experiences and what would be fun to try for yourself.
20 Weird Uses of Coca-Cola
When it comes to alternative means of using Coca-Cola, there are at least 10 wide – spread facts regarding its cleaning and household usability and efficiency. While it is perfectly plausible that other soft – drinks have the same effects, Coke is by far the most popular one to experiment with. Due to its ingredients (some more secret than others), some weird uses of the world’s most famous soft drink have been tested, spoken of, perpetuated and made very popular.
1. Rust remover
This is perhaps the most wide – spread effect of using Coca – Cola for other purposes than its basic one. The popular belief is that Coke will bust the rust from objects if they are soaked in it and left for a few hours (usually overnight). However, many years ago, the famous MythBusters experimented with the soft drinks and concluded Coke is not as useful as people think when it comes to removing rust. It may be a matter of time, severity of rust or core – components of the rusted object, but this is an issue that still needs further experimentation. They say it works best with chrome.
2. Blood stains remover
Another alternative weird use of Coca – Cola is to remove blood stains. The emulsification of blood stains was also confirmed by the MythBusters duo and supported by peoples’ own experiments and trials. While fresh blood stains can also be cleaned with cold water, soda water and other simple and handy compounds, apparently for the most difficult stains, Coca – Cola is a great alternative. Best thing about it? Coke also eliminates odors and stinky smells from your clothes too.
3. Cleans windows
There are many accounts of people finding Coca – Cola to be very useful as window cleaner, especially car windows. The baking soda and the acidic properties of the soft drink makes it a good alternative to clean your car windows in case they are greasy and stained and especially if you managed to kill a lot of bugs on your speedy way home.
4. Cleans the toilet
Again, due to its ingredients, Coca – Cola is said to be very efficient in cleaning easily and without much disgust the toilets, as this isn’t peoples’ favorite cleaning department. There are many who confirm that in order to get the best results, you should pour a can of Coke into the toilet, wait for an hour, clean with a toilet brush and rinse thoroughly. For those prone to believe that Coca – Cola has some mind – blowing corrosive properties, this article on Huffington Post reveals even more unusual products to clean your toilet with, including Gatorade and Denture Tablets.
5. Marinades meat for delicious recipes
The acid in Coca – Cola tenderizes the meat, the sugar has a caramelizing effect on the meat when cooked and the flavors in the soft drink add even more flavors to your steak. You know here on TenMania we follow the best food blogs, we love to try seasonal recipes, strange dishes, exotic recipes and special combinations of ingredients that boost our health, so we wouldn’t mind also trying some Coca – Cola recipes. Here is a compilation of Coca – Cola based dishes you might want to try for yourself.
6. Windshield defroster
Back to cars again, there is a popular belief that in those special freezing mornings, when all you want is to defrost your car to get to work on time, a bottle of Coke will defrost your windshield and ease your life. Leave the drink to make its magic for a few minutes, then scrape the ice in an effortless manner. However, since we all know Coca – Cola is sweet, make sure you rinse your windshield properly so you don’t get some sugary sticky problems too.
7. Cleaning your car battery from corrosion
This is one of those weird uses of Coca-Cola which was pretty much experimented with and shared around the Internet, that many promote it as a hard fact. Now there are personal experiences of people stating that they indeed managed to remove corrosion from their car batteries’ terminals after they poured Coke and cleaned the affected areas. The MythBusters also found this alternative use of Coca Cola as being plausible to happen, although they admitted that in their experiment, Coke didn’t show spectacular or mind blowing effects. Some websites present you with full guides on how to clean your car battery with Coca – Cola and if you try and it works, tell us about it too.
8. Makes miracles to your garden
People made very popular the idea that Coca – Cola can act like quite the repellent of bugs and slugs in your garden and it may be plausible, as if you leave an open recipient filled with Coke in the garden, it is likely that creepy crawlers and slugs to be attracted by the sugar, while the other ingredients in the soda might get you rid of them in a pesticide-free manner. Beer also seems to have this same effect. Also, many garden specialists recommend adding Coke to the fertilizer of Azaleas or Gardenias, as they love an acidic soil and it will boost their growth and looks.
9. Cleans burnt pans, pots and other kitchen – ware items
It is the baking soda that does the cleaning, but many people mention as efficient this alternative effect of Coke among the weird uses of Coca-Cola inside the house and the kitchen. Sometimes we can’t degrease and remove completely the burn and the deposits that make our pans and pots almost unusable, so cleaning them with this soft drink is popularly said to be quite the trick. Of course, there are also other tricks to clean burnt pans besides Coke and if you are interested, here are some other alternatives.
10. Removes stains from clothes, carpets and other textiles
This is another weird use of Coca – Cola which is very popular on the Internet and highly experimented with by people in their homes. Now this point still needs to be addressed and replicated carefully, as even if the MythBusters said that
Cola is able to remove greasy stains in your laundry – No effect at all
other people found it quite useful in removing stains from clothes – if Coca Cola was added into the washing machine and made part of the washing process. Others insist on pouring some Coke directly on the stain, leave it to make some magic and then wash the clothes normally. Carpet stains are also said to be easily removed with Coke and next time you just realized a marker damaged for good your textile belongings, try Coke and see what happens. While baking soda is proved to remove stains and Cola does include it in some certain levels, it is only plausible to believe some stains can be cleaned with Coke if other solutions are not at hand.