Safe to drink 20 year old bottles of coke?
October 27, 2015 4:49 PM   Subscribe

I have six sealed bottles of coca cola from 20 - 25 years ago. Are they safe to drink? Are there any warning signs I should look out for?
posted by Proginoskes to Food & Drink (35 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
they are probably safe to drink (for certain values of safe), but i can tell you from the experience of drinking a diet coke that was a year past the best buy date, they are not kidding. it was pretty much foul. ymmv, but i would not do it.
posted by koroshiya at 4:54 PM on October 27, 2015 [11 favorites]


I drank a canned Diet Coke that was 2 months past the best by date on the can and it tasted nasty. 20-25 years? Eek. The taste of the first sip will likely render it undrinkable.
posted by cecic at 4:56 PM on October 27, 2015


Yuck. I surreptitiously pour out the stuff in my in-law's fridge that's ~6 months past its best buy date because it tastes lousy. This isn't fine wine (which would continue to age in the bottle if stored right) or whisky (which wouldn't continue to age in the bottle, but would still taste OK 20 years later if still sealed, etc.), this is Coke, widely available in good condition pretty much everywhere in the world. Save the bottles if you like them, but skip the contents.
posted by mosk at 4:58 PM on October 27, 2015 [4 favorites]


If there's no pfffft when you open the bottle you might not want to drink it. But generally, assuming it is not diet Coke, the amount of sugar in there is going to protect you, along with the acidity. I would organize a taste test around this .
posted by beagle at 4:59 PM on October 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


I know people who have unopened commemorative Coke cans from 20+ years ago (ie when the Jays won the World Series) and I have always wondered how the Coke inside would taste. If you do drink it please let us know.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:04 PM on October 27, 2015 [3 favorites]


If it is coke and not a diet version, yes, go for it. Don't drink the 6 pack all at once though.
posted by AugustWest at 5:05 PM on October 27, 2015


Previously on AskMe (thread inconclusive)
posted by jessamyn at 5:06 PM on October 27, 2015


I would drink it and look forward to doing so, as long as it is still 100% sealed. Science is fun!
posted by Aranquis at 5:07 PM on October 27, 2015


Would not drink, assuming plastic bottles. Plastics degrade over time, and that's from the BPA-happy era, right? So who knows what kind of chemical soup might be in there now?

I might chance a sip for glass bottles, though.
posted by Andrhia at 5:13 PM on October 27, 2015


Response by poster: I should have clarified that they are glass bottles.
posted by Proginoskes at 5:14 PM on October 27, 2015


At best, it'll be totally flat, with absolutely no carbonation left: won't kill you, but it'll taste awful.

Pretty much any carbonated beer or soda has about a year after bottling; it makes no real difference if it's bottles or cans.
posted by easily confused at 5:23 PM on October 27, 2015


I have zero actual knowledge on this, and it's a can, not a bottle, but this video of a man drinking a crystal pepsi (warning: gross) would suggest that it's a bad idea.
posted by R a c h e l at 5:27 PM on October 27, 2015 [4 favorites]


There were a lot of people talking about drinking old commemorative cans in /r/baseball the past few weeks, and more than a few people cited video evidence that it was not a good idea. I can't find the links right now, but I don't think it is worth even the slightest risk here.
posted by synecdoche at 5:29 PM on October 27, 2015


Are there any warning signs I should look out for?

Yes. The fact that you are inclined to drink 20-25 year old soda. These questions are always a risk/benefit analysis for me.

Risk:
least: consume a completely average food/drink --> most: death (no one can tell you 100% without chemical analysis if it's safe)
Benefit
none: drinking old soda that isn't even great when it's fresh

I am always going to come down on the side of when in doubt, throw it out.
posted by Beti at 5:34 PM on October 27, 2015 [15 favorites]


33 year old Coke (bottled).

..but I'm NOT saying "go for it".
posted by bonobothegreat at 5:41 PM on October 27, 2015


I opened and drank an expired can of Coke once, maybe 4-6 months past its date. It was plenty carbonated but it was literally tasteless. I have no idea where all the sweetener went; maybe it was stuck at the bottom, I didn't finish it.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:45 PM on October 27, 2015




I'd sell it on ebay. Fresh coke is cheap enough so why bother?
posted by cat_link at 6:25 PM on October 27, 2015


Glass is pretty inert, and the ingredients in soda don't seem likely to go bad in a dangerous way. I doubt it will taste good, but if for some reason you feel compelled to drink some, I would expect that it's fine to do so.
posted by needs more cowbell at 6:31 PM on October 27, 2015


It's funny you should ask. My mom just moved 1800 miles and for some reason brought with her several Arizona State Rose Bowl commemorative bottles from 1987 and I should not have been as surprised as I am, given some of the other crap she hauled all this way, but maybe if it turns out they're not poison I can mix them with Southern Comfort and relive my own days at ASU.
posted by padraigin at 6:31 PM on October 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


I have a glass bottle of Pepsi brought to me from the Soviet Union in 1987. The color seems OK, and there are some bubbles. If you taste yours, I will taste mine...
posted by bendy at 6:49 PM on October 27, 2015 [9 favorites]


Probably wouldn't significantly hurt you, definitely won't be delicious.

But, I mean, I wouldn't drink that shit if it was fresh. As others have noted, the best-case scenario isn't really that good.
posted by box at 7:20 PM on October 27, 2015


I've watched videos of people drinking old bottles of soda; apparently that's A Thing. Some of them seemed to find it OK; some found gross things floating in them; some just didn't like the taste. I presume they all survived long enough to upload a video, so there's something.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:55 PM on October 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


Ew. It really doesn't seem worth the risk. Why not go out and try to find some Coca Cola made with cane sugar instead? Will taste a thousand times better and not put you at risk of puking.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 11:04 PM on October 27, 2015


I've had Coke that had gone off. It's a thing. It was gross, not in taste but in texture. Soft drinks should not require chewing.
I would rethink this plan.
posted by Too-Ticky at 11:05 PM on October 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


Pretty much any carbonated beer or soda has about a year after bottling; it makes no real difference if it's bottles or cans.

Not according to my experience. I've bottled many a beer brewed by myself designed for aging and when opened they've had the desired amount of carbonation. I've been opening them 3-10 years post bottling so I wouldn't hesitate with industrially processed coke. Whatever it tastes like it wouldn't be harmful so it couldn't hurt to try.
posted by koolkat at 3:53 AM on October 28, 2015


Whatever it tastes like it wouldn't be harmful so it couldn't hurt to try.

This is just my year of AP Chemistry speaking, but "it wouldn't be harmful" is not something you want to bet on.

Pour out the stuff and keep the bottle would be another option.
posted by fraula at 6:09 AM on October 28, 2015 [1 favorite]


Can you give us some more information on why you want to drink these? That might help us assess this better. I mean, if you're just frugal and really like Coke, you can definitely sell these on Ebay and make (while not a fortune), at least enough to buy six bottles of freshly brewed Coke.
posted by 256 at 6:35 AM on October 28, 2015


The reason that cans of coke deteriorate in taste over time is that there is no intention that the coke be stored long term. There is a thin epoxy resin coating on the interior of the can that temporarily protects the super thin aluminum from corrosion but over time some aluminium will dissolve into the cola.

Not relevant to bottles though.
posted by srboisvert at 7:07 AM on October 28, 2015


When did Coke start using HFCS instead of cane sugar? That's what I'd be curious about. If your bottles are HFCS, why bother.
posted by pmurray63 at 10:28 AM on October 28, 2015


My brother saved a can of "old Coke," and we discovered some time later that it had dissolved pinholes in the back/bottom of the can and escaped. *boggle*
posted by wenestvedt at 12:47 PM on October 28, 2015 [3 favorites]


Safe to drink? It probably won't hurt you but then again you probably won't be able to tolerate the taste long enough to worry about it.

I've tried to drink 20 year old coke and it tasted somewhat like flat Coke mixed with lighter fluid and pennies. The metallic taste was odd considering it'd been kept in a glass bottle and not a can. One sip and I wanted to hurl. I do not recommend the experience to others.
posted by Socinus at 8:47 PM on October 28, 2015 [2 favorites]


Bendy: same here (USSR '91 tho) and I'll taste too!
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:15 PM on October 28, 2015 [1 favorite]


Whatever it tastes like it wouldn't be harmful so it couldn't hurt to try.

This is just my year of AP Chemistry speaking, but "it wouldn't be harmful" is not something you want to bet on.


I see your year of AP chemistry and trump in with my PhD in organic chemistry, a postdoc in chemical biology and a postdoc in medicinal chemistry followed by years working in the field of predictive toxicology.

I still say that it wouldn't be harmful, but in any likelihood it probably wouldn't taste good. Lets take a closer look at the ingredients:

Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Sugar, Colour (Caramel E150d), Phosphoric Acid, Natural Flavourings Including Caffeine.

So it is essentially an acidified solution of carbonic acid, with sugar colour and "natural flavourings" added. The sugar will be in equilibrium in water between various siomers at the anomeric position and the likely degredation products are simply monosaccharides instead of disaccharides. The colour is essentially extra burnt oxidised sugars and the natural flavourings will be in low enough quantities that provided you didn't drink over 5 gallons of the stuff any negligible degredation products will be well under the threshold of toxicological concern. The caffiene is the greatest risk, but it would be present to the same amount in fresh coke and any degredation products are likely to be less toxic than the molecule itself.
posted by koolkat at 6:24 AM on October 29, 2015 [8 favorites]


Some of the accounts I watched said that there were things floating in the liquid they drank.

It may just be clumping, but if the bottle's seal is breached (or even otherwise, spores can be resilient) there could be something growing inside. I don't expect that it would be harmful, though, just yucky.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:33 PM on October 29, 2015


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