Food Theory: I Invented the BEST Tasting Soda!

The Soda Fountain. It is the pinnacle of human engineering. It is a symbol of absolute freedom. In this unique device, you have a buffet of flavors, all waiting for you and only you. And while most will simply use it for their daily star or a quick hit of Mr. Pibb, there are those who dare to go further, to think beyond the tap. Those who question the

soda

system and instead run around without a care in the world, blurring the line between Sprite and Sunkist, having fun with Fanta, throwing in a pop of Powerade or a blast of Brisk.

And that's why today, I salute you, the

soda

is thrown away. Caffeine cravings that dare to raise a glass at every dispenser of this stuff. May your drinks be sweet and your refills free. My friends, today we are testing what it takes to create the perfect soda mix. And let me tell you, it's nothing like any soda you've ever tried before. Hello Internet! Welcome to Food Theory, the show that is the perfect combination of everything you need. Now, during my time online it has been no secret that I am a fan of Diet Coke. And by fan I mean I'm a die-hard addict to that sweet, sweet battery acid running down my throat.

I appreciate you. Thank you very much for being part of my life. I appreciate you too, Mateo. I know you're addicted to me. To this day, one of my all-time favorite memories was being on a gaming convention panel in Game Theory's third year. And suddenly, the audience lines up with a huge string of Diet Cokes right in front of me. I think I was like 50 when it was all said and done. But you know what really goes back beyond my love for Diet Coke? Yes, today we are talking about a deep MatPat tradition. It's actually my love to mix all sodas.

Call it whatever you want. A hurricane, a tornado, a graveyard drink, a pop bomb, swamp water or, as I knew it, a suic... Hmm. A drink that doesn't give you life, I guess. Whatever the name, I think it's a universal experience. Walking to the soda fountain and running down the line. Go crazy as you mix as many flavors as possible to create the wildest, most unique, delicious, and sometimes most disgusting drink you can imagine. Is that there? That was my first real soda addiction. Hanging out at the old Taco Bell in Medina, Ohio with my dad.

We each mixed drinks and then tested each other to see if we could identify the flavors we had put in it. But the great thing about graveyard drinks, and the reason I wanted to do an entire episode dedicated to them, is that there are almost an infinite number of options for making one of these soda concoctions. After years of doing this, I've got my preferred blend down to a science. But just because it's my favorite, it's not necessarily the

best

. So, that's what we intend to do today. We're looking at the science of mixology to see if we can optimize the perfect soda mix.

Mixing as many flavors as possible to create the most delicious drink possible. Are there certain flavors that go better than others? What other considerations go into a drink like this? And let me say it now, tell us in the comments what your favorite blend is. Because everyone has their own and I would love to try them. That being said, what we ended up making today is definitely something you should try at home. Also, can I say this? I love the fact that I finished a 30-day sugar-free challenge and immediately moved on to this episode. It's like I have to make up for lost time or something.

Anyway, to help me in my search today, I have former bartender Santi on the couch, joining me to walk through a challenge of different swamp water variations, so we can determine which elements, ratios, and methods offer the

best

results. From there, we'll use what we learn to make the perfect drink in real time. Now, I've given Santi a lot of flack in the past for being a super healthy guy, but this episode showed me a completely different side of him. So, okay, everyone at home knows my vice, which is Diet Coke, right? Are you a soda drinker?

What is your favorite drink? I'm a regular Coca-Cola drinker, to the point where it was a problem. A friend stayed with me once for a week, we went to the grocery store earlier in the week, I bought a 12 pack of Coca-Cola and had to go back to the grocery store like twice that week. Yes that's me. And I didn't realize, did I? And he sits me down at the end of the week and says, hey man, I think you have a problem. No, it's an intervention! Yes, no, it was an intervention. He even texted my wife saying, "Hey, I'm going to have to talk to him about this." And since that day I drink Coca-Cola Zero.

Well. Better. Better. Now, for those of you who are not familiar with the glory that is swamp water, the true origin of the material is a little difficult to pin down. Soda fountains have been around since the 19th century, and it's not hard to imagine people trying to mix everything up from day one. That said, references to swamp water really seem to start appearing in writing around the 1950s. A Paris, Texas newspaper first described some children going to the local restaurant to order the product. That's right, a newspaper reported on a group of kids who wanted to mix their sodas.

Oh, can you imagine the days when that made headlines? In any case, we can definitely trace the rise of swamp water to the rise of youth culture in America. Makes sense. If you think back to the 1950s, you can see young scoundrels riding their bikes to their local restaurant like something out of a Coca-Cola commercial. In the decades since, the drink has evolved with the technological advances of soda machines. More sodas and more flavors mean more possibilities. But with the arrival of the Coke Freestyle machine, we are no longer limited to just eight or even ten options.

We have all the options now. Honestly, it's a little overwhelming. It also feels a little like cheating to make swamp water out of those things. So instead, today we'll stick to the old soda fountains of yesteryear with different taps. Taking us to a stage of our journey, the basic mixes. Unlike the taste tests we've done in the past on this channel to determine winning and losing drinks, this time Santi and I are just trying out some basic starter mixes to see what works and what doesn't when it comes to hurricane drinks. That way we'll learn things like what flavors complement each other and things like that.

Then we can apply those rules to create our own perfect Pop Bomb image. Tell me what we have prepared in front of us today and what we are going to do. Good. So here, in the first round, we have four combinations approved by Burger King himself, by himself, by the king himself. I like that Burger King is the soda mix supplier in this case. Good? Because, yeah, we all trust Burger King, you know, that restaurant we labeled as the unhealthiest fast

food

in a previous episode, which you can click on the screen right now to go check out if you haven't already.

But we don't have their

food

, so you have to rely on their drinks. You have to trust them. Food! Hard pass! So in these swamp water suggestions pre-approved by the king himself, we have half and half, which is half Diet Coke and half regular Coke. There's the black and white, which is half Diet Coke and half Sprite. The four-way, which consists of equal parts Diet Coke, regular Coke, Sprite and Dr. Pepper. And finally, the black target, which is one part Coca-Cola and three parts Dr. Pepper. And immediately, from the beginning, that simple half and half, it was a great victory.

It's a 50-50 mix and it feels exactly that. I feel a little bit of heaviness, where you have that little bit of sweetness that sticks to your tongue, but it's not as heavy and all-encompassing on my tongue as I normally feel Coca-Cola is, with a little bit of lightness and the thinner one that I tend to be. to get from Diet Coke. Absolutely, and I think Diet Coke has a fruity flavor that Coke doesn't have. And the interesting thing about this one, and the reason it may seem simple, but the reason we include it is because, according to mixologists, regular sugar actually cancels out or counteracts the flavor and sweetness of aspartame and sucralose.

So I'm really enjoying this. No, I was going to say, actually, I really like this one. The interesting thing about this first mixture is that the body processes the sugar in Coca-Cola and the artificial sweetener aspartame in Diet Coke in completely different ways. Aspartame is 200 times sweeter than regular sugar and interacts directly with the sweet taste receptors on the tongue. While sugar undergoes enzymatic degradation in the mouth, first releasing glucose and fructose and then activating sweet taste receptors. This is actually why people who try regular sugar tend to report that it has a more complex, full, and complete flavor.

Meanwhile, aspartame is much sweeter than sugar which gives many people what they claim to be a strong sweetness. Mixing the two actually balances out the initial sweet burst of the aspartame and then lets the vanilla and caramel notes of regular Coke really come through in the background. So we already had a good start. We really wanted to keep that momentum going with the next one, the black and white. Okay, so yeah, just to clarify, so you're drinking Coca-Cola and Sprite half and half? Yes. And I'm drinking Diet Coke and Sprite half and half? Exactly. But if you want a sample...

Yeah, you know, we've shared enough. We have already come together enough on this. You don't have a monkey, do you? I don't feel well. Good, excellent. Yuck! Oh, that's just COVID. No Yes. No, it's not a big deal. Wow, those two don't mix well. No. No. This is not cool. No. This is the opposite of great. It's just dissonant. You get the cleanliness of the lemon, but you also get the Coca-Cola mixed in there in a non-trivial way. And it's a bunch of competing flavors that don't merge or harmonize in any way. It's really oil and water.

So unlike Coca-Cola and Diet Coke, which mixed very well, the Sprite-Coke mix was simply a combination of dissonant flavors. And adding Dr. Pepper to the mix didn't help much either. It smells very Dr. Pepper-y. He does. And it tastes very Dr. Pepper-y. Yes. Yes, it's all Dr. Pepper. This validates what I experienced doing this as a kid growing up in Ohio. Every time I poured a Dr. Pepper, I had to squirt it. It would be just a little bit to finish off the top, but it couldn't be a substantial amount because it just swallows up any other flavor it's mixed with.

Dr. Pepper is one of those soft drinks that people either love or hate. Most often, it is included in the category of root beer or cola. But Dr. Pepper itself and the FDA rule that it is neither. Instead, Dr. Pepper falls into the pepper soda category, with its unique blend of 23 natural and artificial flavors that give it a mostly cherry-like flavor. According to tradition, the recipe is so secret that it does not even exist in one place. It was apparently split in half and kept in two separate safe deposit boxes at separate banks in Dallas, Texas.

The doctor doesn't waste time. But I have to say, after discovering this, something tells me that this will appear as a food

theory

in the future. Then we have black gold. So this is exactly the opposite of what you were saying. Yes. It's three parts Dr. Pepper and only one part Coca-Cola. Oh, so you're drinking Dr. Pepper right now. I mean, I honestly don't know why Burger King would approve of this. Black and gold. Yes. So, okay, sure. That seems fine to me. I mean, it smells like Dr. Pepper. And it tastes like Dr. Pepper. Can I, do you mind if I try yours?

No, please, of course. Because, oh. Oh, wow. Yes. Oh, there's a big difference there. There is actually a big difference. Wow. Yes. That one still tastes a lot like Dr. Pepper, but it's a much milder version. Absolutely. This is it, this is it. It's too much, it's too sweet. As if he couldn't drink it all. Oh yeah, this is disgusting. No. So what we are seeing here is the exact same winning combination as the first combination. The aspartame in Diet Coke softens the flavor profile of sugary sweet Dr. Pepper. Compare that to Santi's mix of Dr.

Pepper plus regular Coca-Cola and you get a high sugar content. Hence we perceived it as cloyingly sweet. However, it was still immediately clear that a little Dr. Pepper would go a long way in these mixes. And anything more than a splash or two would overwhelm the entire drink. So the big takeaway was to keep alternative soda flavors like Mr. Pibb Low. Instead, to create the perfect dead drink formulation, we needed to develop a smoother cola flavor as a base. Now, as if this wasn't comprehensive enough, we decided to include a fifth option, which included equal parts of all the different flavors that were available at the soda fountain at our local gas station.

I mean, without even trying it, just from the smell, you can immediately touch a lotorange, although they are all the same. Anything with Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper won. Yeah, I hope this doesn't taste like cherry Fanta. It's just Fanta. Actually? Do you think that reads just like Fanta? Here, pour me a glass of Fanta, if you can. So for me, I try this one, and it feels almost creamier, where I absolutely get the orange notes from Fanta, but on the edges, I get that slight vanilla flavor from, like, the Coca. Well. That's something I've always had about orange soda.

It has a sharpness to it, which is not my favorite. Actually? Eh, interesting. Try this. Oh, that's sharp. Who loves orange soda? That's a reference. Yes it is. No, it's a great reference. Oh, I see what you're saying. Good? Okay, yeah, I didn't do it before. There's a lot more vanilla than I initially registered. Yes, I think about soft drinks a lot. So, I mean, this is my life. In short, what we were learning was that, with the right mix, the addition of Coca-Cola had less to do with the cola flavor and more to do with the vanilla nuances.

And again, as with Dr. Pepper, alternative flavors like orange soda really cut through the noise to dominate the overall flavor profile. Knowing all this, we were pretty much ready for round two. But before continuing, there was one last thing to try. Pepsi. Lest you call me a Coca-Cola fan, we wanted to give Pepsi products their fair shake. Especially since I grew up doing this Pepsi fountain test at the local Taco Bell. And that meant one thing, and one thing only. The addition of Baja Blast. Now, there is good news and bad news with this one. Bad news: Baja Blast has, for the past 20 years, been exclusive to Taco Bell.

The good news, however, is that for the drink's 20th anniversary this year, they decided to release it in stores. So, you know, there really wasn't any bad news. In short, it means we were able to create the best combination of Pepsi flavors you can get from the source. And it was... Huh. Pepsi brings a whole new angle to this. Because Pepsi products, although they are competitors of Coca-Cola, are very different. Oh, incredibly. Yes, for me I prefer the taste of regular Pepsi to Diet Pepsi, and I prefer the taste of Diet Coke to regular Coke. I can see that, yes.

Diet Pepsi always tastes bad to me. Yes, it feels synthetic or like diet soda. Yes, it feels artificial in a way that Diet Coke doesn't, even though all of this is literally just you drinking battery acid. Let's call things by their name. My gut biome is dying as we speak. The flora and fauna that exist to give me healthy digestion are slowly collapsing and dying. I had a month of living without sugar and without soda, and it was like, yeah, look at me, I'm blossoming. Matt will be healthy again by 2024. And it's like, no, we still have episodes of Food Theory to do.

He just dies, he dies on the vine. Forks. No, look, Matt, no, he gets strong. He is tempered in raw sewage. That's my stomach. This is nothing. Ah, famous last words. Yes, this smells terrible. Unlike all the others where I think, oh, this smells a little like caramel, or a little like vanilla, or Dr. Pepper. No, this smells terrible. Oh Lord. That's not good. Oh my, my oh. That's gross. Not good. Oh, it's amazing how vastly different and so inferior this is. Yeah, this drink wasn't great. Somehow, this mix of some of the sweetest sodas on the market ended up with a surprising mix of bitterness and acidity.

There really was nothing redeeming about it. Turns out this comes down to citric acid. You see, Coca Cola uses phosphoric acid to add acidity to their soft drinks, Pepsi uses citric acid. This is what gives Pepsi the refreshing taste they like to promote. But unfortunately, it is aggravated by the citric acid in starry sky and the sun as well. the end result is simply sour and bitter, while the phosphoric acid in coke actually helps balance the citric acid in things like Sprite and Fanta, providing a more pleasant overall experience. Needless to say, we decided to throw away most of our Pepsi products before moving forward.

With the first round over, it was time to look for specialized blends in the second round. We narrowed the field from six different drinks to three, each of which was a different person's preferred method of swamp water. The first was an advanced mixologist method that Santi found in his research that required a wide range of flavors. But it really highlighted the order in which the drinks were served. It seemed like it wouldn't make any difference since everything is mixed together anyway, but the idea behind this is to have higher sugar sodas at the bottom, while lighter sugar sodas sit at the top.

Why would you want to do that? Well, it supposedly causes different flavors to hit your tongue in a specific order, leading to a more complex flavor profile that evolves as you drink. And that's something we've seen happen on this channel before in one of my all-time favorites. episodes, in fact the burger stacking episode where we discovered that the exact same ingredients put in a different order gave you a completely different taste experience, so if it worked for burgers, maybe it could work for sodas too. Also from now on let's play a little game, okay? In our efforts to be soft drink sommeliers, Santi and I somewhat imitate the classic tropes of wine

tasting

.

So go ahead and make your own swamp water. Then take a sip every time we say the word "go." See how many gallons of soda you can consume. Also let us know in the comments how many times we said it because I'm not going to keep count. Ready, go. I mean, it's a fruit cocktail. It's very different from the first round because it's a very fruity drink unlike all the ones we had in the first round, which tended to be a lot more coke, diet coke. It is a very pleasant fruit punch. I understand why someone in a bar and working as a mixologist would have a lot of success with this if I'm going to have a graveyard drink that puts me off, whatever.

I'm looking for more of a tail tail. This is not as good, but it is a very good version of a very different type of drink. You could already see that there was a more sophisticated complex flavor profile to this drink. This was the first time we were really hit with different notes at different times, even if they were mostly fruit-based. In short, the layering technique really worked despite being equal parts of all the different Coca-Cola drinks. On top it really made it take a backseat to the heavier drinks that hit our palate first. It's great to have this perspective because like I said, my drinks every time I would do this always had a very specific kind of flavor profile to them and I would just like put things here and there to try to optimize it.

I would try to emphasize more colas, candies, vanillas, not fruits and and this is a very good version that likes fruit, which is great, right? Which makes sense, like mixologists, like chefs or anything else. They are trying to give you the complete package and what you consume. It's really light. It's really refreshing and covers your ears, kids. It tastes like Long Island iced tea. Yes, earmuffs. Clearly, Santi became very familiar with all the different types of drinks in his research for this episode. So where did you find this when you say the bartender recommends it just to go to a bar and you say, hey, what do you do or what do you like?

Did you find this online? or what is this? Yes, I did a lot of research by going to a variety of bars and just asking them to make me drinks. I'm not kidding. Actually, He wasn't answering the emails. We found it in the sewer somewhere like he had it. I got the perfect mix. Honestly, you have to admire the commitment to the craft. But now, with a new variable in play, it was time to try my personal blend. In general, I tend to like my drinks flat that lean more towards cola flavors. So I divided them with the two thirds the proportion of one third in the bottom two thirds is an even mixture of diet coke and coke.

The top third is a sprite with just a splash of root beer and Dr. Pepper at the end to keep it from overpowering everything else. . I must say that I am tremendously proud of this blend. I've been drinking it for literally decades, but I've never served it to anyone else. I felt like I was naked in front of the class. I can't wait to judge you. I know, right? I'm actually very nervous. No one else had ever tried this. I can judge it for myself, obviously, but you know, I put myself at your feet Santi. So this is interesting to me because I think Dr.

Pepper, I'm learning here, needs ice because it's really softened and I'm getting the sweetness of the coke, but that's it. It's very coke. Agree to disagree there Santi. Maybe your palate just isn't refined enough. The only thing I will say to my credit is just to defend myself. I actually get more vanilla notes from this one than any of the others, so far I'm okay with that. Absolutely this guy who has always loved the taste of vanilla. One thing I never realized is that my preferred blend here really brings out those coke and root beer notes.

By using Diet Coke as a key part of the base, the sugar that came from regular Coke in Mr. Pibb was negated, allowing the more complex flavors of vanilla and caramel to take center stage. I like that it hits different notes at different times like it's vanilla forward. You get a little bit of root beer on the back toward the end of the sip, a little bit of that coke in the middle, but just the slightest hint of the leprechaun around the edges. This hits you and that's it. It has very good flavor. Very cohesive. But once you try it, everything goes down.

Nothing more here. That's what you're saying. There are those waves for me, a much more pleasant experience. Now, you're just sucking me a little, but kudos to Santi's butt kisses aside. I loved my mix. I still love my mix and stand by the fact that it was the most complex layered drink we'd tried up to this point, which said that while we didn't agree on the overall flavor, we agreed on some important factors here. One ice makes a big difference in the layers, it works, and three Coke flavors add more overall complexity for a more enjoyable experience.

As long as they are not Pepsi, the bitter rivalry between the two continues. And hey, if you want to see some of the strange history behind these two, be sure to check out our Conspiracy Soda Playlist after you're done here. We've done many episodes about both products and also how they don't get along so well. But until now when it came to the swamp water, there was still one more we had to try for this particular round. I'm not the only one being judged in this episode. Sam, our grandfather from Michigan behind the scenes. He has also placed himself at our feet to be judged.

Come defend your mix here So what you got so traditionally, this needs to be made with Wendy's High Content Fruit Punch from the source. So I was addicted to that, but I was also a fan of fizz. Yes of course? The failure, so to speak, I have been left kneeling in this experiment. Oh, I'm today's Tonya Harding. Tanya and I were given the code red for Mountain Dew. Oh, it's fine. So I had to reverse my ratios because Mountain Dew is much sweeter to me than a traditional leprechaun and the high-C fruit punch was much milder.

Saying that high-C fruit is bland is one of the craziest things I've ever heard someone say. So this is now 1 cup of sprite, 1/8 cup plus 1/16 cup of code Mountain Dew Wait, you didn't add your fractions? I was a film student. If you never asked Da Vinci what fraction of blue is in this painting, those of you might not know. This is the guy who studies our analytics on a regular basis and delivers a monthly report of our numbers. I guess so. We will check them again from now on. In any case, Sam's special was a very tasty drink.

But when it came to the task, it was just two ingredients. So he was missing the mark on what we were looking for with the swamp water. That being said, it gave us more information about how weak the sprite's flavor is when mixed with something stronger like Dr Pepper or Mountain Dew. When it comes to Schlorps, I don't know. I'm going to make up names now, swamp water. We should call it Shrek water. I like water what? Shrek Water Yes, the sugar definitely started to get to us at this point, which means it was finally time to take everything we had learned and create our ultimate blend in real time.

So I can already tell there will be some comments below. about the fact that we had to use bottled soda to make our Shrek water, obviously plastic bottles, as we've established in previous episodes, are the inferior form ofdrink soft drinks. But just because of the nature of this challenge, we weren't able to bring all of our photography equipment. At a McDonald's or Taco Bell to do these tests on the spot. So, to maintain the quality of carbonation and flavor of all sodas across the board, we decided to stick to the standardized bottle for the experiment. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

You might still be mad at me. I'm curious what your strategy is on this. What is your goal? My gears have been turning here because I'm trying to remember everything we've learned in the last two rounds. You know, obviously we have ice because we can universally agree that ice made everything so much better, I think from a basic standpoint. I want to drink mostly cola or dark soda, I think dr. The pepper and the coke are really going to be the fundamental base of the best swamp water drink and then in that final quarter, you know, the rest is where the playground happens.

In the true spirit of this challenge, the more soda you can include in your formulation, the better, right? Because that is the essence of this right that develops in the future, like what? Combining three or more sodas really gives you that unique flavor that you can only get through this style of drink. Now Santi and I end up with very similar strategies. I haven't learned in previous rounds that pouring order matters. We both had to map out our taste experiences precisely in the end. We both kept the flavors stronger, like the fruity spiciness of Fanta. Dr.

Peppers and punchy root beers at the bottom as for the rest Well, that's where our ratio started to differ. Yours is a lot more root beer than mine because I've incorporated everything except the die.Coca-Cola and then I could probably add a little more sprite to it. Regretting because now I put the root beer on top. So I think I really need to drown that out. What I'm going to do is start with Diet Coke and see how it interacts with everything else as we continue to mix and pour. And testing we kept seeing that one element appeared again and again as I progressed. making the biggest difference Oh, the bad order, it's making a pretty substantial difference.

Hundred percent. The more I like to play with him Yes, the more this surprises me. It's funny because now that I've served the coke and the Diet Coke, the root beer that was very root beer is now starting to fall back. mouth, which I really like a lot, I think I ruined it. I don't think the sprite should go on top, right? You really have to plan this out and now that I've mixed them all together like I just did, it's too dissonant. Oh my goodness, what we learned throughout this process is that swamp water is a very delicate balancing act, but too much of one. one flavor or flavor poured out of order can throw everything off balance.

But just before we started to lose hope, Santi pulled out what he hoped would be the trump card, a new Challenger appeared and his name was powerade. I'm going to throw us a curveball. Well, something you don't see at all soda fountains. So we don't include it, but sometimes you will and it's powerade and it's always blue. Did you know? I don't think it's a mistake. I think it's a sign of the swamp water. Shrek. Cemetery water. Pop drink. Bomb. Gods. Wow, well, I know like a little doctor. Seuss with those. It's all the sugar that runs through me.

He was quite skeptical. How could a little flavored water be the maker or destroyer of our pop bombs? But from a scientific perspective it made sense when broken down. The problem with cemetery drink is that it quickly becomes overwhelmingly sweet. Sweet cola plus another sweet cola equals more sweetness. That's why Diet Coke and ice ended up being so important in all of these cases. mixes They brighten the flavor and soften that sweetness, but another way to balance the flavor is by mixing in something other than just pure sugar, powerade being full of electrolytes adds a slight salty flavor to the mix that counteracts the top portion. of sweet and sour coca.

The powerade makes a really big difference. Yes, here, sign me up. Whoo, that's very powerful. It is. Smelling it I think, oh yes, this is powerade. It is, but not when you try it. It also has a slightly greenish appearance. Oh gangrenous gang. You wanted swamp water. It sure looks a bit like swamp water. Yes, wow, this to me tastes like drinkable cotton candy with notes of vanilla. It's something delicious. It's something good. I love this, right? Is very good. Combines very well. It is a complex flavor, which I like and it doesn't feel particularly heavy.

Yeah, I think my final verdict on this is to end sprite, coke, and diet coke. That's my swamp water. There you have it. We cracked the code to flood water. All it took in this balancing act was a final element of salty blue to tie it all together. In short, Santi's blend, henceforth known as the ultimate Santi, was one part Dr Pepper followed by hints of code red Baja Blast and one part Fanta of blue. Powerade to round out the fruity flavors, followed by Coca-Cola Sprite and Diet Coke, in that order, for the ultimate swamp water flavor experience.

However, the most important lesson at the end of the day is that poor order is most important, followed by proportions, then complementary flavors, and finally the temperature of the drink. With those items at your disposal, you can go ahead and find your favorite way to make your own graveyard drink or hurricane or non-living drink, so what I encourage you to ask in the comments below is: Do you have your own equivalent? ? Special Sam or the matpat mix? The matpat mix! I probably should have thought about that in the second round, but I guess better late than never.

Maybe we could work it on the VO. Do you have your own version of swamp water, cemetery water, do you drink Unaliving drink? Let us know in the comments below and who knows, we might follow up in a short or Santi might do another episode about it. I think we've given you the tools and some general guidelines to optimize your next soda fountain order. So I think that's it for me now, if you'll excuse me, the sheer volume of sugar I just consumed after a month without sugar is driving me a little crazy. So I'm going to process the sugar that runs through my body.

And as my friends always remember, it's just a

theory

, a food theory. All the way in And hey, if you like this video and want to see more of our soda-centric episodes. We're trying something new here. It's a kind of experiment that we want you to participate in, click on the link you see on the screen right now. It looks like a subscribe button, but it's not really, it will just take you to the channel page, which is very neutral. . Once you're there, play, we're running an experiment. I can't tell you what it is. because I don't want to affect the results to play and in a couple of weeks I will inform you of the numbers