Lifehacker’s Top 25 Coca-Cola Posts

Today, Coca-Cola’s iconic Contour bottle turned the ripe old age of 100. To celebrate, we’ve hand-picked 25 Coke articles from the Lifehacker archives, including taste tests, cleaning hacks and instructions on how to brew your own. Cheers!

Coca-Cola is today celebrating the 100th birthday of its patented Contour glass bottle. The original was designed by one Earl R. Dean in 1915 and was supposed to resemble a coca leaf (nobody on the design team actually knew what a coca leaf looked like, however.)

Coke has featured regularly on Lifehacker — both as a DIY ingredient for a range of different life hacks and as the focus of various taste tests. Click on the headlines to go to each article!

Blind Taste Test: Can Coke Life Pass For The Real Thing? [Video]


Coke Life is a new “mid calorie” soft drink that uses a natural sweetener extracted from the leaves of the stevia plant. Unlike Coke Zero or Diet Coke, it has been specifically formulated to match the taste of the real thing. But how similar is it really? To put Coke’s claims to the test, we subjected our co-workers to a blind taste test. The results were pretty surprising.

Taste Test: Can A $39.95 Coke Glass Really Improve The Taste?


The Coca-Cola + Riedel Glass is a piece of fancy glassware specifically designed to improve the flavour of Coke. The glass is now available in Australia for a recommended retail price of $39.95. If Riedel is to be believed, the glass has been optimised to improve every facet of the Coca-Cola drinking experience, including taste and sound. To put these dubious claims to the test, we compared it to an aluminum Coke can and regular glass. The result was pretty surprising.

Coke’s New Cans: Proof That Nothing In Business Should Be Sacred

If you’ve passed the soft drink aisle in your local supermarket in recent days, you may have noticed that Coca-Cola’s iconic red can has received several face lifts. For the rest of the summer, you will be able to get the can in blue, lime green, pink, purple and orange varieties. This is obviously a blatant gimmick to sell more units; much like last year’s “Share a Coke” campaign. However, we also think it can teach small business owners a valuable lesson when it comes to innovation in the face of tradition.

How To Make Coke ‘Fancy’: Three Expert Recipes

Swilling Coke from a can is for louts and layabouts. Here are three off-the-wall recipes from professional “mixologist” Mitch Firth to inject some fun and sophistication into your favourite beverage. Whether you want to make kids’ parties more interesting or just feel like a fuss-free mocktail, the following concoctions provide a fresh spin on an old flavour. Kind of like “New Coke” only not crap.

Mix Espresso And Coke For The Ultimate Afternoon Pick-Me-Up

The best, most grown-up way to “have energy” is to get enough sleep, eat food that grows out of the ground, and exercise (which I swear I do, mum). But life isn’t perfect and we all need a little external stimulus every now and again, which is why Espresso Coke is my new afternoon beverage of choice.

Ask LH: Is Coffee Worse For You Than Coke?

This is the standard argument with my boss at lunch time: which is better for you, Coke or coffee? I don’t drink coffee so instead I have a can of Coke, while my boss drinks at least two cups of coffee a day (with two sugars in each). I understand Coke is not good for you, but surely it’s no worse than drinking that amount of coffee? Any thoughts?

Clean Corroded Car Battery Terminals With Coke


If you ever find yourself with a car that won’t start because of corroded battery terminals, you can get yourself going again with just a can of Coca-Cola.

Taste Test: What Does ‘Green’ Coke Made From Stevia Leaves Taste Like?

Coca-Cola Life is a new “mid calorie” soft drink for health-conscious cola fans who don’t like the taste of Diet Coke. It’s hero ingredient is Steviol Glycosides, a natural sweetener extracted from the leaves of the stevia plant and mixed with sugar. In addition to containing fewer kilojoules, the end product also has a unique flavour that’s quite unlike any artificial sweetener I’ve tasted. Read on for the full Lifehacker verdict.

Taste-Test: Coca-Cola With Lemon

Coca-Cola and lemon go together like chocolate and peanut butter. It adds a refreshing, sophisticated tang to proceedings and allows designated drivers to feel less like little kids down the pub. But how does lemon taste when it’s infused directly into the beverage? Not that great, it turns out.

Taste-Test: ‘Ice Up’ Self-Freezing Coke Bottles

Have you ever left your bottle of soft drink in the freezer a bit too long and been pleasantly surprised by the resulting slush? That’s the concept behind Coca-Cola Ice Up — a super-cooled bottle dispenser that shoots out “self-freezing” Coke bottles. Feeling parched on a hot spring day, I decided to try it out…

Why Hybrid Cloud Goes Better With Coke


Deployment of a hybrid cloud solution (mixing public cloud infrastructure with on-site systems) is often said to be driven by security and data sovereignty concerns. For Coca Cola Amatil, however, hybrid reflects a more basic reality: key warehousing apps won’t be allowed off the premises.

How To Make Your Own Self-Freezing Coke [Video]


Last week, we taste-tested Coca-Cola’s Ice Up “self-freezing” Coke contraption. The machines are a bit of a rarity in some areas but despair not! This video shows how you can create your own slushy beverage in the comfort of your own home.

Taste Test: Does Coke Really Taste Better From A Glass Bottle? [Video]


Last month, we put Riedel’s fancy $39.95 Coke glass through its paces in a series of Coca-Cola “taste-offs”. To our surprise, it really did improve the carbonation and overall flavour of the drink; especially when compared to an aluminium can. However, there was one receptacle that we didn’t get a chance to test — the iconic glass Coke bottle (AKA the best way to drink Coke.) Prepare for the ultimate face-off!

How Many Soft Drinks Do You Drink Per Day?

Bad news for Coca-Cola fans: A new UK study has found drinking a single can of sugar-sweetened soft drink a day can increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by as much as 22 per cent. The risk remains frighteningly high even after discounting associated weight gains.

Use A Glass Coke Bottle To Automatically Water Your Plants

If you’re a chronic neglecter of your watering duties, you may have looked into finding ways to have your plants watered automatically. Enter the glass bottle, or more specifically, the cool-looking glass Coke bottle that we all love (unless you’re a Pepsi fan, in which case you can go that route, too).

Turn Your Flat Cola Into A Cheap Dinner


They say life is fleeting, but it’s got nothing on carbonated soft drink. One moment, the cola in your fridge is effervescent and delicious — the next, it’s a flat and syrupy swamp. If you regularly find yourself tossing out half-empty Coke bottles, here’s a quick tip to re-purpose those listless dregs into a meal the whole family can enjoy.

Clean Your Windscreen With Coca-Cola


Ideally, when it’s to clean your car, you’ll have access to proper car wash supplies. If none are handy, however, try Coca-Cola and a damp cloth.

Extra Fizz: Lessons From Coca-Cola For Building Mobile Workforce Apps


Soft drink giant Coca-Cola is increasingly relying on mobile apps to manage its supply chain and interact with customers. These are some of the key lessons it has learned during that process.

Ask LH: How Can I Tame My Soft Drink Addiction?


I’ve been drinking soft drinks since I was a kid and can’t get enough of the stuff — Coke, Fanta, Pepsi, Sprite, RC Cola, Bisleri Chinotto, you name it. As I hit my mid-20s I’m beginning to wonder what all that sugar and caffeine is doing to my insides. Are there any healthy alternatives I can try? (And DON’T say water!) Cheers, Chinotto Babe

Clean Up Rusty Cast Iron With Coca-Cola


This video from the American Chemical Society explains the science behind life hacks such as using salt to fix bitter coffee. It also introduces us to a new one: easily getting the rust off cast iron with cola.

Use Coca Cola To Help Start A Compost Pile


Coca Cola’s sweet and acidic properties can come in handy when you’re building a compost pile for your garden. Household weblog Stylelist Home recommends that you wait for the can or bottle to go flat and then pour it over your compost pile — the sweetness will attract micro-organisms and the mild acid of the soda will also help break down organic material destined to become compost.

Remove Tough, Greasy Stains From Clothing With Coca-Cola

If you’ve got some greasy, difficult stains on your clothing, it turns out Coca-Cola might be able to solve the problem. Clever list site Listverse suggests that adding a little to your wash will make the difference.

Brew Your Own Coca-Cola

The Unusual Food Handler weblog has whipped together a home-made method for making Coca-Cola that by their admission is slightly sweeter, slightly less acidic, but remarkably delicious.

What Are The Most Popular Soft Drinks In Australia?


In the land down under, colas are king. But which brand of cola?

Fast Food Face-Off: Which Takeaway Chain Has The Worst-Value Soft Drink?

Fast Food Face-Off is a new, occasional Lifehacker feature where we compare seemingly identical takeaway products from rival stores to determine which offers the best value. Today: soft drink sizes from McDonald’s, Hungry Jack’s, Subway and KFC.


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