I was digging through my parents’ cabinets looking for something and came across two six-packs of Coca-Cola Classic in 8 oz glass bottles. The date on the cap is “Dec 09 98”. The bottle has a date of 1996 on it.
I for the life of me cannot figure out why they are there. The thing is, my parents don’t drink Coke. My dad hasn’t drunk colas (dark sodas) since he was diagnosed with kidney stones in 1988. Mom doesn’t drink coke - occassionally Dr Pepper or root beer, but not coke.
But what’s even weirder is these had to have survived a big move around 2003. They relocated states after they retired, and they cleaned out a lot of stuff accumulated over the years in their previous house. Then for some reason they got buried in the back of a cabinet not used for pantry items, but holding beverage storage containers like plastic drink bottles and coffee travel cups. I haven’t noticed them in the 18 or so years they have lived here, and I’ve been living in the house the past 5 years.
I asked but they can’t remember about them. I thought it might have been intended as a souvenir when coke retired the “Classic” label, but that didn’t happen until 2009. Maybe my mom thought they were original cokes pre-New Coke. Or maybe she thought they wouldn’t be kept in production for too long.
Anyway, the question for the masses is “What should I do with them?”
What should I do with these Cokes?
drink them
sell them on ebay
give them to you to drink or sell
save them for posterity
donate them to a museum (?)
other - please specify
0voters
I’m tempted to just try drinking them unless there’s some value off ebay. What do you think?
I’d dump them. Having attempted to drink years-old cokes, I can tell you from experience it’s pretty flat and gross. I guess you can sell them, but for me that’s more trouble than it’s worth.
No. They didn’t go to the olympics, there’s no ad imagery on the packaging for that. It’s just regular bottles of Coke Classic.
I’m doubting the previous owners left them. That wouldn’t explain my parents sticking them in the back of a cabinet when they were putting dishes and stuff away.
I don’t advocate drinking them, but I might taste them, and spit it back out. But first I’d try to sell them to collectors, or possibly those who would taste them for others. If the latter, maybe see if you could keep one bottle to taste for yourself. Or at least open and smell.
I checked on eBay. They have six packs of Classic Coca-Cola from 1996 for sale. And some of them are going for good prices. They mostly seem to be six packs that have some special commemorative theme like a World Cup, a Super Bowl, or NASCAR but some appear to just be basic six packs.
So check it out and consider if it’s worth the effort of selling them. If you don’t want to do it yourself, there are a lot of places that will sell items on eBay for you for a share of the money.
As for drinking them, my personal rule of thumb is to not consume anything that isn’t from the current millennium.
A friend has a couple of six packs of some sort of Coke commemorate edition in plastic bottles. The bottles have crumpled and half-evaporated over the years even though never opened.
That reminds me of a co-worker from years ago who had an overseas relative who collects Coca-Cola cans of various designs. I remember that the co-worker was bringing some cans on a trip home.
I don’t know how people feel about vomiting, but heres a video of what happens if you drink a 20 year old bottle of pepsi
Is it possible the coke had some sentimental value they’ve now forgotten? When I was younger I used to collect receipts from sentimental things (family dinners, going to a movie with friends, things like that). if someone saw them they’d just assume they were trash.
Who knows, they may be valuable when your grandchildren get to be your age. And who knows, if they survive the apocalypse scientists can use them to reverse engineer the Coke formula.
Go to a supermarket that sells similar bottles and secretly leave these on the shelf. You won’t be there when someone discovers them but you know they’ll find it amusing.
