Because why buy 2-liters of Coca-Cola when you can spend a whole year and small fortune trying to make it yourself at home (do Mentos next!), this is a video documenting engineer Zach Armstrong’s quest to replicate the exact Coca-Cola formula. Zach uses mass spectrometry to determine the chemical composition of the drink, then does his best to mix the known ingredients. He does use tea tree oil as a substitute for the real soda’s “spent” (read: cocaine-extracted) coca leaves though (Coca-Cola still relies heavily on coca leaves for the soda’s flavor, and gets an extract from the New Jersey based Stepan Company, the only commercial entity in the United States permitted by the DEA to import coca leaves — some 100 metric tons a year — which it processing, selling the cocaine to pharmaceutical firm Mallinckrodt, and the cocaine-free extract to Coca-Cola). I don’t know about you, but I would have gone the extra mile and gotten the actual leaves. I mean, if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it right. “Is that why you don’t do anything?” I left the house yesterday. Day before yesterday? I’ve definitely been out in 2026 I think.