Can Coke cola rot?

[Barnabas]

I discovered this morning someone who lived in my house a month and a half ago left a bottle of coke cola in his closet, with more than half of the beverage.

I thought, whoa, good, so I put it in the refrigerator.

Well, now, I discovered the coke has a smell which reminds me of vinegar that recently opened coke bottles dont have

Should I drink it? or not?

[Imran Siddiqui]

It's gone flat. Don't drink it. It'll be nasty.

[SlowwHand]

Use good cola as a mixer, then switch to the flat. By then, you won't care.

[joncha]

lol drink it and find out LOL

[mrmitchell]

If it stays closed I've noticed it lasts up to a year beyond the date on the bottom of the can with minimal loss of carbonation.

When it's open, the lifespan we're talking about is hours, very short hours. Never drink an old, opened coke, but more important, no one should ever leave a coke unfinished.

EDIT: But yeah, open coke that's left in the open environment for weeks starts to get gunky and nasty beyond mere loss of fizz. Just throw it out, period.

[Sirotnikov]

It does sort of ... go bad / decomposes.

It has a "good before" date, and opening the bottle always shortens it a good deal.

[Kuciwalker]

Open coke might go bad eventually once it's flat, but if it's closed it'll stay good for a long time, due to its acidity.

[snoopy369]

Please note the above are all talking about "sugar/corn syrup" coke, not diet soda. Diet soda rarely lasts much beyond its 'sell by' date, as the shelf life (unopened) of nutrasweet or similar is about six months, tops. I've bought soda that was only a week or two past its sell by date and had it be fairly poor tasting (sort of bland tasting, just generally not sweet).

For best taste, diet soda should preferably be about a month before its sell by date. This is for plastic bottles, by the way, I don't know how cans work in this manner (but have had the same problems, just don't know if the dating is the same).

I don't know if open coke (nondiet) can go actually rotten. More than likely it just oxidizes. There's no protein of any form in coke, and the acidity is quite high, so I doubt anything could grow in it. But, oxidizing would ruin the flavor.

[Kuciwalker]

For best taste, diet soda should preferably be drunk about a month before its sell by date never.

Fixed.

[Skanky Burns]

Why would you want to drink coke that was opened at least a month ago? I mean, is there a major coke shortage on or something?

[b etor]

[LordShiva]

wjatevber mix it witbh cheap rum and oyu're all good

[Barnabas]

I threw the beverage into the toilet because of MrMitchell´s post

[Dis]

. best...thread...ever...

why would you want to drink it? He may have been using it as a spitoon. Does he dip? Not sure if that is popular in south america.

He could have ****ed off in it. Who the hell knows what's in that bottle. Are you that adventerous?

[Barnabas]

The someone was a woman