What Happens When You Let a Glass of Soda Sit Out for 3 Months? This Timelapse Shows You (and It's Not Pretty)

Photo by Kous9 on Unsplash
Photo by Kous9 on Unsplash | Photo by Kous9 on Unsplash

Given enough time, (almost) everything we consume goes bad. That includes sugary beverages like cola. The timelapse video below, spotted by Nerdist, shows the transformation a glass of soda goes through when left to sit out at room temperature. Be warned: It's not pretty.

The experiment comes from Temponaut Timelapse, a YouTube channel that specializes in documenting the decomposition process of various foods. For this video, they filled a glass with cola and ice, garnished it with a lemon slice, and let it sit undisturbed for 105 days.

The changes that take place in the first week are minor. This ice melts, the lemon shrivels, and the liquid slowly evaporates. But things take a nauseating turn on day eight. At this point, fuzzy patches of blue-green mold start to form on the walls of the glass. The spots grow bigger as the days pass, and by the three-month mark the cup contains more mold than soda. After putting away whatever you're drinking, you can watch the full timelapse below.

As Temponaut Timelapse's channel demonstrates, not all foods decompose in the same way. Some items show signs of spoiling after a few days on your counter, while others stay intact for a suspiciously long time. Experts are still learning about the decomposition process of some popular foods; when a mummified Twinkie was discovered recently, scientists couldn't identify the fungus responsible for its decay.