mento bomb, redux

A recent post about my boy's foiled attempt to blow up the joint using candy and soda garnered quite a bit of helpful advice from my peeps, but none was better than my friend Mary's, who actually mentioned having in her actual possession an actual scientific apparatus intended solely for the purpose of combining mentos and coke into geysers.

Is there anyone better than Mary? 

Nope.

So naturally, we planned a gathering and we planned complementary cocktails.   

We headed over on a lovely afternoon over the weekend, and we got our science on.

It looks promising already, right?

Supplies, oh we had supplies. Mary and I both commented that we had felt the need to explain to the grocery clerk that we weren't going to drink that shit, we were buying it for science!!

And the infamous apparatus

The kids got right to work. My boy was first up. He opened the soda, screwed on the tube as instructed, and carefully set the pin before filling the tube with mentos

The pin was attached to a string, which when pulled would allow the mentos to fall into the coke  

and the reaction of the mint mentos and carbonated soda would cause a big bubbly geyser to burst forth from the neck of the soda bottle

Or, in this case, would just cause a fizzy mess of bubbles

Thank goodness our staging area was well stocked (our frosty drinks featured bananas from Mary's tree! Another pioneer!)

Mary's boy was up next for another attempt

It was like a spritzy shower

But we knew there was more potential here. So we ditched the actual scientific apparatus in favor of the actual scientific test tubes full of mentos that Mary had. Of course she did.

Meanwhile, I found that a strategically placed hole was the perfect spot to take photos without having to crouch.

My girl was first to try the test tube dumping method

and holy crap! a geyser! and a poorly staged photo

And a girl soaked by cascading diet coke

Mary's girl tried dumping the mentos right next to the soda, but then she decided to pick them up and try putting them inside

Nice one! The big moment was really hard to photograph, it was fast work!

My boy got another turn, and it was a really big one - this was taken just a second after the mentos dropped

We finally got wise and busted out the video for the final attempt

And then we got the money shot!

Their passion for science ignited, the kids continued concocting potions long after the combustive ingredients had been spent

Then they moved on to other endeavors....which could be another blog post, if you've got a strong stomach...

Thanks for the fun, Mary!!