Outline
Circulating message warns that drinking Pepsi and eating Mentos together will lead to instant death because the mixture turns into cyanide poison.
Brief Analysis
The claims in the message are untrue. Combining Pepsi (or Coke) and Mentos will create a rather spectacular chemical reaction and consuming the two together might cause a stomach upset. However, there are no credible reports that support the claim that it could cause death or serious injury. And the claim that the products magically turn into cyanide is utter nonsense. The ‘warning’ is just a resurrected version of a very old hoax that first began circulating around a decade ago.
Example

Detailed Analysis
According to this rather breathless ‘warning’ message, drinking Pepsi after eating Polo or Mentos mints leads to instant death. The message claims that, when combined, the two products turn into cyanide poison, thus killing those who consume them. It asks that you pass on the information to as many people as possible to help keep them safe. To drive home the point, the message features images depicting the two products concerned along with a picture showing a young woman with blood around her mouth.
However, the warning is nonsense. Consuming the two products will not cause death as claimed.
To enhance your privacy and security and offer you a better user experience, Hoax-Slayer is now ad-free! Can you help us stay online?
Given the strength of the chemical reaction, it is perhaps not surprising that people might fear the possible health outcomes of eating Mentos and drinking cola together. But, despite the fact that the Coke and Mentos craze has been popular for at least a decade, there are no credible news or medical reports that support the idea that people have died or been seriously injured after eating the products. Moreover, there are countless YouTube videos depicting people actually consuming Mentos and cola without dropping dead or becoming seriously ill. Eating and drinking the products or holding them in your mouth might cause prolonged belching or projectile vomiting. You might come away with an upset tummy. It might end up rather messy. It is thus an experiment that people, especially children, should avoid because it may well cause distress and discomfort. But, it’s NOT going to kill you.
In fact, this would-be warning is just an updated version of much older ‘Coke and Mentos death’ hoaxes that have circulated since at least 2006. Discovery’s MythBusters TV show did a segment about the Coke and Mentos death myth some years ago and pronounced it ‘busted’.
And, of course, the suggestion that a mixture of Pepsi and Mentos can somehow turn into deadly cyanide poison is simply absurd. If potentially fatal quantities of cyanide could be produced by the casual combination of everyday products like cola and candy, then deaths by cyanide poisoning would be commonplace. And, there would also be official and well-publicised warnings about combining these supposed cyanide producing components.
Circulating such nonsensical health warnings helps nobody.
Since you’ve read this far…
…can I ask you for a big favour?To enhance your privacy and security and offer you a better user experience, Hoax-Slayer is now ad-free. To keep the site online, I now rely on voluntary contributions from site visitors along with commissions from a few trusted products and services that I promote via reviews on the site.
If you found the above report useful, please consider supporting Hoax-Slayer by making a donation. Any amount you can give will be greatly appreciated.
You can donate using your credit card via the form below. Donations are collected securely via the online payment service Stripe. Stripe uses state of the art security to keep your data safe.
Thank-you.
Brett Christensen