Does This TikTok Hack Really Make Ginger Ale?
Everyone loves a good hack. Show us a quick fix that makes our lives even a little bit easier — bonus points if it's delivered in an entertaining way — and we'll give you all the social media love. TikTok user crawking has one for the masses. In one of his high-energy videos, he claims "I was today years old when I learned that when you mix just a splash of Coke with Sprite ... you get ginger ale."
But, does the hack work? Let's examine the evidence. First, there's the color, presumably of the two sodas mixed together. In the post, crawking flashes the camera the contents of his cup and says, "Bro, look at the color, just look at the color." That color looks darker than ginger ale, so that doesn't exactly track. But, up next on the evidence block is the cooking apron crawking is wearing in the video coupled with the fact that he is in what looks like an industrial storeroom, both suggesting that he may work in some professional restaurant capacity, potentially making him a good expert on the subject matter. Lastly, he's wearing glasses, and, frankly, who wouldn't trust someone wearing glasses?
But, does Coke mixed with Sprite taste like ginger ale?
In the video, crawking calls another TikTok team to try and bust the hack, "Yo, even partyshirt can't even shut this one down" he taunts cheerily. The duo behind partyshirt, whose members go by Ivy and X, was up to the challenge. In their video response, they did a not-so-blind taste test using Canada Dry ginger ale and concluded that the Coke-Sprite mix tasted the "exact same" as the ginger ale. Bazinga!
Judging by the responses on TikTok, this finding wasn't surprising for a lot of people. If you've ever worked in the bar or restaurant industry, then you may have even used the trick to make your own restaurant ginger ale. As one TikTok user pointed out, George Costanza even thinks about the hack on one episode of "Seinfeld," believing the coffee shop was giving him a Coke and Sprite mix instead of ginger ale but having no one way to prove it (via YouTube). If you want to try the soda swap yourself, there's a suggested ratio over on The College Gourmand calling for a mix of 70% Sprite and 30% Coke to get that ginger ale taste. Whether you just learned the hack today, or you were already in the know, the info might just come in handy the next time you don't want to miss the previews and your AMC theater's Coca-Cola Freestyle machine is out of Seagram's.