The Weird Truth About Milk Coke

Have you heard about people mixing Coke and milk — and then drinking it? While this not-all-that-weird food fad is currently trending on Twitter, it's not something just dreamed up yesterday. People are always experimenting with wacky beverage combos, and Coke, after all, was first invented in 1886 (milk, of course, has been around since forever).

Fans of old sitcoms may remember the character Laverne (played by Penny Marshall, sister of director Gary) from the '70s TV show Laverne and Shirley. She was a fun-loving '50s gal who worked in a brewery, but whose own beverage of choice was Pepsi and milk. More recently, British comedian James Felton brought attention to this drink by tweeting about it, calling it "a real thing" (an obvious reference to Coca-Cola's advertising slogan). He also called it a "Brummie" thing — Brummies being people from Birmingham, the city in England's West Midlands region as opposed to the one in Alabama (where they prefer peanuts in their Cokes).

The weirdest thing about Milk Coke is probably how people are reacting to the idea. Despite the fact that mixing dairy and soda is widely popular in the form of root beer floats, Coke floats, and even root beer-flavored milk, numerous tweets still react to the idea of combining Coke with milk like it's something completely unheard of and mildly horrifying: "NO," "You monster," and "Unfollowed and reported to the police." 

There were, however, quite a few tweets from people who had tried Milk Coke, others who were willing to give it a go, and still others who drew the obvious parallel between milk and soda and ice cream floats.

One worry that some have expressed over the mixing Coke with milk is the possibility of it causing the latter to curdle, which is a legit fear seeing as how Coke is pretty acidic — about as acidic as lemon juice. While some Milk Coke fans claim that curdling doesn't happen, The Guardian's "faddy eater" columnist related that her Milk Coke, consumed for experimental purposes, did curdle after she'd left it on her desk for a while, so perhaps curdling, or lack thereof, depends on how quickly you consume your drink. Heavy helpfully points out that, should curdling happen, at least those curdled bits can be chewed or swallowed so, hey, it's no weirder than, say, mixing Coke with cottage cheese.