The Beginning

Diet Coke and Mentos: How it All Began
The now world-famous Diet Coke and Mentos video started in the tiny town of Buckfield, Maine, population about 1,700. It was there that Stephen Voltz (the tall, bald one on the left) walked into the home of his friend Fritz Grobe (the short bearded one on the right) and asked “have you heard what happens when you drop Mentos into Diet Coke?” They had to try it immediately, and once they did, they knew instantly that they had to see how far they could take it, since that’s the kind of thing they do.

The next night they performed a small, 10 bottle fountain during a show at the Oddfellow Theater, their home base in Buckfield. The response was so huge that they knew they had to make a really big version and take it to the world.

After six months of work exploring every different Diet Coke and Mentos effect they could think of, they posted the now classic “Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiments” on their website, Eepybird.com, the morning of Saturday, June 3, 2006. Within hours they had tens of thousands of views, and first thing Monday morning, The Late Show With David Letterman called, wanting to book them. The next day the Conan O’Brien Show called, the day after that National Public Radio called, and things only sped up from there. At one point Alexa.com, which tracks these things, reported that Eepybird.com, was the third fastest growing website on the planet – behind only the Windows Vista website and the FIFA World Cup website.

Since then, Stephen and Fritz have performed their Diet Coke and Mentos fountains live all over the world, from Istanbul to Paris, from London to Las Vegas, and almost everywhere in between. They’ve done videos in conjunction with the Blue Man Group, with Barenaked Ladies, and with the band Weezer (the Grammy-winning Pork & Beans).