“How much sugar is in cola” experiment

How to detect sugar in classic and diet cola

The world’s most fa­mous drink is not as sim­ple as it seems! In this sim­ple ex­per­i­ment you will learn to de­ter­mine how much sug­ar is con­tained in cola.

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

This is a safe ex­per­i­ment. Be care­ful when work­ing with heat­ing de­vices.

Warn­ing! Only un­der adults su­per­vi­sion.

Reagents and equip­ment:

  • clas­sic cola;
  • diet cola;
  • pan;
  • spat­u­la;
  • hot­plate.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Pour the clas­sic cola into the pan and boil un­til all the liq­uid evap­o­rates. Then do the same with the diet cola. Com­pare the sug­ar con­tent in each of the drinks.

Pro­cess­es de­scrip­tion

Any cola con­tains var­i­ous sub­stances which give it a char­ac­ter­is­tic taste, aro­ma and col­or. The main in­gre­di­ents of clas­sic cola are sug­ar and wa­ter. As the wa­ter evap­o­rates, the mix­ture thick­ens and forms a black mass re­sem­bling tar. It main­ly con­sists of caramelized sug­ar. Diet cola (or cola with­out sug­ar) has no sug­ar in it. In­stead, it con­tains sug­ar sub­sti­tutes, which are much sweet­er than sug­ar, so a much small­er quan­ti­ty of them is re­quired to give the co­las the same sweet­ness. As a re­sult, we see a much small­er amount of residue than in clas­sic cola.

Try it