'The following day, it won't be stale': A woman suggests placing this in your Coca-Cola can and refrigerating it overnight to maintain its freshness. Does it actually work?

In the late hours of the night, when the craving for a refreshing Coca-Cola or bubbly sparkling water strikes, you may find yourself concerned about whether you'll be able to finish that drink.

Similarly, the caffeine found in an entire can of soda can be excessive right before bedtime. However, a small sip of soda could serve as a perfect nightcap.

A TikTok user is asserting that you can preserve the freshness of drinks by incorporating a straightforward item into an open can before refrigerating it: a stainless steel tool. She recommends using a spoon, fork, or a reusable straw for this purpose.

In a TikTok video that has garnered more than 591,000 views, content creator @theuntamedherbalist reveals a method that can preserve soda or sparkling water for the next day.

"Have you heard that if you leave a soda or soda water unfinished before bedtime?" the TikToker starts off. "You can take a spoon, fork, or a stainless steel straw—make sure it's stainless steel—and place it in the can, then store it in the fridge. When you come back the next day, it will still be fizzy!"

The Daily Dot has contacted @theuntamedherbalist through a comment on TikTok concerning the video.

Is this method effective?

For quite some time, it has been suggested that placing a stainless steel spoon into a bottle of sparkling wine, like champagne, can help preserve its fizz when the cork cannot be reinserted into the bottle's opening.

The theory supporting this advice is based on the metal’s ability to help reduce the escape of carbon dioxide from the bottle or can.

The internet is filled with anecdotes of this trick working to preserve the sparkles in sparkling wine. But it might be a happy coincidence.

Disproved

But this doesn’t mean that the trick is necessarily an effective means of keeping carbonation in beverages. In these cases, according to the BBC, the fizz was likely to remain without the interference of a spoon.

According to the BBC, the "science" supporting the theory is not substantiated. An experiment revealed that using spoons had minimal effect on the amount of fizz remaining in the bottles.

The best way to preserve sparkling beverages, it turns out, is to prevent air from escaping the container. For wine bottles, a stopper or cork can achieve this pretty simply. For cans of soda, by virtue of how carbonated the beverage is to start with, simply placing the can in the fridge overnight should retain much of the carbonation.

Audience feedback

Many viewers believed that if there's only a single can, it ought to be consumed entirely or thrown away if it's not feasible to drink it all in one go.

"Not finish a soda?" one user commented. "I have no idea what that means!! Haha."

“Who’s out there leaving a can of soda unfinished?” someone else inquired.

“In this home, every drop of soda will be savored,” declared a third voice. “No can shall be left with any liquid inside.”

@theuntamedherbalist

To be honest, the most valuable advice I received about 15 years ago was...

♬ WELTiTA – Bad Bunny & Chuwi

Some people suggested a different approach: covering the top of an open soda can with aluminum foil, which could be more effective since it creates a tighter seal.

"One commenter mentioned, 'I utilize aluminum foil as a cover.'"

"Wow, I can't believe I've been doing this without realizing it using aluminum foil!" another user chimed in. "I just put it on top like a lid."

"Another user mentioned, 'Wrapping the top in aluminum foil also does the trick and functions just as effectively.'"