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I like my Coca-Cola cold, so I often put it in the freezer for twenty minutes - yes, I'm impatient. But I'm also forgetful, so it happened several times that the cola got frozen. When this happens to juice, it's no problem, but cola loses the dissolved carbon dioxide after freezing.

The same thing also happens often in autumn when first frost attacks our balcony storage, freezing anything that's on the balcony.

I did not open the bottle last time it happened. I can feel it's very pressurized. Can I force the aerial carbon dioxide back in the drink before opening the bottle?

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  • This appears to be a carefully-conducted science experiment: youtube.com/watch?v=7P-m3huhN7Y Other than this, you can buy special tops that go on the bottle. Also, I've heard squeezing the bottle so all the gas is initlally let out helps with storage.
    – user3791372
    May 10, 2016 at 11:58
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    Use an alarm timer. You probably have one on your stove, watch or phone. I use an old style wind-up timer to supplement my old-timer memory. Be careful with glass bottles - they can explode. It is no fun cleaning beer slurpee and broken glass from the freezer.
    – Keith McClary
    May 19, 2016 at 21:16
  • @KeithMcClary Does Coke come in glass anymore? Beer slurpee… yum.
    – Stan
    May 13, 2018 at 23:49
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    @user3791372 You heard wrong. Squeezing the bottle reduces the pressure and allows more CO2 to escape from the carbonated beverage. Better to add volume, replacing the removed liquid, to reduce the air-space with something that cannot be compressed.
    – Stan
    May 13, 2018 at 23:53
  • @Stan: I assume his soda bottles are the plastic ones, rather than glass. When freezing liquids in glass bottles there is the risk of explosive cracking of (ridgid, nonflexible) glass when frozen (since ice expands), while plastic bottles give slightly, reducing chance of rupture as well as not creating flying glass shards.
    – Mark Ripley
    Jul 26, 2019 at 10:00

4 Answers 4

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If you do not open the bottle (i.e. don't allow any CO2 to escape), thaw out the bottle so it is liquid again, and then wait long enough, the high CO2/gas pressure will eventually drop as the CO2 goes back into the liquid/cola. If you open the bottle too soon after thawing it, it will act just as if you had shaken the cola bottle and you will get a large CO2 gas escape and not as much fizz/CO2 in the cola. This all assumes that the freezing didn't raise the CO2 pressure so high that some of the CO2 escaped while the bottle was frozen.

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  • How wold you define / guestimate "long enough" in this case?
    – Stephie
    May 10, 2016 at 10:25
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    I would guess that leaving the bottle unopened for a few days after bringing it back to room temperature would be enough. This is a golden opportunity for !!Science!!; freeze a dozen bottles, thaw them, then open one every 12 hours until you get one that hasn't lost it's fizz.
    – Mark Ripley
    May 12, 2016 at 8:57
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    Looking forward to the edit with the results! (I predict a lot of upvotes in this case)
    – Stephie
    May 12, 2016 at 9:00
  • Once CO2 leaves it never goes back into drink. This is a wrong answer.
    – dzh
    Sep 10, 2020 at 6:15
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Recharge the drink

Easiest and most efficient way to rehabilitate flat soft drinks is to use a CO2 gasifier such as the SodaStream™ to reintroduce carbon dioxide under pressure.

It works with plain water. It will work with Coke™ so you don't have to use what is left-over to clean pots, pans, and toilets. You can drink it.

The liquid beverage remains the same delicious, patented, caffeinated, high-fructose corn syrup saturated, phosphoric acid-laced junk drink. All you need to do is carbonate the flat liquid.

Pour cold flat Coke™ into the reinforced container as give it a few blasts of carbon dioxide with the SodaStream™.

Done. Your first re-habilitated cold re-freshing Coke™ only cost you U$79.99

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  • I did that few times, but Soda stream is not probably meant for that as the coke made it dirty and sticky. But it kinda worked.
    – Tomáš Zato
    Jun 11, 2018 at 12:24
  • "If it works with Water It will Work With Coke" Absolutely False, I never owned a Soda Stream instead i owned its great Great Great Grand daddy called Soda Mystic which is the exact same thing. There is a Reason You Carbonize the water alone then add syrup to flavor. Adding Syrup before hand causes the pop to fizz up as its carbonated causing pressure build up and explosion off of the connection Trust Me I Don't Think I Have Tons of Exp as a Fat 8 year old with Unlimited Pepsi Supply.
    – Garett Phalen
    Jun 27, 2021 at 20:10
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I have another method you could use but this is 100% me thinking about your dilemma here..

My method is that you store the bottles in the fridge from now on and if you want it colder then put ice in a glass full of the pop/soda of your choice (I recommend anywhere between 2-4 cubes but it's really up to you) and voila, a cold refreshing drink. Be sure to drink it before the ice melts because it tends to taste a bit watered down.

This way you do not have to worry about forgetting the bottle in the freezer in the first place.

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    Have you ever used frozen glass marbles to cool a drink? They don't dissolve to dilute the drink and they're re-usable. Bright colours can be used for fun in the sun.
    – Stan
    May 14, 2018 at 0:34
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    Although marbles would work, I would use 'whiskey stones' instead, which are smooth polished rocks. Glass marbles that are exposed to rapid temperature changes (frozen, then added to warmer liquid) might shatter, and avoiding eating broken glass is a good thing.
    – Mark Ripley
    May 6, 2019 at 9:18
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I am of the opinion that you can not tap CO2,once the can is opened. One simple method, you can try is to put the can immersed in a bowl of water having normal room temperature with some weight put on it. This will make the cold can to come to normal. In between this process, you need to touch the can and identify if that coldness is sufficient for you. If so, remove it from bowl and use it.

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