A TikToker shared a seemingly innocuous video about something she learned in Italy, and it quickly went viral — but not for the reason she expected.
On June 28, Californian creator Andoeni posted a 14-second TikTok in which she shares a tip she learned while traveling abroad that she thought she would share with her audience.
“One of my favorite things I learned while in Italy,” Andoeni says in the video while she prepares her drink sitting outside at a table. “Squeeze a lemon into a cup of ice, mix it with Coca-Cola. It’s literally so refreshing. Cheers!”
With over 13.7 million views and 791,000 likes, the short video has received an overwhelming amount of hate. People were quick to point out that pairing lemon slices with Coke is far from a new thing, and that Diet Coke commonly comes with a slice of lemon in restaurants and bars. In fact, the company itself has officially paired the flavors of Coke and lemon in Coca-Cola Freestyle’s Lemon flavor.
“Ummm it’s never been a secret,” wrote one user in one of the top-liked comments.
“this has been a thing since at least the 70’s...😂😂😂,” commented another, while someone else wrote, “Na ur next level stupid surely.”
“The other day I put salt on my food. It was incredible,” wrote one jokester. “Try salt next. Game changer.”
To be fair, however, other folks have noted in the past that they weren’t familiar with this particular flavor combo, especially in the States. And there were some commenters who stepped in to defend Andoeni.
“I don’t understand the negativity of the comment section,” wrote one user, while another said, “u guys have to chill likeeeeee is it a big deal that she just discovered it 🤸♀️.”
Of course, there’s always more to the story than what you see on TikTok.
“I started going to Italy in 2021 and that’s when I learned about it,” Andoeni, who asked that we only use her first name to protect her identity, tells TODAY.com. The San Diego-area resident says she spends a few months out of the year abroad because her boyfriend lives in Italy. “I’d be served a lemon wedge with Coca-Cola over there, and that actually has never happened personally to me in the U.S.”
Andoeni, who works in marketing for a period care company, mostly posts travel videos as well as menstruation-related content to her TikTok, so it came as a bit of a surprise that this was the video that went viral.
“I post once a day and I think that day specifically, I didn’t have anything to post,” she says, adding that the simple tip is just something she loves to do, so she decided to share. “It literally took me like 30 seconds to record and upload it and I just kind of forgot about it.”
Though Andoeni posted her clip back in June, it got a recent viral boost when popular TikToker Jordan the Stallion Stitched her video to his 11 million followers on Sept. 19. Trying out the combo for himself, Jordan also states that he’d never heard of it and says, “I don’t like it, but I can’t stop drinking it,” garnering 17.5 million views on his own video. Most of his comments, on the other hand, are positive.
“This is the first time (a video of mine went) super viral — and got such haters like that. At first my instinct was, like, I wanted to respond to each of them. I was like, ‘What the hell? You guys don’t even know me,’” Andoeni says. “After a while, I honestly had to take a break from my phone because it was too much. People, Europeans were being so rude, just being a--holes, honestly.”
Andoeni has since posted responses to the haters as the comments continue to roll in.
“I’ve never seen people so pressed about such a stupid video,” Andoeni says with a laugh in the first follow-up video. “At what point is learning something new, no matter how simple it is, a crime?”
This, of course, isn’t the first time an American’s discovery abroad resulted in international internet furor. Earlier this month, Amanda Rollins, an American in Paris, posted a video about a “weird” thing the French do — put butter on sandwiches — which caused European uproar.
“butter on sandwiches....now lemon in cola...it seems world wide experiences seem to never make it to the usa 🤔 what is with that?!” asked one commenter on Andoeni’s video.
Rollins told TODAY.com she was handling the backlash to her viral video as well as could be expected, saying, “I don’t think people view the internet as a real thing. It’s like a toy. It’s like a game. It’s a place where people are dehumanized, that’s what I’ve noticed, maybe because I’m a creator.”
Andoeni feels the same way.
“I really just think that people are really just projecting,” she says, adding that while she enjoys the virality of the video, the comments reveal the darker side of social media. “You just gotta keep on going and just not take what people say on the internet seriously.”
