Top 5 April Fool’s Day food or drink hoaxes

April Fool’s Day hoaxes have been around for more than a century. Here are five of the best involving food or drink:

1. Swiss Spaghetti Harvest (1957): The BBC reports Swiss farmers are enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop, showing footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands from trees. Hundreds of viewers call the BBC to ask where they can get trees.
2. Taco Liberty Bell (1996): Taco Bell announces it has bought the Liberty Bell and renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged people call Philadelphia’s National Historic Park, home of the bell, to complain.
3. Left-Handed Whopper (1998): Burger King advertises the “Left-Handed Whopper” – with all its ingredients rotated 180 degrees – as a menu addition. Thousands of customers try to order the new sandwich that day.
4. Guinness Mean Time (1998): Guinness announces an agreement with the observatory in Greenwich, England, to rename Greenwich Mean Time as Guinness Mean Time. London’s prestigious Financial Times runs the story.
5. Thomas Edison’s Food Machine (1878): The New York Graphic newspaper announces Thomas Edison has invented a machine that could turn soil into cereal and water into wine. Newspapers throughout America report the story.