The Case of the Leaky Case

I never imagined that my first dirty post would be about cleaning. However I have been on a mission to jettison 80% of my belongings, which means digging through the archaeological dig site that is my basement.
Ten years ago,  I bought a case of Halo 3 Mountain Dew Game Fuel (MMMM liquid Pixy Stix!). I suddenly had to move so the case got stuffed in a box. I ended up moving a half dozen times in just a few years. Most of my stuff has been sitting in boxes ever since as at first there hadn't been a point in unpacking, and then I learned to live without it all. Quite the liberating feeling, but you still have to make the effort to get rid of the physical bulk. Because you don't know what is in each box (e.g. high school yearbook? Xbox games?), that means a lot of sorting: sell, charity, garbage, keep... repeat.

Perhaps "fuel" was a tip that I should not store it

Yesterday I opened the box with that case of Mountain Dew. Or rather, the box that contained the cans. The box was a sticky, moldy mess of destruction and the cans were varying degrees of emptied. The only clue to what happened was that they all had crystallized pop around the can bottoms. I'm not adventurous enough to taste if it is like long-form rock candy.

 Once they pop, they won't stop.

I have no reason to believe this phenomena is limited to this brand, flavor or line. I don't want it to seem like I'm blaming it on the Mountian Dew. I'm guessing it's just a pop thing. As for these particular cans, it is not clear if this entire line had a manufacturing defect, if pop leakage is inevitable over time through the can seals, or if pop's metal-corroding ability far surpasses my expectation. Searching the internet reveals many theories on this. In the end, the only certainty is that YOU SHOULD NOT STORE POP LONG TERM. It's... messy.

Master Chief would rather not battle The Flood again.