A Hungarian man turned a single hot-day purchase into a Guinness World Record after building a collection of 2,000 different energy drink cans from around the world.
UPI reported that Gergő Borbély holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of energy drink cans, a stash that now numbers 2,000 different cans and is still growing.
The hobby did not start as a grand plan. It started on a sweltering August day in 2008, when Borbély had only been living in his dormitory for a few days and wanted something cold and carbonated.
He told Guinness World Records he walked into a small nearby shop and found only one suitable option in the fridge: a Hell energy drink. He had never tried an energy drink before. He bought it, liked it, and began trying others.
"It was a very hot August day, and I had only been living in my dormitory for a few days. I found a small shop nearby and went in looking for something cold and carbonated, but the only suitable option in the fridge was a Hell energy drink. I had never tried an energy drink before, so I bought one. I liked it, so I started trying other energy drinks,"
Back then the market was thinner. Brands and flavors were limited. Most drinks, he said, stuck to the classic tutti-frutti taste in regular or sugar-free form.
Cans piled up in the plain dorm room. He nearly hauled them to recycling. Then he stopped, kept one of each design, and put about 15 cans back on the shelf because they looked good together and added color to the space.
"The cans simply started piling up in my dorm room. After a while, I decided to take them to recycling, but while sorting them, I changed my mind and put one of each different can back on the shelf. There were around 15 of them, they looked good together and added some color to an otherwise rather plain dorm room, so I kept them,"
What began as shelf decoration became a serious collection. On later trips he brought cans home from Japan, the United States, and across Europe. The set now includes rare pieces such as Michael Jackson Mystery energy drinks from the 1990s and an old Guarana can made in Yugoslavia, a country that no longer exists.
Borbély finds that last can especially interesting for exactly that reason. The collection’s path from a handful of dorm-room cans to a certified world mark also fits a familiar Guinness pattern of odd, highly specific achievements, much like the spread of unusual titles covered when Guinness World Records 2027 features everything from tiny cars to heavily tattooed record holders.
He is blunt about how improbable the whole arc once seemed.
"If someone had told me in 2008 that those few cans would one day lead to a Guinness World Records title, I definitely would have laughed,"
He is not finished. The record stands at 2,000 different cans, and the collecting continues. Other recent Guinness marks have likewise rewarded single-minded focus, whether a Slovenian stuntman’s flaming handstand timed to the second or friends racing a Lego build against the clock.
Large group spectacles make the book too. Nevada hosts have packed water parks with dogs for a pool-party mark, and a Guinness dog pool party claim showed how quickly a quirky idea can scale when people simply show up and do the work.
Age is no barrier either. A Scottish grandmother earned her own gaming title as the oldest female Fortnite streamer, proof that persistence and a clear personal goal still cut through noise better than any committee plan.
Borbély’s story is smaller in spectacle and larger in patience: one can on a hot day, a decision not to recycle everything, years of travel, and a shelf that outgrew the dorm. No subsidy. No mandate. Just a private habit kept long enough to become official.
While politicians argue over what adults should be allowed to buy, drink, or display, a Hungarian collector quietly proved that free people still build remarkable things one ordinary choice at a time.
