Myth behind the explosion

All right, I'm sure most of you all have seen the diet coke and mentos explosion thing. But this one is damn CRAZY. If you watch it you'll see the coke FLYING 50 feet away......
What makes this drink and mentos so explosive? Some say because of chemical reaction, some say physical reaction that play a more important part in the explosion. Ok, this is what I come out with from a forum:
1. The arabic gum in the mentos allows the surface tension of the liquid to be broken more easily.
2. This allow the carbon dioxide trapped in the bubbles to be released very quickly which creates the pressure for the explosive 'fountain'.
3. This effect is enhanced by the fact that, as the candy dissolves, it forms nucleation sites(tiny pits on the surface of the mint where more carbon dioxide bubbles can form).
4. When all this gas is released, it thrusts the entire contents of the bottle skyward.
Once KWEI and I and sealyham tried to do this experiment. We used a normal coke and a pack of mentos. Unfortunately, we FAILED. WHY WHY WHY??