...It still works, but the shoulder buttons and the d-pad stick, and have to be depressed several times before they loosen up. They get stuck again after every play session, and the process repeats itself. Also, that button at the top center (what the hell is that for, anyway?) sometimes get stuck in the 'depressed' position.

Any ideas on how to go about cleaning the sugary coffee mess out of its innards?

Get Monster Hunter Tri with Classic Controller Pro

Not recommended, but spill soapy water on it?

already pre-ordered the non-bundled version from Play-Asia. Don't think I can cancel that order and still use the coupon I plugged in for it. 

I think I'm just going to disassemble it and clean it off as best I can. Here's hoping.

I've heard rumours that you can run a keyboard through a dishwasher, let it dry for several days, and it might work properly after that. No guarantees, but worth a shot if you're desperate.

Using detergent is a bad idea. Pure water is less likely to wreck something.

If you're going to open it up, rubbing alchohol and cotton swabs are the way to go.

My gamecube controller survived an accidental dunking in water plus disinfectant. I just made sure it was totally dry before I tried it (left it in the warm air for a couple of weeks).

Strangely enough, it did pretty well, because it dissolved all the icky grime in the mechanics of the analogue stick.

Kids may sneeze in front of the classical controller, throwing a little salive over it.

Real man spit coffee on it xP

Taking it apart to clean it is probably your best bet. Alternatively, buy a new CC and return your soiled one in its place. Unethical, but maybe you want to go that route.

Something worth mentioning is that Nintendo stuff uses triwing screws in their hardware. You need a triwing screwdriver or bit before you can open it.

open it and clean it all with a cotton qtip and some rubbing alcohol. this is so effective it could even remove resin from a motherboard without any damage -_-

**Update**

Cracked her open, cleaned her out completely. Moist cotton swabs worked well. Haven't tried it out yet, because I want to give it time to completely dry first. Avoided the electronics for the most part, just cleaned the plasticky bits. Feels brand new. Surprisingly easy to do. Felt so confident about it afterwards, ripped apart a nunchuck that had developed a little rattling sound. Wasn't too surprised to find a small piece of plastic had broken off after what must have been a particularly intense gaming session. Works like a charm, rattle is gone.

I had better stop while I'm ahead though. Don't want to get too confident and start pulling apart shit that I won't be able to put back together.