Coming Soon: Self-Heating Coffee

prostoalex writes "In 2005 Wolfgang Puck will start selling containers of self-heating coffee, USA Today says. The combination of calcium oxide and water will heat the coffee to 145 degrees and keep it warm for the next 30 minutes. The coffee will be sold in regular grocery stores, and folks at Fool.com tell Starbucks to watch out as this product, coming from a well-known chef, might target those of us grabbing a cup of hot latte on the way to work."

Comments

already done

[monkey_jam]

we have these in the UK. They taste about as good as warmed up cold coffee. Which is basically what it is....

Re:already done

[DrXym]

Exactly. I recall seeing Nescafe self heating cups. Think coffee which has been left in a themos overnight and then reheated.

Of course, if the container were to split the coffee from the water until you heated it, it might not be so bad. But even that seems hardly different to me than buying some instant crap from a vending machine. Except of course the vending machine gives you a coffee instantly, rather than fumbling around in the cold trying to activate the device and then then waiting several minutes for it to be even drinkable.

Re:already done

[Golias]

The point of Starbucks (or, in Minnesota, Caribou and Dunn Bros.) was never the coffee. You can get coffee anywhere. Every office has coffee, and there are plenty of coffee vending machines.

The point of coffee shops is leaving the office for ten or twenty minutes.

Most Americans are non-smokers, so making a "coffee run" is one of the few excuses the typical American worker has for getting out of the building for a little while. It's a six-dollar mini-vacation.

So I don't think the executives at Starbucks are losing sleep over cold coffee that you re-heat with hand warmers built into the can.

I could see it being popular with hunters, though. Having hot coffee in the deer stand without needing a big thermos could have some appeal.

Re:already done

[mobiGeek]

The point of Starbucks (or, in Minnesota, Caribou and Dunn Bros.) was never the coffee. You can get coffee anywhere.

Speak for yourself(s). For us up here, Tim Ho's is all about the coffee...coffee...coffee....mmm-wwwha-ha-ha-ha!!

10 minute break? How can you even get started without it???

:-)

Re:already done

[clickety6]

The point of coffee shops is leaving the office for ten or twenty minutes.

In Europe we call that a coffee break. In the US they call that a vacation! ;-)

Replace Starbucks, I don't think so...

[philbowman]

I've tried the version available in Europe, and even allowing for the fact it's Nescafe to start with, it can't be described as even vaguely resembling coffee. Might be worth having in the car for emergencies, but it wouldn't replace anyone's daily coffee if they have any taste buds.

Re:gah

[Zog The Undeniable]

To state the obvious, the coffee doesn't generate its own heat (or it would be full of slaked lime, which might impair the flavour). The lime and water, to produce the heat, are in a jacket around it.

6 Minutes to heat up

[Wheely]

I don't quite understand how that can be a time saver. My kettle takes about a minute. I do realize that I then need to be less productive in other areas for about the five seconds it takes to pour the water in the mug and stir.

why is starbuck's the benchmark?

[rm -rf /etc/*]

Starbuck's is ok, but I always got the impression that they are the big name because of marketing and locations rather than having a really great product. Why are they always the benchmark that everyone tries to meet or beat? Their coffee is ok, but nothing special. If you can find a local coffee shop that roasts beans on site and grinds them fresh for your cup, you'll get a much better cup of coffee, potentially cheaper than starbucks.

As for this coffee in a can... Well, I can't imagine how good it would really be. It will probably be ok, given that it's going for a lattle, most likely flavored and sweetened. I don't think this could work for a plain old cup of coffee, but for a coffee drink with milk and flavoring it will probably mask enough of the stale coffee flavor to be drinkable.

Re:why is starbuck's the benchmark?

[adamjaskie]

Starbucks, while it is not great coffee, is significantly better than the brown water that most of us Americans are used to drinking at home. Remember that the average cup of coffee in America is still made with coffee from companies such as Folgers or Maxwell House. The coffee is purchased preground, in a one kilo tin, and sits on the counter kept nice and warm by sunlight for the six months it takes to be finished off by people that brew coffee with one teaspoon of grounds to every cup of water.

Re:why is starbuck's the benchmark?

[Hatta]

Same reason anything Linux or Apple does is compared to Microsoft. Starbucks and Microsoft both make crappy products with great marketing. Sure it's better if you grind your own(Linux), or visit the local non-chain coffeehouse (Apple), but when there's a Starbucks on every streetcorner (Microsoft's 90% market saturation), sometimes you just take the path of least resistance to get your fix(or work done).

Re:why is starbuck's the benchmark?

[Daytona955i]

I think Starbucks realized if you charge a lot of money for your product and call it better, yuppies will flock to it and become coffee snobs.

won't work

[BigBir3d]

Comparing this to Starbuck's is foolish. People go to Starbuck's so they can say they go there. And to be seen there.

Your average coffee drinker does not even realize that most all Starbuck's coffee is over roasted and made of inferior quality beans. The really scary thing; the quality of Dunkin Donuts coffee beans are higher than Starbuck's! I did not know this, but a coffee guru (bean tester and whatnot for major coffee companies) tells me it is true.

Re:But what does it taste like?

[adamjaskie]

*raises hand*

I'm addicted now, though. But I still love the taste, and moving from the halfway-decent coffee I usually drink to shitty cheapass Folgers coffee would be more torture than the money I would save would be worth.

Yuck

[CharAznable]

As a Costa Rican, the idea of instant coffee is insulting, let alone self-heating coffee.

Every time I go home, I bring a few months' supply of 100% pure Arabica beans. Here in the US good coffee is insanely expensive.

Re:Thats pretty hot

[Scarblac]

wow, thats pretty hot.. or are you still using fahrenheits?

Actually, it's rather cold. Assuming that a SI unit pedant would use Kelvin...

Mmmm, MREs

[jfengel]

Meals Ready to Eat, the US Army's replacement for it's old rations, usually come with a similar contraption: a wafer of material which is massively exothermic when combined with water.

It comes in a bag; you add water and then stuff your entree into the bag. The water comes to a boil (or at least apparently; it may just be hydrogen evolving from the reation, and they tell you not to use it in an enclosed place). The food goes from room temperature to way-too-hot-to-eat in a few minutes.

They recommend two of them if the food starts off frozen, but I've found that one will take it from rock-solid to tolerable (the things were designed to be eaten room-temperature as well.) It's not exactly luxury food, but it's incredible to have have hot food available almost instantly without having to carry cooking equipment or starting a fire.

Re:gah

[NardofDoom]

So that leaves... cows? No. Chickens? No.

Mmmm... alligator.

Woohoo! New grocery store prank

[Brento]

I can't wait to walk down the coffee aisle and surreptitiously push the "heat" button on dozens of cans of coffee. Muhahaha.

"Damn, I got another can of self-heating coffee that doesn't heat!" I can almost hear the recalls as we speak. Another global corporation out to kill my neighborhood coffee shop, foiled by little old me.

Old News

[Catmeat]

As others have said, self heating coffee has been available in the UK for 3-4 years. But using the Calcium Oxide/water reaction to heat food goes back at least 20 years. When I was a kid, self-heating cans of food were available for a while in camping shops.

Re:I will launch a competing product

[TeknoHog]

It will be composed of coffee grinds and francium. Just add water.

Now with extra alkaloids!

Re:Dunkin Donuts

[CharAznable]

I concurr. Dunkin Donuts has really good coffee.
The founder of Starbucks had a business insight:

1. Sell cheap coffee for 4 bucks. 2. ??? 3. Profit!
Step two being: Yuppies will buy it just to feel cool.

At What Point...

[shokk]

do people start breaking them open to see what's inside and spilling the boiling contents on their laps? Do they have a warning telling people not to do that? Or is self-responsibility considered more widespread across the pond?

"Look here, Cletus. This is what them's calls calcium oxi--- aaiiiiieeeeeeeee!!!!! Muh giblets!!"

Re:At What Point...

[Bearpaw]

At what point do people start breaking them open to see what's inside and spilling the boiling contents on their laps? Do they have a warning telling people not to do that? Or is self-responsibility considered more widespread across the pond?

More likely scenario: Someone who hasn't trimmed their fingernails down to the quick accidentally breaks it open, causing crippling third degree burns. After finding out that the company knew that this was a problem (from countless other similar accidents) but decided that keeping a corporate legal team was cheaper than redesigning the container, the customer managed to find a lawyer who hadn't sold their soul to a corporation. After that lawyer somehow manages to get the case into court despite the well-practiced tactics of the corporate team, a jury examines the evidence and awards the customers enough to pay their medical bills, plus a punitary award that seems large for an individual but is corporate pocket change. After multiple appeals by the corporate team, the settlement is whittled down to enough for the medical bills and free coffee for a year.

Meanwhile, politicians whose re-election coffers are fattened with corporate checks make a big deal about how "lawsuit happy" the country is, and -- once enough gullible people have bought into grossly exaggerated "examples" -- push for "tort reform". For some reason, "responsibility" isn't seen as a concept that should apply to corporations.

sooo...

[justforaday]

So, this thing produces a cup of something that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike coffee?

Nescafe launched this in 2001

[Animats]

This isn't new. Nescafe and the University of Southhampton developed this in 1998. Product launch was in 2001. Here are some reviews from 2002.

Nescafe Hot was a flop. "In 2002, Swiss beverage maker Nestle SA tested a self-heating can holding its Nescafe Hot When You Want coffee in England. But the company ended the trial run after several months, finding the can did not heat the liquid to a consistent temperature, said Nestle spokesman Francois-Xavier Perroud. "It didn't pan out," he said. Nestle is still interested in the idea, which it believes will be popular with consumers, but it is "not aware of a self-heating can that lives up to our expectations,"