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Self-Heating Coffee Hacking
ptorrone writes "Awhile back I wrote about the new Wolfgang Puck self-heating coffee containers that took 10 years and $24 mil to develop. Well, I managed to find them in a local store and bought them to take apart to see how they work. Once activated, they reach 145 degrees in about 6 minutes. This isn't a review of the beverage, it's all about the stuff that makes the liquid hot, how it works, pictures and links to patents. I am looking in to how these could be recycled too."
Practically first post.
A shot of espresso made with freshly roasted / ground beans and on a well maintained machine by a well trained barrista is the apex of coffee perfection and cannot be improved upon.
Why the hell such abominations as the Wolfgang Puck Gourmet Latte and just about everything they serve at Starbacks are permitted to exist is beyond me.
Well, I'm pretty sure you just answered your own question about Starbucks. Starbucks ensures that all of its drinks are made on well-maintained machines by well-trained baristas. Thus achieving the "apex" of coffee perfection.
Oh, and lets not forget that there is more to coffee than that. One man's coffee, even if brewed nearly the same as another man's coffee, will taste different. Plus there are different blends and roasting time for different coffees. There are many factors that go into making Starbucks' drinks, and indeed Wolfgang Puck's Gourmet Latte, unique.
If you like what I've said here, and want to read more, go to http://www.krillrblog.com
I appreciate the Make post on how it works, but this product is taking throw away culture to an extreme. The convenience can't possibly be worth all the manufacturing and materials going into a single hot cup of cofee. And given the way it's packaged, there's no way you're going to reasonably recycle any of this. This is so wasteful it honestly offends me.
Methinks this earlier blog that analyzed the same device was perhaps even more informative. I trust this other blogger's explanation more because it's pictures look more attractive.
$7.00, ass
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
I'll say that I tried the stuff just for the Shiny Factor ("Oooh! Shiny!"), and shockingly, it's not tremendously bad. I've had much, much worse cups of candy-coffee crap fresh from the spouts of the art wankers and the pimply-faced youths manning coffee machines at various coffeehouses and restaurants across the nation. For candy-coffee crap in a can, well, it's what you get, you know?
I had the mocha latte, and, well, it tasted like coffee, cream, sugar, and chocolate stuff made by some jackass college kid with a bad haircut.
But yeah, so, now - the next step is to figure out how to recycle the fucking things. They're like ten pounds each and the size of my left testicle - freaking huge. Feels kinda wrong to just toss them away.
The cans too, I mean.