I have a very high appreciation for anything novelty, so when we stumbled across Hot-Cans ($3.50) in Target I had to try them. Mum grabbed the Cafe Latte and I chose a favourite, Hot Choc.
We carried these around for a few hours while we finished our shopping, then headed down to the water for a coffee break. The day was right, cool and overcast; we even attracted some on-lookers curious to see canned hot drinks!?
So how does this work? Well, the cans are cold to touch when you buy then, and are stored at room temperature until required. Then the fun begins! Crack the seal on the bottom, press in the base and an exothermic reaction begins that warms the whole can up. Leave it to sit for 3 minutes while you feed chips to the pelicans,
and you have quite a hot drink ready to go wherever you are.
Taste wise, yeah, not so great. The latte was deemed awful, and thrown away before finished, but still thought OK for the convenience and the ability to get a warm drink anywhere.
The Hot Choc was better, nice tasting but a bit thin and watery. I had a moment of alarm when I saw that each can contained 190g of sodium, the can was only 210mL, but as I am yet to have any cardiac problems, I think it was a typo...
So overall it's a great idea, cheap and easy and because of the convenience, the situations where they can be used are numerous. Potentially I think you would have to really be hanging for a coffee to drink it normally.


No pelicans were harmed in the making of this post.