I recently received an e-mail message from a visitor concerning "ready-to-drink" coffee and tea. I didn't know he was talking about self-heating cans. I thought he was talking about iced coffee, or cold coffee in a can. I plead ignorance – innovations like hot coffee in a can wouldn't appear as quickly in my neck of the woods, the Philippines, as they would in Australia or the United States.

Research – Cold Coffee in a Can

If you're familiar with the Starbucks Frappucino line, you're probably also familiar with other coffee brands in a can. I've been familiar with them since 1987, when I was stationed on Okinawa. In fact, the canned coffee brand I popped out of vending machines was UCC Coffee.

As you may have guessed, I wasn't impressed when I returned to the United States in 1988 and found iced coffee in the local supermarkets. It was already old hat to me. Even when the Starbucks coffee started appearing everywhere (in bottles), I was less than enthusiastic about it.

Research – Hot Coffee in a Can

Since I missed the big start of hot coffee in a can, I had to do some research and I didn't know where to start until my e-mail contact mentioned Hot-Can. It was interesting information, to say the least.

The idea isn't new. Self-heating containers have been around since before World War II. What's new is the technology behind it, which was only developed within the last decade. An eye-opening article, "Kitchen in a can for people on the go", explains it very well.

I didn't see any hot coffee in a can products before I moved away from the United States and I haven't seen any since arriving in the Philippines. This tells me that they're just barely taking off. Well, since Nestlé joined in, and Nestlé Philippines is a prominent company in the Philippines, I expect that I'll find these products somewhere soon, even if I have to look for them specifically.

Price Points

I don't know how much the hot coffee in a can sells for. Since I buy most of my food at the Royal Subic store at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, I expect the price to be comparable to the prices in the US, Australia and New Zealand since they import from those places (among others).

It wouldn't do me any good to find the prices online – they may or may not even be close to what I would pay here. Nevertheless, I'm interested in taste testing some hot canned coffee as soon as I can.

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Whenever I shop at the Royal Subic store at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, I always stock up on coffee. I only shop there once a month, so you can imagine how much of any particular item I might buy at one time.

The problem I have is that when I enter the store's coffee and tea aisle, I tend to get stuck there, ogling all the different brands and kinds of coffee (and sometimes tea). I'm talking about everything from automatic drip coffee to canned coffee, locally produced and imported. Apparently, I'm not the only coffee lover to get stuck there at times because at least two other people were in the aisle, looking at coffee, for as long as I was. One of them was still there when I exited.

Café Time Coffee

Since I have a monthly food (and drink) budget that isn't very flexible, the only thing I can really do is taste test anything other than the coffee I normally stock up on. This time was the first time I saw this particular brand of canned coffee on the shelf.

Café Time Coffee is produced by the Apex Food Company out of Taipei, Taiwan. I bought two flavors, the french roast and the espresso. I checked out the ingredients before buying: Water, coffee, sugar and powdered milk. There's nothing unusual to be wary of.

I have since finished off both cans. The french roast tasted exactly like french roast should, but the espresso wasn't nearly as strong as I thought it would be. The cost was 80 cents (USD) for the french roast and 90 cents for the espresso, and at 11.5 fluid ounces each. This was far cheaper than anything Starbucks has to offer in the store and more liquid to add insult to injury. Do the Starbucks "frappuccino" flavors taste the same, worse or better? In my opinion, the Café Time Coffee tastes almost the same.

More Taste Testing

Next month, I plan to buy a couple of other brands of canned coffee. At this time, I have no idea which brands I'll select but I'll be steering clear of the brands I've already mentioned.

There are some really nasty-tasting coffee brands on the shelves at the Royal Subic and I hope I don't accidentally buy one or more of them since I can't remember which ones are which.

I guess I'll have to consider the luck of the draw when the time comes.

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