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Two new packaging ideas for coffee and wine offer solutions in search of a problem.
Coffee. Wolfgang Puck's latte coffees, $9 per four-pack of espresso, mocha, caramel, or French vanilla flavors, come in self-heating cans that you activate at the touch of a button. The manufacturer, OnTech, says the cans are great for outings such as camping.
Here's how it works: Water is released into a sealed core of quicklime, which produces heat. Six minutes later, we had 10 ounces of latte heated to a steamy 146[degrees]F. The can stays warm for an hour. Our taste testers found the drinks very sweet, with flavors of cooked milk, artificial sweetener, and hints of coffee.
But there's a catch: You must store the cans at room temperature. When we put two in a refrigerator to simulate the kind of cold day when you might covet a latte, it never got above a tepid 108[degrees].
And when we left a few in a car on a 70[degrees] day, the latte reached a scalding 190[degrees]. Another nit: a ...