The AROMA-Can

Background of the AROMA-Can

Our fellow Americans and people all over the world love drinking their beverages.  The manufacturers of our favorite beverages spend millions developing their prized concoctions for us as they try to make theirs the one that we will choose the most, or they try to rule certain niche markets.  Soda pop, beer, wine, coffee and other drinks are truly savored sensory delights.  How sad then that we rarely ever experience these great beverages to their fullest.  Because of the limitations of the mass-produced ready-to-drink cans and bottles that today’s drinks are packaged in, we consumers have long settled for “not good enough!”  What a shame that manufacturers of these drinks are thus constrained to relatively narrow development criteria and cannot fully utilize their talents to create the ultimate beverages that stimulate our senses to the highest level attainable. 

What is it really that makes beverages so good?  The reality is that this pleasure is caused by input to the brain from our five senses.  Most people have been born into this world lucky enough to have use of these five senses.  Have you ever anticipated the pleasure to come from drinking a beverage by the sound of a beverage container being opened, and the sound that comes from the marvelous liquid within; the “pssst” you hear as a bottle or can is opened, that cool sound of the aluminum being ripped open on a can, and the “ssssss” you hear as the carbonation excitedly leaves the liquid?  What about the look of a beverage, the color, the texture, the arrangement of the key ingredients in the container?  The bubbles in a carbonated drink look like jewels as they escape.  In these phosphorescent elixirs, the bubbles form patterns and spirals in an upward direction and then climax in an excited splatter as they meet the air.  It gives a person emotional feelings of music, drama and art.  How ‘bout the tingly feel of those bubbles as they splatter coolly on your nose?  Are you anticipating a drink yet?  Are you taken by the cold touch of a can or bottle on a hot day… the warm feel of a mug on a cold morning?  Aren’t you just ready to guzzle?  By this time you are engulfed in excitation as you anticipate your first taste.

As an experiment, take a drink of your favorite beverage from a ready-to-drink can or bottle.  Mmm… tastes pretty good… not bad… but, not great.  Why not great?  What happened?  You’ve had this same beverage hundreds, maybe thousands of times.  Sometimes it was wonderful.  Can you think of those times when a beer, a glass of wine, a soda pop or a coffee drink was truly outstanding; times when the drink really accentuated your celebration of the occasion?  I remember some of those times.  Those memorable occasions were always times when I was drinking a cold beverage from a chilled glass, or a hot drink in a warm mug.  My nose was over the top of the glass as I took a drink.  The “aroma” was truly captivating and wonderful!

Of my favorite aromas, I can readily think of a few.  My favorite beer has an incredibly clean fresh smell of hops, malted grains and yeast.  Just like coffee, I think the smell of cola is heavenly.  Isn’t it true that sometimes the aroma of a beverage is more intoxicating than the taste?  Often aromas in beverages can be quite complex.  Connoisseurs and ordinary people alike revel in those colorful complexities.  More often than not, it is the aroma that compels us to seek something special to eat, or imbibe in a particular beverage.  The aroma invites us and whets our appetite, and we are often willing to pay extra and travel extra miles to seek out our favorite foods and drinks.

Taste and smell are very closely related, and fortunately for us, they are used simultaneously.  Taste as a sense is quite limited without being able to simultaneously smell the complementary aromas of foods and beverages.  Let’s try another quick experiment.  Next time you take a bite of a favorite food or taste your favorite beverage, plug your nose with your fingers.  Go….  quite blah huh?  The flavor with your nose plugged is dull and lifeless.  Why would we even bother eating or drinking this way?  But this is exactly what we do when we drink beverages from the current generation of mass-produced ready-to-drink cans and bottles they’re dispensed from.  But there is hope.  It’s time to make a relatively simple yet drastic change that has long been overlooked.

Enter the “AROMA-Can.”