Coffee Puck: Heats In Your Hands

By JULIETTE ROSSANT This week, The Los Angeles Times became the first major newspaper to report on a new technology application that may once again do its little part to make life more pleasant -- and yours truly, Wolfgang Puck, will be there to help make it happen. OnTech, a California-based company, is launching a new self-heating can for drinks. Among the first products to employ the new technology are new Wolfgang Puck coffee drinks, to be sold in Kroger grocery stores nationwide in January 2005. (If you're asking yourself, "Why Kroger?", the answer is simple: the Cincinnati-based Kroger owns Ralph's, a more upscale grocer in California and already a Wolfgang Puck ally.) It isn't often that we change the technology we use to prepare food with -- the microwave is perhaps the most recent newfanglement (a development most eloquently discussed by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto in his best-selling book from The Free Press entitled Near A Thousand Tables, which I used as a background source for Super Chef). OnTech's cans use an inner canister filled with calcium oxide to heat beverages upon activation. If you've ever mixed cement, you are essentially mixing crushed limestone with water. Basically, you push on the can to release a set amount of water to mix with a set amount of limestone, turn it over, and wait -- no shaking or stirring. Temperature is controled simply by the measured quantities of water and limestone. Simple, right? Why didn't you or I think of it? OnTech describes this process step by step with an online slideshow. Oh, and get this: they call the water container a "puck" -- because of the shape, of course. OnTech's co-inventor and co-founder, VP Business Development Daniel Gibbs told me by phone yesterday that OnTech had entered negotiations with Wolfgang Puck Worldwide (WPW) after being introduced by one of OnTech's investors. WPW moved quickly and was able to get in on the technology, which has also been sold to several much larger food companies that will launch their products in the very near future. OnTech is already fully funded (sorry, investors), while its package manufacturer, Sonoco, whom it signed up in May 2004, has already scheduled production at capacity. Gibbs said that OnTech's ACNielsen research revealed that the new self-heating container would apeal to people 18-65. As for Wolfgang Puck, he is known for venturing into uncharted territory. He was the first super chef to launch frozen gourmet pizza (see Super Chef, pp. 24-35), the first to get into franchising his fast casual units (Super Chef, pp. 27-47), and now first food producer to use this self-heating container. Will Wolf's coffee appeal to, say, truck drivers, soccer moms, or hip "tweens"? Could the days of waiting for a fresh brew at Starbucks be over? And more importantly, will it help to push anything "Puck" into consumer's hands? Stay tuned for the January launch -- and get ready to ditch that Starbuck mug for a WP coffee can. Meanwhile, don't forget to keep a look out for the OnTech label on more and more products (talk about branding!) Previous articles: Fly With Wolfgang Puck Express Les Enfantes Terribles devient terriblement vieux All Hail Alfred Portale World Series Chefs Serve Baseball Chef Branding: B&G Foods Exposes Emeril? Nick Valenti: Super Chef Master? And Now Puck Paints, Two! Wolf Wines & Dines, or Puck's Party Euro Puck Puck in a Box Wolfgang Puck Examines the Examiner -> back to superchefblog