Another stoopid hot day on the way. Got up early and did a bit of work outside -- tacked up the in-need-of-replacing fence in a couple of spots, replaced the lawnmower blade, watered some plants. Yes, I know... the excitement of a Saturday in Durham fairly leaps off the page at you, doesn't it? But now it's definitely into the part of the day where it's time to not be doing anything outside. So let's move on to Things In Cans: episode 2. This morning's featured item is Wolfgang Puck Gourmet French Vanilla Latte, in the new self-heating can. Yep, a self-heating can. You turn the can upside down and push in a button. That apparently mixes some chemicals in a sealed central core inside the can, which heats up the latte -- label says to over 140F, but I didn't measure the results. Obviously, this is wildly appealing to the inner gadget-geek. And the coffee's not bad. Hardly a match for Bean Traders. But it's pleasant, drinkable, caffeinated and, at least in the French Vanilla version, sweetened with Sucralose. I found it much less noxiously sweet than the Starbuck$ bottled Frapuccino. A bit spendy, at least originally. When it showed up at Kroger it was around $9 for 4 cans. But either they're promoting it to push sales, or it's getting ready to be disco'd cos it was down to around $5 when I bought it.
Oh I should probably also point out that this thing is an environmentalist's nightmare. In addition to the heating core, the can's also completely sleeved in plastic (so you can hold it when it gets hot) and then has a label (printed on some kind of plastic) over that.