Coca Cola readying self-chilling soft drinks?
By Darren Murph 
posted Sep 17th 2007 3:33PM
posted Sep 17th 2007 3:33PM
And you thought non-stick chewing gum was the heat. Turns out, Coca Cola may be plotting a new version of Sprite that actually chills itself upon opening. Apparently, the drink has to be kept at a specified temperature before being snapped up, and once the oh-so-thirsty consumer pops the top, "a mechanism inside creates ice made from the drink, so it is not diluted." Reportedly, the beverage would sensibly be called Sprite Super Chilled, and if it does indeed hit the UK (and prove successful) by "early next year," the technology could then be passed along to Coke, Diet Coke or even "super cold alcoholic drinks, particularly beers."[Via Tech Digest]
And then someone will claim it causes cancer....
No it will just continue circulating throughout your body till it lowers your core temperature, at which point you die of "brain freeze".
i figure that the increased consumption of Sprite this will cause will give you cancer. Let alone the alcoholics it will create if they can do the same with beer.
True.
"the drink has to be kept at a specified temperature"
What? Why not just avoid all the complication and make that "specific temperature" like 40f?
Oh man, when you filter out all the Apple crap all of a sudden cool news like this one appears. Nice.
@E71
Word.
"What? Why not just avoid all the complication and make that "specific temperature" like 40f?"
Because given standard room temperature, it costs more energy to keep something at 40 degrees than at a higher temperature.
In my fridge at home, If I keep my coke at a certain level, it will become all icey and slushy when i open it up. Before that it's all pure runny and watery. So I have this very situation in my own fridge =)
will be found to cause cancer in 3 years
lol, wow, what are the odds...
I don't even want to know what chemicals they're going to use to accomplish this.
No kidding. Plus- we're finally getting people to recycle. I wonder how this will impact that.
lets just all hope SONY isnt involved otherwise there is gonna be an outbreak of bottles exploding when people go to open the bottle.
CAUSES CANCER!
damn... why am i allways late with these things :(
Looks good though, but i'm guessing that (besides the cancer) there are some other things in there which aren't too good for the enviroment.
A regular bottle of soda will do this today if it is chilled to 32 degrees or so which is what it sounds like this special vending machine will do. The pressure release what the top is opened lowers the temperature a couple more degrees which turns it into a iced slush consistency. Neat idea but not very revolutionary....
But... if the machine keeps it at 32F, then WHY would they need it colder?
that's already a good if not bit low temp for a soda...
I think its COOL
Instantly ice cold beer? Where do I sign?
Word!
Hell might even be worth the cancer.
Gentlemen, the gods of frosty brews have smiled upon us today!
Can you IMAGINE the tailgating possibilities? No more carrying a cooler to the game would be sweet... just snag the case and you are good to go.
Sign me up.
What was that cancer drink by Coke, Dasani water?
So if you gulp it down fast enough after you twist open the bottle, it would freeze your tongue, teeth and everything along the way too?
yes, that would probably kill you...which would probably be good.
As that would mean, all the fat kids who want to drink there sugary goodness and get bigger, will be gone.
Its like a mass cull.
That's incredibly insensitive but it made me laugh.
Wait... if they intend to use a chemical similar to that in freeze packs, isn't that chemical stated to be toxic or non-toxic, but NON-edible? >_>
I hear a lawsuit coming even before the drink is released.
ok... there was obviously not enough information in this article to start saying shit like the chemicals are IN the drink or CANCER or watever. theyve had things liek this before with top ramen type noodles that heat themselves up... the only problem was (as it seems to be in this case) is that unless it was stored at liek room temperature or so, it wouldnt heat up to the right temperature. if it was hot to begin with when the heating started, it would get too hot. if it was too cold to start with, the soup wouldnt get hot enough.
I am glad they are trying it somewhere else first. Cuz if it were here in the states I don't know if I could keep myself from trying it. And I don't wanna die. lol
This will not cause cancer. Likely all they are doing is using thermodynamics to their benifit. This already happens when you through a drink in the freezer, get it close to freezing and then open. The whole drink turns to a slushy. If you control the pressure or the exact temperature, you control the ice formation!
Bingo. It'll be something that uses or enhances the partial vacuum created when you open the bottle. That lowers the temp and "slushes" the top inch or two of Coke. It's awesome when you can get it to happen.
So much for global warming...gotta wait till the earth is at the right temperature...yeah...
If I drop a Menthos into one will it make snow?
I sure hope so :)
wow, snow in the UK...
that would be magic :)
The moment this comes out in the UK, tell us right away and I will personally ship you a pack of Mentos from the state. I can't wait to see you make snow out of this. XD
Surprisingly enough it's possible to find Methos in the UK
But actually, Trebor Soft Mints are just as effective. And more British :D
*Mentos* sorry :p
Actually, if you freeze a sprite or a coke (diet drinks dont work) to a certain temperature just using a freezer, you can make it cold enough that ice wont appear in the drink until you open it and the oxygen hits the drink. It appears as if the drink is freezing right before your eyes and it is totally natural given the temperature of the drink/
@Daniel
The phenomenon you are referring to is called supercooling. Why you don't observe it with diet soft drinks probably has to do more with the change in freezing point caused by the lack of sugar rather than the added sugar alcohols (they're in a very low concentration). The soda freezing before your eyes isn't because of oxygen, but because the liquid is disturbed enough to form an ice nucleus. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercooled for a description or http://f0rked.com/articles/supercooling for some neat videos.
Do you honestly think they are sitting around trying to figure out how to give people cancer? There's no way these would go on sale if they weren't safe in the same sense that Coca-Cola is safe.
Well I was making a joke, the joke being that people claim that everything causes cancer.
They're not thinking of ways to cause cancer, they already know this crap can cause it, and THE FDA DOES NOTHING ABOUT IT, ITS ALL ABOUT MAKING MONEY! Same story with the drug companies. They all could care less about our health.
K, some of you need to "chill" with the cancer scares! lol
Here's how they do it: Supersaturate the drink with extra CO2... The same stuff that makes the bubbles in soda/beer. If you put a bunch extra in the drink, it builds pressure. When you open the bottle, the pressure suddenly drops. As pressure drops, the temperature drops as well, cooling the surroundings (in this case, the drink).
No chemicals, no magic... just physics!
But...doesn't extra carbon dioxide mean it's more likely to spray when opened?
"No chemicals, no magic... just physics!"
Are you sure you don't mean "fizz"-ics?
Yes, I should be pun-ished for that one.
If that's all it is, how come it hasn't been done sooner?
/me kills Chris
8^P
@telp
because the science behind holding such a pressure in has not been there until now.
also, for the original statement, yes that is an excellent idea, and
So lets see...
1) Temperature is the average random molecular kinetic energy in a substance for a given volume. (Lets say the volume of a liter bottle.)
2) To reduce the temperature, the gas must expand. The measure of temperature now is lower due to the molecular kinetic energy being more spread out. (This is done by twisting off the cap.)
3)Voila, 10 cents of ice cold sprite in a $20 container!
I am going to try to figure out how much CO2 or compressed gas we need to put into 1 liter of sprite (and expand it) to chill it from 75F to 32F. Look for my answer later.
Any other thermodynamics hobbyists out there?
Well, if somebody knows the Joule-Thomson coefficient of CO2 at room temperature... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule-Thomson_effect)
if you read the rest of the press release, the container is made of aircraft grade titanium, retails for $14.95 per bottle or $75 for a six-pack. Also, read the warning label: This will put your eye out.
Jim
Just what we need. More materials added to beverage containers to help stuff our landfills even faster.
Why can't I ever live in the test-market? They always send the new stuff somewhere else first.
@eric: becase you live in the US, where everything is a reason to sue.
you guys are seriously worried about the changes to the chemical make-up that this will bring to COKE?? Really? There are already ample reasons not to drink the stuff.
Besides, Coca-Cola Corp. probably has the world's most highly trained chemical engineers (well, this side of Dupont) in employ working to keep the chemical effects to humans and the environment low.
Instantly cold beer is a pretty exciting idea, though.
sounds like a thermus to me.
what would mentos do?
make the drink spray up into the air - some people can get 5-10 feet sprays.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbv-7hnngWI
thats the masterpiece right there
Ice-Nine??
Exactly what I was thinking. Cue the cyclones, etc...
Was wondering how long before we'd get an Ice-9 comment....
I may be completely wrong about this, but in the case of beer, if it does in fact lower the temperature to the point of forming ice, wouldn't the water be the only part that freezes, with what's left having a much higher alcohol concentration (and then, once that's drunk and the ice melted, an unappealing, non-alcoholic watery beer)?
What ever happened to those self-heating cans of coffee???? i bought one, never to see them again :(
theyve just came out where im from (NE Scotland). it works, but it tastes like crap, and yo uget about 30ml inside. and they are expensive
Instant cool beer, me likes.
Not the first time by a long shot. I remember hearing about trying to do self-chilling sodas (either Coke or Pepsi) some 10 years ago by putting a compressed-air (or some kind of gas) module in the middle which then gets released by opening the can. I'm sure we all know that when gases are expended they cool, which would chill the container and then the soda that surrounds it.
If I recall, they gave up because it either wouldn't eject the compressed gases upon opening or it just couldn't cool the soda enough. Is this another attempt using the same kind of idea with newer technology? The Mirror article (when I finally clicked through all of the blogspam to get there) has no details.
Nothing new here - Miller already has a leg up on Coke -
Engadget Should referance there own work more often.
Next time check you records before posting the same story or at least referance it.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/20/miller-to-introduce-self-cooling-beer-cans-next-year/
That works by a different process though, actually taking chemicals. The way this seems that it will work will be that when you open the bottle, your drink is inside (like a regular bottle) and chilled. When you're done, you're left with no more waste than what you would have if you had consumed a regular bottle of soda.
One more thing you probably won't be allowed to pass through tunnels, bridges, or the border with
@Telp
Probably because they already have issues with idiots opening bottles directly by their eyes...more pressure = more lawsuits. Ever looked at a bottle by the Dr. Pepper/7-Up company? I doubt that disclaimer was anything less than court ordered.
Oh just brill timing Coke. Giving us cold Sprite just in time for winter.
Fabulous. Cant wait to be freezing both inside and out.
At least you'll have the extra mass of cancer to keep you warm.
Super-cold beer sucks. A good brew needs to be about 42 - 45 F to be palatable.
Oh wait, we're talking US beers- 'k then, do what you gotta do.
Dude, The guy who has the patent and the agreement with Coca-cola to develop this self chilled soda is my old High School Chem teacher. He said that his method hasn't been used yet because it causes cancer in like 1 in 3 million people or something like that.
This never ends well...
http://www.aaronneathery.com/comixpg/narbstrips/NarbStrips.htm
I bet Al Gore would like it...
DRINK SPRITE IT WILL HELP FIGHT AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING!!!
If what the others are saying about carbon release as the cooling mechanism is true, then that means more greenhouse gases, and that means al gore = :(
i wonder if they came up with this idea after watching that video of people instantly freezing beer by tapping it on the table after chilling it for several hours
Better "news" than the iphone
That's how they make Bud
It has nothing to do with oxygen hitting the liquid. It's the lowering of the pressure that causes it.
And my school district just signed a million dollar contract with Pepsi to replace all the Coke machines.
Darn
AS IF TO BE, PLEASURE FOR ME, THAT WHICH IS A TREE.
Sweet!
Finally, self-chilling drinks. I thought they would make it like those self-heating coffee drinks they (used to(?)) sell, you know with the button on the bottom you push, though.
"Ice cold beer"? Philistines.
A good Belgian ale is best around 45-55 F, depending on what type is.
Sounds like a new lime product from an alcohol company.
Am I the only one that has seen the tv show beyond tomorrow? they showed this tech off like two years a go, it cools like a thermos around the beverage but takes 4 minutes or so.
In Japan, I saw self-heating coffee cans that came from vending machines.. Wonder when we'll see that over here in the states as well..
Comment by Robert H. Goretsky of Hoboken, NJ
I asked my mom about this...
[quote]
Yes, but the way it works is not something in the bottle or product. We've developed a piece of cold drink equipment we call SuperChill. It keeps the beverage (has to be a sugar beverage, doesn't work on diet given the lower viscosity, or at least not yet). When you open the bottle, ice crystals begin to form, all through the beverage - it's really cool (no pun intended). I've had this happen with the old fashioned glass bottles that are really cold. We've figured out how to make it happen on purpose and consistently. I love going to our KO Lab, just to get one! Equipment just beginning to go in some markets, think Mexico first. Cool Coke innovation at work!
love, mom
[/quote]
Also, you can find a good description of it and videos of it in action at http://dansdata.blogsome.com/2007/08/14/the-strange-case-of-the-unfreezing-wine/ (it being the process, not sprite itself doing it.
hahaha.
@anyone for this causing cancer
hahahahah, for sure
@anyone relating this to cold beer
totally worth the cancer for constantly cold beer.
but this opens up new opportunites.
beer slushies
beer popsicles
frozen beer cubes
....for your cold beer
hahaha. oh i feel all giddy.
Nothing new Tucher Beer in Germany reveled this same technology for their self-cooling reusable keg at Oktoberfest in 2001.
Causes cancer? I wish people had half a brain... Lets see... What makes carbonated drinks... well, carbonated? CO2. Well, lets see... A substance, that when compressed, and then released, is cold.... CO2 again!!! It really isn't that complicated, the carbonation is injected when you open the bottle, which instantly cools the drink.
What next? You know there have to be chemicals that aren't designed for consumption by humans. Technology may always be convenient, but it is not always good.
let's try it with Dasani...& Pipp-Xtra
Eric..... IF it hurts people then they'd know first,outside the U.S.
Hello Sahil,
First, excuse me for my poor english, I'm french !!! I want to know the exact functionnement of the Sprite super chilled and you speak about an inventor "Dude". Can you give me the exact name of Dude, I want to find the patent of this invention !!! And, what is the problem with the cancer... ? Dude had said something ?
Thank you for response. Have a nice day. Brigitte