Coffee in a Can

Not talking cans of unground beans here, but rather ready-to-drink cans of coffee. When I lived in Japan in the early 1990s one of the things I actually enjoyed where the cans of ready-to-drink coffee found in the ubiquitous coin-operated dispensers found on roadsides and alley ways all over the country. Now Coke is joining forces with Italian coffee purveyor illy to sell cans of coffee the world over.

Coke's illy issimo drinks, which include an espresso, a latte macchiato and a cappuccino beverage, cost about $2.69, or about 15 percent more than the Starbucks drinks, the company said. It is targeting upscale locations such as Whole Foods Market Inc.

The drinks will soon launch in Japan, which the companies said accounts for three-fourths of the roughly $17.4 billion market for ready-to-drink coffee beverages.

Source: Reuters