You may have noticed a return to canned beverages. This is for a lot of reasons, one of which is that aluminum cans are almost infinitely recyclable. Plastic is bad for the planet and doesn’t recycle nearly as well as aluminum and glass products. While soda used to be the primary drink packaged in cans, now you can buy pretty much anything in aluminum. From water to wine, below are how some of your favorite canned beverages are made and packaged.
Water
Water companies are one of the biggest culprits of plastic usage. It’s ironic that the universe’s most precious resource that we know of is packaged in wasteful plastic that can’t be recycled. Not only are plastic water bottles bad for the environment, they are often bad for your body. If you leave plastic water bottles in a hot place or in the sun, the chemicals seep into the water. This is very bad for you. They can even cause cancer.
BPA-free water bottles exist, but now companies are doing away with plastic altogether. Liquid Death, for example, is a water company that claims to bring an end to the wasteful practice of using plastic to quench the thirst of their customers. Boxed Water is another one. People and companies alike are realizing that you don’t need plastic to grab a single water. Canned water is sourced from wherever it comes from, typically a fresh water spring, before being canned in aluminum.
Soda
Sodas have been canned for many years, but never in so many sizes. Canned sodas are now in small 8 ounce sizes and larger 16 ounce sizes. Since canning liquids keeps them protected from the outside air, sodas don’t get flat in a can. Compared to a bottle, soda is never quite as good as it is from a can. That’s because it keeps all of the carbonation inside. It’s no surprise that this tactic is used for other beverages as well.
Beer
Beer is another drink commonly found in cans. After yeast is fermented with grain, hopes, and water, sometimes carbonation or nitrogen is added to a beer. If you’ve ever had a Guinness in a can you probably remember the ball in the bottom. It is a nitrogen ball meant to nitrogenate the beer when you pour it into a glass, mimicking the nitrogen that is put into the stout when it is on tap.
Now, many beers are carbonated like sodas and stay fresh for a long time. Beyond the freshness of cans, beer companies have some of the best can art around, with shrink sleeve manufacturers providing amazing design printing at an affordable cost. Beer has been canned for decades, but the method of packaging is truly being used to its fullest now.
Wine
You may have noticed a trend of canned wines. While the initial reaction can be surprise or doubt, there is no reason to doubt this. Cans keep wine very fresh. Of course, like canned Guinness you aren’t supposed to drink it directly from the can. It is a receptacle that keeps the wine fresh. While there aren’t gases put into wine like they are in beer, aluminum cans do a great job of containing the beverage and keeping it out of the air until it’s time to aerate and drink. Some wine purists have to have the cork, but there’s no denying the ability to keep small portions of wine fresh.
Canned Cocktails
There is also an undeniable trend in canned cocktails and seltzers. Every drink is made differently, but whether it’s bourbon cocktails or carbonated water with vodka and flavoring, aluminum cans keep cocktails like soda. The drinks are mixed together and canned immediately to keep peak freshness. Whether it has carbonation or not, the drinks are kept fresh—providing a way to keep fresh juices and other quality ingredients into a canned beverage.
Whether you are interested in the environmentalism of aluminum cans or just want a tasty beverage, there are plenty of great canned drinks. Nearly every beverage can be canned, and there are mostly benefits to canning in general. With plastic becoming such an obvious detriment to the environment we need to survive, canned drinks are back in—and here to stay.
