Here at the CBD Beverage Blog, we’re big fans of history and enjoy enlightening our customers about the various aspects of our industry. Today, we’re going to examine the origins of the humble aluminum can, the type of vessel we use to bring our groundbreaking and delicious Sparkling CBD Sodas to market.
Enjoy the following brief tour through the history of the soda can. Then, if you're interested in adding more variety to our seven CBD soda and tea flavors, mix things up with five non-alcoholic CBD mocktail recipes from the CBD Beverage Blog team!
Ever since canning was invented more than 200 years ago to preserve, and in some cases, transport food without spoiling, beverage manufacturers have been looking for a better, safer, more economical way to transport their product to the customer. During the 19th century sales and consumption of carbonated beverages mostly took place on-site in pharmacies. Gradually, however, soft drink entrepreneurs began bottling their creations and selling them on store shelves.
For decades glass bottles were the de facto method of marketing soft drinks, but bottles were, and are, an imperfect method of storage and transportation. First, because glass bottles are heavy. Before the advent of the internal combustion engine, large-scale beverage deliveries were made using horse-drawn carriages. A full load of full glass bottles could weigh several tons making transport on the dodgy roads of the time a genuine headache and shortening the lives of the horses tasked with pulling them.
Second, glass being glass, it tended to break pretty easily. Product losses were often staggering. All it would take would be one good-sized pothole to send half your product to oblivion. And we won't even get into the safety concerns surrounding glass bottles. The bottom line? Something better was necessary.
In 1938 Clicquot Club Beverages began selling their popular Ginger Ale in a cone-topped can that bears more than a passing resemblance to classic motor oil cans. The can itself was produced by the Continental Can Company but soon developed a reputation for being leaky and negatively altering the flavor of the beverage inside. Something had to be done, and returning to the days of glass bottles wasn’t an option.
After about a decade of fine-tuning, Continental worked out all the bugs in their cone-shaped can designs, and in 1948 Pepsi became the first major soft drink brand to use them. But even though newly re-engineered cans were leakproof and preserved the taste of their contents, the cone-shaped top still left something to be desired as far as shipping and storage were concerned.
In 1955 the James Vernor Company of Detroit (the longest continually operating soft drink company in the United States at nearly 160 years), began marketing their ginger ale in 12-ounce, flat-top cans. The innovative design made it much easier to transport and store large numbers of cans and drove the cone-shaped can from the market almost overnight. Both soft drink producers and breweries quickly adopted the new design, although you needed a can opener to access the contents of the can. Can fever caught on quickly among beverage manufacturers, who quickly shifted their focus from heavy, dangerous glass bottles. Coca-Cola even began marketing their product in 32-ounce (1 quart) metal cans, though to be sure that didn't last long.
A scant 8 years after the first flat-top metal soda cans were introduced the Reynolds Metals Company produced the first aluminum beverage can. The first soft drink to take advantage of these breakthrough lightweight cans was called "Slenderella" and by all accounts, it was the first widely distributed low-calorie soft drink. That was in 1963. Within 2 years all major soft drink manufacturers had shifted to the aluminum can. At first such cans required can openers like their predecessors. But in time the distinctive pull top opening system was developed and adopted industry-wide.
During the late 1970s and 1980s pull tops were phased out over environmental and safety concerns and replaced with the “ring pull” that endures to this day and that we use on our Sparkling CBD Soda and other CBD drinks. Today, aluminum cans are said by industry insiders to be 4 times as popular as plastic bottles when it comes to 12-ounce soft drinks.
Many people are not aware of it but the world's largest aluminum can manufacturing facility is located right here in the Centennial State. Ball Corp, which got its start over a century ago producing what are now iconic glass storage jars, operates a factory in Golden that produces 6 million aluminum cans per day and 8 billion per year. Imagine that. This local factory produces one can for every man, woman, and child on earth every year.
The company’s factory encompasses 500,000 square feet and includes a production line, labeling facility, and quality control center that produces aluminum cans - and aluminum “bottles” - for more than 1,000 beverages including many of the most recognized brands in the US market, as well as more than 400 craft breweries looking to make a unique branding statement with their cans.
The National Day Calendar officially recognizes the second week of each January to honor the millions of Americans who opt for a sober lifestyle. Whether you’re abstaining from alcohol for Dry January or maintain sobriety year-round, our sparkling CBD sodas and sparkling CBD water products can still be enjoyed in countless non-alcoholic blends. The Colorado’s Best Drinks Beverage Blog team is here to help you celebrate National Mocktail Week with our twist on seven satisfying non-alcoholic beverage recipes - one featuring each of our delectable sparkling CBD water and CBD soda flavors.
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We hope that these seven specialty mocktail recipes help you and your family make the most of National Mocktail Week. No matter the occasion, there’s no need for social distancing to stop you from enjoying sweet and satisfying blended beverages. It’s easy to craft your own Sparkling CBD non-alcoholic mocktails today and every day of the year! Visit our Sparkling Shop to order a twelve-pack or a forty-eight pack of Sparkling CBD Citrus Water, Hibiscus Water or our other delicious products today. We'll bring a case to your doorstep- ready to savor straight from the can or in these delicious drink recipes. All seven flavors of our sparkling CBD sodas (and our two flavored Sparkling CBD waters) are delicious and refreshing. Our products all contain phytocannabinoid-rich, broad spectrum hemp extract. Better yet, each sparkling CBD beverage flavor is vegan, non-GMO, and free of gluten, sodium, and preservatives. PCR hemp extract is one of just five ingredients in every can of Colorado's Best Drinks, and you’ll taste that sweet simplicity with every sip.