Japanese Canned Coffee

Canned coffee (缶コーヒー, kan kōhī^?) is ubiquitous in Japan, with a large number of companies competing fiercely and offering various types for sale. Canned coffee is already brewed and ready to drink. It is available in supermarkets and convenience stores (コンビニ, kombini^?), with vast numbers of cans being sold in vending machines that offer heated cans in the autumn and winter, and cold cans in the warm months.

Canned coffee is a Japanese innovation, and the term kan kōhī is wasei-eigo: the English-language term "can coffee" was created in Japan. UCC Ueshima Coffee Co. is well known in Japan for pioneering canned coffee with milk in 1969. The official government web site of Shimane prefecture, Japan, claims that the world's first canned coffee, Mira Coffee, appeared in Shimane in 1965, but this was short-lived.

More significant perhaps was the 1973 introduction by Pokka Coffee of the hot and cold drink vending machine. In 1983 canned coffee makers shipped more than 100 million cases.

Can design and shape have changed drastically. The earliest cans were simple in terms of graphic design and were often corrugated in the middle two-thirds of the can. Cans with straight steel sides appeared next, finally settling on a more modern shape. Like the earlier cans, this type also starts as a flat sheet that is curled and seamed. Extruded steel is also used extensively. Aluminum coffee cans are almost non-existent, although UCC Black is a notable exception.

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