this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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Funnily, they no longer make either of these products. The glass jar division was sold decades ago, and the aerospace sector was purchased by BAE last year. Ball is still the largest manufacturer of aluminum cans, however. They also make plastic bottles.
I like their idea of aluminum cups, but the boxes they come in are unfortunately made from plastic coated paperboard. (Not sure why, with their whole selling point being more environmentally friendly.)
Also aluminum is super great at conducting heat! which means your drink will rapidly move toward whatever temperature it is.
Great at conduction, but with not a lot of thermal mass, meaning that actually your drink will usually just make whatever it's touching (your hand, often) super cold or hot.
It's a two way street. Your hand is reciprocally warming the drink.
We’ve been storing and drinking beverages in aluminum cans for like a century now and this hasn’t been a big problem.
It's a big enough problem that products are sold and even given away specifically to combat the issue.
Also, the aluminum drink can was invented in 1959, and the koozie started becoming a thing in the early 70s. But I'm sure people were insulating their cans with DIY koozies before then.
Did you know you can get pint glass koozies, just like for cans?
Eg
collapsed inline media
We also have those nice paper sleeves for coffee cups that would do the job as well. At least where you touch.
So it’s an already-solved problem for this application.
collapsed inline media
Yup, I have a few, but I went ahead and bought a set of vacuum insulated steel punt glasses.
Well, plastic lined cans, though i'm not sure that affects the thermal properties significantly. And beer coozies exist for a reason.
Sure but isn't it mostly for camping equipment? Don't really see why you would use it when strength/weight isn't much of a concern.
Soft drinks and beer have been in aluminum cans for like a century at least.
Oh, you are talking about cold drinks
Yeah, for sure. Though if you drink it fast enough, it won't warm the drink noticeably before it's gone.
Ahh, here's my problem, a beer lasts me like 45 minutes or more
I used to make, consume and share a lot of frozen beverages. I had a set of aluminum cups that I loved, but everyone else hated them because they started frosting over as soon as the frozen drink was poured in. My then girlfriend, now wife, would only use them with a towel wrapped around them for insulation.
Oof. I think I lean more toward her side, to be honest. I don't like having cold hands.
I didn't begrudge her the right to be warm, but it did make the cups look a lot less pretty. The ones I had were shaped differently, but basically this:
collapsed inline media
I got them at a thrift shop, so no clue what brand they were. I think I technically still have them somewhere but have only used them once any time even remotely recently.
Those do look really nice, for sure. They'd make great snack cups.
If you're sitting in hot bleachers, the cooling effect on your hand or forehead is pretty nice, and you're gonna drink the drink before it's warm anyway. Hot is more of a problem unless you're cold enough to be wearing mittens.
Yeah I have some and they 100% require a koozie/beverage sleeve.
Most people think "oh, cup so cold, my drink stay cold!"
Has any company of any size ever done something actually envrionmentally friendly?
those aluminum cups make milk taste fantastic. also taste colder for some reason.
Capitalism baby! If nobody buys your environmentally friendly aluminum cups they won’t do much good, and people are more likely to buy a product with “luxurious” feeling packaging. They’re likely still a net benefit vs plastic solo cups, but the market leads to perverse incentives.