Audio By Carbonatix
Today is the 200th birthday of the can, and the Can Manufacturers Institute is inviting Americans to “by acknowledging its consistent relevance in our past, present and future.”
The can was born – according to CMI — on August 25, 1810, “when Englishman Peter Durand was granted a patent for an idea to preserve food in tinplate vessels” and brought to the United States in 1812 by English immigrant Thomas Kensett.
Today, it’s a $14.9 billion business with some decent Colorado connections: Bill Coors founded the Coors Container Company in 1959, making the can the primary beer-drinking vessel; Oskar Blues starting putting craft beer in cans in 2004, kicking off a second canned beer revolution; and Rocky Metal Mountain Container, jointly owned by Coors and Ball Metal, is the largest aluminum can plant in the world.
But how can you celebrate in style? Here are ten ideas:
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1) Crush one against your forehead, Bluto-style.
2) Eat SpaghettiOs directly from one.
3) Hit RockBar, 3015 East Colfax, for a Shlitz.
4) Tour the Oskar Blues Brewery in Longmont; wear a can necklace.
5) Leave some empty ones in your alley for a homeless guy to pick up and recycle.
6) Shotgun a Coors Original, still brewed in Golden.
7) Have a Coke vs. Pepsi blind tasting for kids; watch them stay up all night.
8) Make chili using only canned ingredients: beans, spam, diced tomatoes, diced peppers, chicken broth, El Pato spicy tomato sauce, beer.
9) Donate a bunch of them to Food Bank of the Rockies or another food charity.
10) Prepare for the apocalypse by buying hundreds and storing them in your underground cellar along with guns, short wave radio, iodine tablets, life-size sex doll, and gas mask.
