What if everything you ever wanted came in a self-chilling can? (Warning: that link is NSFW due to language) Well, if everything you ever wanted is an energy drink that may or may not taste like Red Bull, and you live in Southern California, you are in luck.

This past Monday two lone gas stations, one in Pasadena and the other in Calabasas, began selling an energy drink called West Coast Chill in the world’s first self-cooling can known as the Chill-Can.

The can uses Microcool technology exclusive to Joseph Company International who has been developing the eco-friendly can for over ten years.

By using reclaimed CO₂ from the atmosphere and activated carbon ascertained from a renewable vegetable source the beverage will drop to 30 degrees within minutes after a button is pushed on the bottom of the can.  Now the consumer can enjoy their cold drink without using an energy sucking refrigerator. A self-cooling can means you won’t have to take a bulky plastic cooler on a picnic or to the beach.

You will have to drink out of a container with a bulky cooling mechanism that takes up most of the can.

The can says it’s recyclable and the company has set up recycling bins with the drink's logo to: “RECAPTURE the cans for REUSE in an effort to reduce their carbon foot print.”

Can we can assume this means the button/mechanism are completely recyclable through curbside service or a local center? Or must the cans be returned to the special receptacles?

Nikki O., friend of the blog was kind and curious enough to trek to one of the locations selling the drink to sample it for science!

She purchased five cans (at 300 ml each that’s less than a can of soda) for approximately 22 dollars and handed them out to her family in a not blind at all taste test. After turning the cans over and pressing the magic button to start the three minute cooling process the liquid was not ice cold but cooler than room temperature.

One avid Red Bull drinker in the house declared the drink “horrible” after a few sips while another said it tasted like Flintstones vitamins. Nikki said it tasted like Red Bull.

The drink has no artificial sweeteners or colors, and contains no sugar or caffeine. The only ingredients West Coast Chill shares with Red Bull are taurine and glucuronolactone.

Is the Chill-can the can of the future? Is this how we will purchased all canned beverages as soon as West Coast Chill hits a wider market some time next year and companies ask to license the technology?

If so can we expect the mechanism to become smaller and reusable at the consumer level? For example will we one day purchase the cooling mechanism itself to insert into specially designed cans? Is the can too gimmicky to gain footing in the beverage market?