mmmm... keg cans

Wednesday, December 01, 2004, at 08:00AM

By Eric Richardson

We had a meeting at my apartment on Monday, and one of the attendees brought with her some coffee and a box of Mousse Pocky sticks. I now have a new appreciation for the culture around me and a desire to go explore more of its tasty treats.

This coffee she brought wasn't normal coffee: it was cold. Now iced coffee isn't that weird of a concept; while I haven't much drank intentionally cold coffee, I do see it on menus at coffee shops. It's my understanding that usually iced coffee is sweetened, but I drink my coffee black so I was perfectly happy that this was black. In fact the name was "Drink It Black" (third item on the page). Apparently canned coffee is a pretty common thing in Asia. I had never heard of it.

Having now corrected that lack of knowledge, I made another radical discovery. Japan has black cold coffee in a keg can. Look at this. Amazing. Given the college lifestyle, what better to accompany an all-nighter than a six-pack of coffee keg cans? It's like you're halfway to the weekend, but you're staying awake.

My new mission is to explore Little Tokyo until I find such a wonder. I don't know, though, if it'll happen before my all-nighter that's set to be held tonight.