BORROWED WISDOM

The tops of soft drink cans in Hawaii are different than the tops of cans in all other states.  Oh yes.   Here's the story.

Pop is 94% carbonated water.  Some time ago, the manufacturers of soft drinks concluded that it would be cheaper for them and more cost effective at the point of sale if they shipped only their syrup from their plants to local bottling facilities.  They could ship their 6% of the finished product to others who would contract to add the carbonated water and bottle or can their product for them.  They were already shipping their syrup to fountain operations like fast food purveyors.  This was a great deal for the big name producers.

Back to the cans.  Understand this: the tops of pop cans are more expensive than the rest of the can.  Also, the tops are made separately from the can and crimped on by a machine.  Its all aluminum.  Somewhere along the line, canners decided that they could make the cans more narrow and a tinge taller and save themselves some money.  Also note that the top diameters are a slight bit smaller than the can.  To be precise; the can was changed from 2-11/16" diameter to 2-1/8" diameter.  

Now, back to Hawaii.  Hawaii has only one bottler/canner for all the islands and it is located in Oahu.  They saw no reason to change their old canning machinery since they had no competition.  Voila!  Cans produced in Hawaii are made to old dimensions and have a special ridging under the tops.  If you're in Hawaii and find a standard soda can, it came from the mainland.