To some, a freshly opened jar of instant coffee smells great. But the heady fragrance doesn鈥檛 last long because the volatile compounds that give coffee its unique aroma escape after the lid has been opened only a couple of times. Now the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has developed a coffee jar that releases its odour slowly.
A glob of beeswax is stuck to the inside of the jar鈥檚 screw cap, dosed with aromatic oil squeezed from roasted coffee beans and covered with a pad of finely perforated paper (WO 2004/034819). Because the aroma leaks slowly through the pad into the air space at the top of the jar, a fresh burst of coffee fragrance is released each time the lid is unscrewed. It works on chocolate cookie jars, too, say the inventors.
