Aug 27, 2008 5:49 pm US/Pacific
Consumerwatch Puts Batter Blaster To The Test
Squirtable Pancake Batter Offers a Flipside to Flapjacks.
Reporting
Sue Kwon
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ―
There's meat in a can, vegetables in a can, and even cheeseburger in a can. A San Francisco company is the first to put organic pancake batter in a can. Consumerwatch puts the technology and the taste to the test.
It's called Batter Blaster, and it's the brainchild of former San Francisco restauranteur Sean O'Connor.
"My wife loves pancakes and waffles so I make them a lot. And we thought, there's got to be a better way," said O'Connor.
He thought more people would eat pancakes if they weren't so messy and time consuming to make. And that's proving to be the case with his batter in a can.
"We've sold 2 million cans so far since launching a year ago, and we think it's because people are making more pancakes because we've made it easier and healthier for them to do it," he said.
Batter Blaster comes in a can that looks a lot like a whip cream dispenser. Instead of nitric oxide, it uses pressurized co2 to discharge the batter in a manageable stream, It looks a lot like whipped cream, but it's thicker. And despite the feeling that canned batter is unnatural or "processed", O'Connor's recipe is certified organic.
"Even the can is 100% recyclable, charged with C02. We breathe air and blow out CO2. There is no destroying the world with our product," O'Connor said.
The CO2 puts the fluff in the flapjacks. For those who prefer a thicker, heavier cake, it may not be the recipe for you. But, the light batter lets consumers use the product on a griddle as well as in a waffle iron.
As for taste, it's light and on the sweeter side. O'Connor admits it has been hard to get traditional groceries to "think outside the pancake box" but with product demos he's convinced Costco to carry the product. And he says, "Batter Blaster will be sold in Safeway, Lucky, Raleys, Whole Foods, Molly Stones, and Andronicos. So now we need to get consumers to try it."
It's priced at $3.50-$5.00 per can. Each can makes approximately 28 4-inch wide pancakes. And as far as strange food in a can goes, get ready to see more. O'Connor plans to fill cans with brownie and cupcake batter in the future. Get out the milk.
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