Mad Can Coffee Brings Can-Sealed Drinks to Montana's Flathead Valley
The drinks at Mad Can Coffee Company come out looking like something between a craft beer and a soda. That’s because they are sealed into plastic cups with aluminum pop-tab lids, right there in front of you, using a machine more commonly seen in Australian and Japanese coffee shops than in northwest Montana.
Nicole and Samantha Waters — mother and daughter, both self-described “espresso people” — opened their permanent location in downtown Kalispell’s historic Mercantile building last December. The business started as a traveling coffee trailer in May 2025, but the can-sealing concept demanded something more permanent.
“It had to be a brand,” Samantha told the Daily Inter Lake. “It had to be something beyond an espresso stand.”
How the Sealing Works
In late 2024, Nicole was scrolling social media when she stumbled onto videos of cafés in Australia and Japan using seaming machines. A barista prepares the drink, places it in a slot, presses a button, and the machine crimps an aluminum lid onto the cup. The result is something that looks factory-made but was just crafted thirty seconds ago.
The Waters ordered their own seamer and built Mad Can Coffee around the technology. Every signature drink gets sealed — a visual hook that separates them from the drive-thru espresso stands scattered throughout Montana’s Flathead Valley.
The Menu
The 17-drink signature lineup reflects Samantha’s goal of “making coffee, matcha and chai more approachable.” There’s the Coco-Cano, which pairs espresso with coconut water and vanilla cold foam. The Bananas Foster Chai combines chai concentrate with banana, caramel, and vanilla cold foam in what sounds like dessert in a can.
Traditional espresso drinks are available too — lattes, americanos, the classics. But Mad Can also serves protein-infused slushies and “dirty sodas,” which mix carbonated soda with house-made creams, syrups, and purees. The range suggests a menu built around two people with different flavor preferences finding common ground.
“We’re two people with two flavor profiles,” Samantha explained, “so we really tried to expand and include something for everyone.”
Seattle Roots, Montana Setting
Nicole grew up in Seattle’s coffee culture. Her parents operated an espresso stand — the family business was literally coffee. Samantha worked as a barista for years before partnering with her mother on Mad Can.
“We’re just espresso people,” Nicole said. “We have espresso machines in our houses, in our campers. It’s just an important part of the day to us.”
That obsession shows in the details. Mad Can sells whole bean coffee. The syrups and purees appear to be made or sourced carefully enough to warrant menu attention. And the signature drinks are genuinely unusual — not just slight variations on the caramel latte formula that dominates most espresso bar menus.
Why This Matters
Can-sealing technology has been percolating through specialty coffee in Australia for a few years. Shops like Espresso 57 and the Roasting Warehouse in Fremantle have built followings around the format. But the trend hasn’t crossed over to the United States in any meaningful way — yet.
Mad Can Coffee represents an early test case. Kalispell isn’t a major coffee market; it’s a town of about 28,000 people serving as a gateway to Glacier National Park. If the format works here, among locals and tourists who may never have seen a drink sealed on demand, it could work in larger markets waiting for someone to take the leap.
For now, Mad Can operates Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., at 35 Third Street East. The traveling trailer that started everything is still out there somewhere. But the permanent home — with its seaming machine humming behind the counter — is where the concept has room to grow.
“Coffee is personal,” Samantha said. “I want to know what you drink. I want to know about your personal life, and I want everyone who comes in here to have that interaction.”
Just happens that interaction now ends with a satisfying pop-tab crack.