Fastest time to find and alphabetize the letters in a can of alphabet soup

The fastest time to find and alphabetize the letters in a can of alphabet soup is 2 mins 8.6 sec and was achieved by Jacob Chandler (USA) in Gresham, Oregon, USA, on 1 December 2021.

Jacob credits his family for inspiring him to attempt a Guinness World Records title. "First my mother and father of course. They have never given up on me and have always motivated me to work hard and achieve my goals. My parents did whatever they could to take care of me and consistently continued to uplift and encourage me no matter how many new ideas I had. Secondly my 11 year old son Brycen inspired me. He has accomplished so much in such a short time. When he was born I learned to love unconditionally. I realized every word and action would influence his wellbeing and future self. He has helped me to grow as a person, and as a father. By attempting this record I can show my son anything is possible if you work hard enough at it."

Before making his attempt Jacob reviewed six other titles before deciding this was one he could try and potentially obtain.

"I was intrigued by the idea of “Alphabetizing a can soup”. I’ve eaten plenty of alphabet soup in my life but never stopped to think someone would make a challenge out of organizing the letters."

Jacob found the training tough for this attempt. "This attempt is a spontaneous attempt so training is tough. By spontaneous I mean you open the can of soup and then right away your time starts. It’s almost a luck of the draw situation every time. Because of this I had a smaller margin of training to perform. Some things I did do to train are as follows. I located the proper bowl, not to deep and not to shallow. The bowl would also have a certain slopped side to help during the sorting process. The spoon was also important because the size and feel in my hands made the difference. Once I had the spoon and bowl I now had to consider what soup to use. I used the internet for a lot of the research. I found roughly a dozen different soups, ranging in thick vs thin broth, big vs little letters and vegetable vs meat additives. Once I found the best soup for the attempt I opened that can and examined each letter in detail. This was extremely critical to know because I had to learn each letters characteristics. I needed to know about that soups specifics like (M vs W) or (O vs Q) and what each individual letter looked like. Many of the letters had similar features and I needed to know that before the attempt. Once I had the bowl, spoon and can of soup I laid them out on the table and would rearrange them until I found the best placement and starting position for each item. I would then go through the motions (without actually opening the can) and see what worked best. This helped me to determine the best placement and ease of accessibility for each item. By conducting this mental and physical walkthrough of the attempt, it would give me the best possible chance so I was not losing any precious seconds on nonsense movements."

This Guinness World Records title means a lot to Jacob. "Success is something that you have to achieve for yourself, and nobody can just hand it to you. This would prove to me that with proper preparation & dedication I could achieve any goal I set for myself. Being a Guinness World Records title holder now means I could feel proud of myself for accomplishing a goal that I never thought was achievable"