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Video: Coca-Cola Freestyle demo & how it works
July 21st, 2009, 4:05 pm · 103 Comments · posted by Nancy Luna, Staff Writer
I drove more than a 100 miles Tuesday to be among the first in Southern California to get a glimpse of Coca-Cola Freestyle — a touch screen beverage bar that produces 104 varieties of drinks.
The new soda fountain contraption made its debut Tuesday at a Jack in the Box in Vista – south of Orange County. The San Diego-based fast-food chain is among a handful of restaurant companies partnering with Coca-Cola to test Freestyle’s appeal to customers. Nine Orange County fast-food restaurants, including Carl’s Jr., Subway and El Pollo Loco, are taking part in the beta experiment. (CLICK HERE for Freestyle launch dates/locations in Southern California)
Here’s what I learned Tuesday:
Freestyle allows customers to choose up to 104 Coca-Cola-owned brands such as Minute Maid, Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta, Dasani, Hi-C, Vault, Coke Zero and Sprite. Sports drinks also can be selected.
Because you control the flow of the pour, customers can mix flavor options – creating endless varieties of custom-made drinks. For example, I mixed Fanta Zero Peach with Fanta Zero Orange and Fanta Zero Strawberry. It made for a nice tropical-tasting diet soda. I also tasted Sprite with Minute Maid Cherry.
It was fun to play with. But therein lies the problem.
Will customers have too much fun with the super sleek beverage bar of the future? Will it cause long lines as folks fumble their way through the touch-screen buttons?
“I think it’s going to be a mess,” said Jorge Barillas. The Irvine resident was among the first customers at Jack in the Box to try the machine Tuesday. “If there’s a lot of people, there will be long lines.”
On Tuesday, I talked to Gene Farrell, senior vice president of special projects for Coca-Cola. He and a few other Coke representatives addressed “wait-times,” as well as other issues tied to Freestyle. (See my Q&A with Gene below).
Video: Farrell also demonstrated how the beverage bar works:
Q: How long have you been developing Freestyle.
A: The invention has been a “top secret” project that’s been in development at Coca-Cola for nearly five years, Farrell said.
Q: How much does one Freestyle cost?
A Jack in the Box customer tries Freestyle for first time.
A: He declined to say, only stating that it cost “hundreds of millions” of dollars to develop. Various clients such as Jack in the Box, El Pollo Loco, Subway and Carl’s Jr. are partnering with Coca-Cola to test the product to ensure it is profitable for both companies. In beta-testing in restaurants in Atlanta, Freestyle has triggered beverage sales to increase by double-digits, Farrell said.
Q: With one dispenser pouring all 100 drinks, how do you avoid long lines at the fountain, especially for newbies?
A: There’s definitely a “learning curve,” at first, Farrell said. In regular soda fountains, the average user takes anywhere from 12 to 17 seconds to pick and dispense a drink. With Freestyle, first-timers take about 22 to 26 seconds. After that, Freestyle users get better, taking about 12 to 17 seconds to select and pour a drink, he said.
Q: So you don’t see wait times changing beyond current standards, once people get the hang of it?
A. Yes.
Q: How many drinks can Freestyle pour per hour?
A: 95 drinks. (Note: It contains 60 zero-calorie options, and 68 caffeine-free options.)
One Freestyle cartridge of concentrated flavor formula is equal to a 4.5 gallons of regular syrup in a box.
Q. How does it work?
A: Each Freestyle is outfitted with about 30 cartridges that contain the proprietary flavor formulas for each brand (ex. Coke, Minute Maid, Fanta, Barq’s). The cartridges, which look like giant printer cartridges, are blended with carbonated water and sweetener, either zero-calorie sweetener or high-fructose corn syrup. Once the customer makes his or her selection, Freestyle will blend the three together to create the right drink. Because you control the pour, customers “can create your own drink by mixing certain flavors,” Farrell said. (see the video for demo)
Q: Can you do flavor shots?
A: No. However, there are built-in flavors to all of the major brands. For example, Sprite has five flavors, including Cherry and Strawberry.
Q: Will you be offering cane sugar options anytime soon, instead of high-fructose corn syrup?
A. No, said Helen Tarleton, senior communications manager for Coca-Cola.
Q: What about drive-through customers? Will they be able to order “custom” drinks at these test locations?
A: Not at this time, says Farrell. Coca-Cola is developing a Freestyle system suitable for drive-through use. It should be available some time next year. In the meantime, Farrell said Freestyle is reserved for dine-in customers. “We think its the best consumers to experience it, first.”
See more images from Tuesday’s demo below:
Freestyle contains many new drinks that can't be found in traditional soda fountains such as Dasani flavored waters.This is the main menu of brands. Once you press the brand you like, the screen will show you more flavor options tied to that brand. Fanta, for example, has 8 different flavor options.
This is the main menu of brands. Once you press the brand you like, the screen will show more flavor options tied to that brand. Fanta, for example, has 8 different flavor options.
Hold and pour. Stop pressing to select, and add more. (Photo courtesy of Coca-Cola)
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Just give me Pepsi and not Coke please! (And their Cherry Pepsi sometimes)
Pepsi sucks.. but as usual it will COPY COKE (the king of colas).. pay millions for someone to do a cheesy commercial ..
Coke is flavored to attract young adults with more sophisticated tastes.
Pepsi is heavily sweetened for young children. That’s probably why Michael Jackson did commercials for Pepsi, at least until he got burned.
Ps, never use flammable hair spray.
irishboy50, are you a Pepsi employee, by any chance?
oh glorious technology- how will you improve our lives next? I love that coke spent “hundreds of millions” to develop this. Amazing.
I couldn’t agree more. This is SO lame… more ways for America to ingest different configurations of Coke. AWESOME…hundreds of millions? Go with the charities, Coca-Cola.
Nancy, thanks for trekking south to get us the breaking news. I’m amused that Carl’s Jr. is participating in the early trials, because there is the wait-times concern and Carl’s Jr.’s ads feature the guy that can’t make a decision. Murphy’s Law says I’ll be the one standing in line behind him… Also, the machine cost “hundreds of millions”? Should their URL be changed to cocacola.gov?
seems dumb to me to only put one nozzle on the vending machine. i personally hate waiting so if i have to wait at a fast food restaurant more than 1 minute to get soda, they will never see me again. this is going to be a big flop for coke unless they add at least 3 so people do not have to wait in line a long time
Nancy,
I am a diabetic. If the person in front of me makes a sugar concoction - how do I avoid the unneccessary sugars in my drink?
Do the developers have a solution to my conundrum?
Thanks.
Before having your drink dispensed, dispense some water, it will clear the last beverage out, preventing your drink from mixing with another.
No need to do that…….if u watch closely when u let off the pour button the syrup stops flowing just before the soda water stops.. so it in essence flushes the head….7-11 has dispensers in some of there stores that do 4 different kinds of soda pop from one head……that’s the way the 7-11 unit works as well
No, that does not work. You STILL get cherry flavoring if the person in front of you has Cherry Coke. I have used the machines on multiple occasions and always run water through to clear it.
So if these fast-food locations end up switching to these new machines, it seems that Dr Pepper or Pibb Extra are getting knocked out. That would be pure sadness. They’ll have to figure some way to get them in there as well.
Yeah, this appears like a losing situation here. I was looking forward to Diet Dr. Pepper with these machines. Thanks alot of screwing us over coke…
I think for now the problem is Coke is creating these machines themselves and not their bottlers. Some Coke bottlers have agreements with Dr. Pepper/Snapple and others don’t. Once this goes national and they allow the local bottlers to refill the cartridges, then I think you’ll see more variety of “brands”. Note in this viedo on Popular Science, it shows Pibb Xtra and Pibb Zero.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-07/coca-cola-freestyle-most-advanced-soda-fountain-ever
I like the idea of more “diet/zero” flavors since I am a fan of Coke Zero but not Diet Coke and most restauarants still only have Diet Coke. I think the reason for increased sales is specifically because there are more diet and non-soda options, meaning people that just got “water” before are now willing to purchase a drink.
I am interested in the differences between Desani and “Water” though..
Dr Pepper is not a Coca-Cola brand. It is owned by Cadbury Schwepps. Pibb Xtra is the Coca-Cola spicy cherry brand.
Dr. Pepper is manufactured by a different company, the Dr.Pepper-Snapple Group, which competes with both Coke and Pepsi. Having Dr. Pepper at these vending machines would be like serving Pepsi at these vending machines, and by the way, they’ll be serving Pibb which is essentially the same as Dr. Pepper. You shouldn’t state such stupid remarks.
Pibb Extra IS a Coke product.
Hear me now and believe me later. These things will be a wait time horror so much so that I don’t think they’ll be around in a year. As an example does anyone remember the Taco Bell at the Tustin Marketplace? It had touchscreen ordering to be customer friendly but they were a delay monster because people couldn’t make up their minds. The lines were horrible and it was a failed experiment.
I remember another Taco Bell that had that too. I used to like ordering from it, but they took them all out. It does make a difference when people know what they are doing and can easily make up their minds. Taco Bell also had a person who would take your order if you didnt want to use it. Maybe they will have the regular soda fountains too.
The Taco Bell on Katella, near Euclid had the touch screens about 10 years ago. I thought it was awesome, but unfortunately most of the public is too dense to understand a service like that…
Yeah, but imagine all the germs you’re avoiding by not using touchscreens!
I was in a Jack in the Box last week that had one with a sign on it that said out of order. The counter person said they put the sign on it because they were actually loosing business because people where taking too long to place order, pay with a credit card etc…. People behind them would just leave.
That makes no sense, since these stations are supposed to be in the dining area, not behind the counter…
“The counter person said they put the sign on it because they were actually loosing business”
the word is “losing”
yes thats what i am hoping for. i will not wait in line more than a minute to get a drink. if this is the case, they will lose me as a customer.
Too many choices. It will take customer forever to figure out what to do. Plus, how will kids make a suicide beverage now?
Looks to me like you can still make a suicide. I like how one button says “Dasani” and one says “Water.”
I also like how there’s some new spins on old choices. I’ll try it when I see one.
It looks as though the Dasani only offers flavored waters. I bet you that the Water is just plain water. I wonder about the Dasani though, do they have a filtration system that makes it “Dasani” water, or is it just he tap water…
Yeah, I saw later that it looked like there wasn’t regular, non-flavored Dasani.
No Mello Yello, no Mr. Pibb, no Wink, no Thums Up, no Limca, no Fresca, no Nestea, no Sundrop, no Squirt, no Kinsley, not even any nasty old Beverly. Just the usual suspects that you can find anywhere, with flavor shots that are added internally.
So in reality the “104″ soda choices are just a matter of mixing the same few flavors in various proportions, which you can do at any normal soda fountain. Therefore the actual selection is roughly comparable to your average AM/PM, minus anything similar to Mountain Dew or Dr. Pepper.
I’m failing in my attempts to locate the big whoop. Am I missing something?
At least they didn’t blow those “millions” on ridiculous new logos.
Do you guys have any idea what this means……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….It means TAB is back!………………………………….Yessery!
Eric: TAB has been back for a while now. Where have you been?
I’ve been drinking diet Pepsi………..actually………………TAB has to be the worst tasting soft drink ever produced!
I’m with you on that! When I saw TAB in a four-pack about 2 or 3 years ago, I thought to myself, Self, there was a reason TAB went away, now why would someone want to bring it back?? Self did not have an answer that’s printable.
I prefer Pepsi over Coke but if I had my druthers, I’d druther have an RC, which you can get at BevMo
What would be cool is if they also added “modifier buttons” for the sweetener content, allowing you to make the drink more or less sweet.
“Q: How much does one Freestyle cost?
A Jack in the Box customer tries Freestyle for first time.
A: He declined to say, only stating that it cost “hundreds of millions” of dollars to develop.”
LOL! Just as I suspected and posted about on this blog…. Coca Cola will no doubt be leasing these new hundreds of millions of dollars machines to these fast food places at a premium. It sounds very gimmicky to me and as others have pointed out, there really ISN’T 104 choices. It’s the same old choices, with a few added news ones (not 104), that you can then mix together like Nancy did. Boy are these fast food places dumb.
Oh, now it’s over here! Persistent little booger…
I have to add my disappointment to the crowd. Not very impressed by a machine that really only makes drinks with “flavor” added. I was really looking forward to getting actual different drinks that you can normally find in SoCal.
Also what’s up with the drink placements? Why wouldn’t you put like drinks next to each other, such as the Minute Maids, and the Poweraides.
Dan, and others:
I’m sorry my post didn’t really get this point across…But, many of these drinks can’t be found in bottles, or regular soda fountains anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, I had limited time to play with the machine, as it was being tested by other media, and being used by REAL customers..Every time I tried to jot all the flavors down, I got booted out of the way. But, as I stated in the video, and in the photos, the main menu contains the Coca-Cola owned brands, and then you drill down from there. Many brands, offered 3 to 8 different flavors. Anyway, once the “cool” factor wears out…I do wonder if this will be cost-effective for chains. No one (jack in the box or coke) was willing to talk financials with me…so, we’ll have to see if chains really feel like they can make money off this machine, without aggravating customers.
Nancy, I understand they can’t be found, but just adding a fruit flavored syrup isn’t that cutting edge. Most 7-Eleven’s already have something like that (Lemon, Cherry, and Vanilla).
Looking at the Dasani picture it appears the flavors include (but may not be limited to) Lime, Raspberry, Orange, Strawberry, Grape, Cherry, Peach. I would expect there is also Vanilla as well.
While the machine itself is innovated, I think Coke is out of touch with consumers when it comes to choice. Not every consumer wants Lime flavored Coke Zero, some consumers would like an option of the lesser known “real” brands that Coke owns; Mello Yello, Fresca, Nestea, and Mr. Pibb probably being the ones that people would want.
Personally if I want lemon flavored diet coke, I’m grabbing a lemon slice and squeezing it in myself.
Thanks for taking the trip down to San Diego to check out the machine, it looks promising, but we will have to wait and see.
“While the machine itself is innovated”
The word is “innovative”
Yes “Spell Checker”, and I know the word is innovative. See there is this thing called a typo. It’s when you type something different then what you meant to type. It happens from time to time, since I tend to skip proofreading when I reply on blogs, and I’m not rich enough to hire an editor.
I’m assuming you are perfect, since you have to travel around the “internets” and correct other people’s mistakes!
Do you get off on correcting people’s mistakes?
While you are at it, will you start using proper punctuation? Your lack of sentence structure makes no sense…
Nobody wants Mello Yello, or Fresca. I’ve never heard of those, so I’m guessing they’re probably too niche of a market to serve. I think people expect too much these days. I could never get a strawberry sprite zero before, and now I can. I see it as a plus.
You nay-sayers are a little too negative. It’s the first major soft drink innovation in probably over 20 years… Embrace it!
Consumers are looking for variety and this machine offers plenty of it. All drinks are basically flavors, so the addition of multiple flavors allows the consumer to mix their own brands which opens up endless possibilities.
In the future each location can chose which flavors they prefer on their unit. Data is reported directly from the unit, so they will know which brands sell and which do not.
This is new technology so some brands like Nestea are currently not available, but they are working on them. Since this is proprietary technology, I don’t see Dr Pepper ever being on this unit.
Pibb Xtra and Diet Pibb Xtra are available now. I have tried both in Atlanta. The unit was very easy to use, has large icons and the brands I tried tasted better than the ones from the legacy fountain units.
“I’m sorry my post didn’t really get this point across…But, many of these drinks can’t be found in bottles, or regular soda fountains anywhere in the world.”
I got the point although, yes, it wasn’t super obvious, and will be trying then machine (if I come across it) just to try some new flavors.
If somebody doesn’t want to use the machine I don’t think they have to. Or is this replacing “normal” serve-yourself soda fountains so that a customer will have no choice but to use it?
all they are going to end of doing is aggravating customers
This Coke machine is pretty cool. i did get an opportunity to try out, the coolness factor is definitely there. But i can also see the longer delays as well.
Since this machine is software based, i wonder if they can just upload new drink combinations or modify the user interface such as add frequently selected drink choices to help those not familiar or those that want the common drinks without having to go through the sub menus. This might make the “suicide” drink possible in just one click of a button.
Just some thoughts…
Minute Maids, and the Poweraides…….take a look at the screen some more, there is minute maid and powerade, both regular and diet or “light”!!! As a diet soda drinker this thing is great…I am usually only given one choice of diet drink or it’s water or iced tea…this machine seems to have the availability to provide several diet drinks as well as their sugary counter parts. and when it comes to people taking too long…well the ones that have 5 or 6 different spouts have lines at them because one person getting a drink hogs up the whole machine so I don’t see much of a difference in that department.
I WANT ONE IN MY HOUSE!
In a perfect world there would be about 300 choices! A hundred beers or so, several of each of the major liquors (rum, gin, vodka, etc), mixers and then the colas.
That and a 75 ounce cup.
Wait…. no Dr. Pepper or Mountain Dew!! Now I must rescind my initial excitement. I’d forgotten about that particular side effect.
At least Subway has those little fridges where you can get fruit juice if you don’t want soda.
Julie: Dr. Pepper is not owned by Coca-Cola, so it can’t be an option. Here’s some Dr. Pepper facts for you, courtesy of its website:
Dr Pepper is a brand within the Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPSG). DPSG is one of the largest producers of soft drinks and premium beverages in the Americas. DPSG’s brand portfolio includes Snapple, Dr Pepper, 7UP, A&W Root Beer, Sunkist soda, Canada Dry, Hawaiian Punch, Schweppes, RC Cola, Diet Rite, Slush Puppie frozen drinks, Mott’s Apple Juice, Clamato, Mr & Mrs T, Holland House mixers, Rose’s, Mistic, Yoo-Hoo, Orangina, IBC, Stewart’s, Nantucket Nectars and other well-known consumer brands.
Also, I forgot to mention this factoid on Freestyle: It contains 60 zero-calorie options, and 68 caffeine-free options.
When I worked at Jack in the Box Dr. Pepper *was* a Coca-Cola product.
Dr. Pepper has never been a Coca-Cola product. Each Coca-Cola Bottler is an independent company and some of them have agreements to distribute Dr. Pepper and the like. In other parts of the country, a local Pepsi Bottler has the agreement to distribute Dr. Pepper.. ie, in Colorado you won’t find Dr. Pepper with Coke, you’ll find it with Pepsi and Coke will have Mr. Pibb.
distributed by Coca-Cola
This is a reply to Dave below:
BUT, that’s not 100% either. Just here in my little neck of the woods, Taco Bell serves Pepsi and Dr. Pepper and just down the street, Subway serves Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper.
But as you say, it’s up to the local distibutor and the establishment, whether a franchise or indepentent.
OK - when I posted this Dave was below Dan; now he’s above Dan.
Or maybe the heat is making things fuzzy, so I better go out and get an RC!
But better yet, if I’m going to BevMo, I ‘ll just get a beer.
No, that’s what I meant. Since Dr. Pepper is owned by a different company, those flavors we can get at some soda fountains will now go away where there are these coke machines.
Although I’d be way excited to see DPSG mimic the technology.
Mountain Dew (Mnt. Dew) is a pepsi product. The closest you are going to get to that nowadays on the coke side is Vault or maybe Surge (if they are still making that).
Agreed…with no Dr. Pepper or at least the Coke’s copy-cat Mr. Pibb, very little interest from me…I’ll steer clear of the long lines for this machine knowing that it won’t have my favorite product
Sheesh, just drink water. All those “flavors” are nothing
but chemicals and/or sugar. You are paying your money
for a whole bunch of fizzy water and an ounce or two of
“flavor,” which probably costs a dime or so. I have a
contraption at home to make fizzy water, which could
be whatever flavor I wanted if I bought the syrup. But
there is nothing more refreshing than an ice cold glass
of plain fizzy water. Nothing but water. But fizzy.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Two reasons not to try it…
———-
Q: Will you be offering cane sugar options anytime soon, instead of high-fructose corn syrup?
A. No, said Helen Tarleton, senior communications manager for Coca-Cola.
———
1. No sugar, no business from me.
2. People trying to use self-checkout lanes already act like cavemen when they saw fire for the first time. I can’t imagine the increased dazed and confused looks this machine will generate on these people.
I saw your post after I put up mine. I agree 100%
GO check out the movie Food Inc
Thanks for the tip on the “Food Inc” movie. I had never heard of it before. It’s getting excellent reviews on Rottontomatoes.com (70 out of 72 critics liked it).
Will watch it this weekend.
OMG! I can’t wait to play with this machine. I love Coke and am looking forward to trying all the flavors.
eeeew corn syrup nastiness!
Were you really expecting them to change their ways?
“Dr. Pepper has never been a Coca-Cola product.”
Allow me to rephrase my statement: When I worked at Jack in the Box the sodas we had were Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Root Beer (might’ve been Mug brand, but this was definitely before the abomination known as Barq’s came along), and Dr. Pepper.
Best root beer ever - Frosty’s (which you can also find at BevMo)
2nd Best root beer ever - Virgils at Trader Joes
3rd Best root beer ever - A&W in a float made at an A&W drive IN (noticed the emphases on IN not thru).
Heck with staying away from the HFCS - I’m going shopping at BevMo!
Hav eyou ever tried this rootbeer?
<A href=”http://www.rootbeerreviews.com/brews/henryweinhard.php”.
Can someone tell me how to make an active link on here?
Dan Garion is a complete knucklehead…
Please everyone: Don’t attack each other. Stay on topic.
I wonder what prompted that? Maybe it was my response to the elusive “Spell Checker”!
I have to remember to stop feeding the trolls, sorry about that Nancy.
Dan — I didn’t mean you..I meant the commenters attacking you on the typos….sorry about that.
A touch-screen drink dispenser at a fast-food place seems to me to be a great vector for transmission of norovirus. An infected person (child?) touches the Coke button, then other people touch the contaminated Coke button and pick up burgers or fries with their fingers without washing their hands in-between. A day or two later there’s a mini-epidemic of “stomach flu” among Coke-drinkers.
People mixing selections could conceivably spread the virus to other buttons as well, although I don’t know how much virus would actually spread that way.
It’d be interesting to hear from a doctor knowledgeable in contagious diseases.
Is this any different then the doors, the current buttons on soda fountains, the straw dispenser, and the tables? Don’t really see this being much different then the other 1000 things we touch throughout the day.
Dan, the issue is not that the touchscreen is much different from the other things we touch; rather, the point is that the more things you touch, the more germs you encounter. For example, I prefer the soda dispensers that have levers, not buttons, because, besides being to get my soda with only one hand, they are one less thing with a button I have to share with others.
I guess I’m just not all scared about germs. This recent “germaphobe” world we live in isn’t good for a kids immune system. When I was a kid I got dirty, and no one cared. Nowadays the second a kid touches something their parents are dousing them with Purel. No wonder more kids are being diagnosed with personality disorders, their parents won’t let them be kids.
But back to the point of the blog… sorry for the derailment.
Maybe they can have a box of gloves or wipes next to the dispenser. But we seem to use the usual drink dispensers OK without an epidemic. You know that ones you have been using all this time with the little button you push to dispense the beverage? I’m sure germs stay on those buttons as much as they stay on a touch screen. Or how bout the touch screen you use to dispense gasoline for your automobile? Or how bout the touch screen you use in the self check-out at the grocery store? Or the touch screen at your favorite ATM you use to get cash so you can buy the soda from the touch screen dispenser? Mind boggling aint’ it?
Way too many choices, totally kills the concept of “fast” food.
I do think that this idea would be great for restaurants and bars but not so much for fast food.
I can just imagine being at In-N-Out. The food menu has five or six items, the drink menu contains 102. Something just doesn’t add up.
LOL!
okay a zillion and one beverage choices to go with one meal? And you just know there’s going to be those people that can’t make up there minds and hold up the waitress so she can’t get to any other tables in a timely manner. Not to mention the inevitable problems that go wrong with any type of machine. I can just see it now,the waitress comes back to our table to say that “my flavor” is out or some other glitch is going on! I just don’t think this is a good idea at all! Besides,isn’t this type of thing already available at 7 eleven?
okay a zillion and one beverage choices to go with one meal? And you just know there’s going to be those people that can’t make up there minds and hold up the waitress so she can’t get to any other tables in a timely manner. Not to mention the inevitable problems that can go wrong with any type of machine. I can just see it now,the waitress comes back to our table to say that “my flavor” is out or some other glitch is going on! I just don’t think this is a good idea at all! Besides,isn’t this type of thing already available at 7 eleven?
I don’t think a waitress gets it for you.
sorry for the duplicate comments,lol!
I laugh when certain people say Pepsi is “sweeter”.
Based on what!!??
The sugar content is identical, the taste is close between the two, but I prefer Pepsi by a mile. That’s my preferrence, end of story. There’s no retarded excuse as in “More/less carbonation” “Sweeter/not as sweet”…etc. It just tastes better!
As far as who has more appeal to the younger generation, it’s Pepsi hands down. It’s not even close if you actually think about it. Pepsi’s entire philosophy revolves around winning the young, hip demographics. Not only that, if you look at PepsiCo as a corporation, it’s portfolio puts Coke to shame (Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Quaker, FritoLay, Tropicana, Naked Juices, Yum Brands, Lipton, Starbucks Frapps, AMP energy, Rockstar energy, Crush, Sobe & Sobe Lifewater…etc)
The list goes on and on..
You get the point..
So, Coke has a new “Freestyle machine” good for them and the industry as a whole. Companies always copy from each other. Coke just copied Pepsi’s new all natural 0 calorie Purevia and came up with their’s 1 month later called Truvia…
It happens, life goes on..
it’s a shame a Pepsi employee has to “stick up” for their company.
Funny I never heard of Purevia, but I sure know what Truvia is! I guess Coke’s marketing department is better, and BTW Coke is more carbonated and less syrup “tasting”, there will always be a soda war but I will stay on Coke’s no matter what.
The product sucks, I drove there to try it, and the flavor is off. There was no Mountain Dew. Give me something I can drink. Failed Concept!!
Unfortunately Mountain Dew is a Pepsi product so you aren’t going to see it with Coke at any restaurant.
haha!! Just saw the Dasani button next to the Water button……yeah right! Probably be drinking the same thing.
For a business standpoint, this offers the restaurants the ability to actually track sales which was difficult sinve fountains were placed in front of the counter. A system setup with Verizon Wireless and Coke IT allow RFID signals from the flavor cartridges to track each dispense of syrup. For restaurant owners this technology allows them to track trends, allows them to track what people are drinking. For special events in or around the restaurant, they can now pull up hard data that X many people chose a particular drink during the event.
This is data they have never been able to collect before, especially now that most soda fountains are in front of the counter now. When Coke or future drink vendors want to beta test a new flavor, they can now track how many people are actually choosing this rather than checking the box of syrup in the back and shaking it to see how much has been dispensed.
From a safety point of view, Another thing they can do is if one of the cartridges has been recalled for whatever reason, the company can send a signal out to the machines saying to stop dispensing syrup from that cartridge immediately.
The smaller containers or cartridges are way less bulkier than their boxed syrup counterparts. This also allows for a restaurant to now increase the number of flavors. Today, fountains are restricted in the flavors they offer based on how many flavor dispensers were in the unit.
Remember folks, this is a BETA. When this product is released, there will be several of these in your local fast food chain, not just one.
Thanks for the technical response…in regards to your last sarcastic comment “remember folks”- there is nothing for us to remember…this is new information. Just because this is your professional business doesn’t mean that everyone else knows what you’re talking about. The point about data collection is over-rated too. The data is already collected through the number of empty cartridges that get used…boy, that’s highly technical. It seems that you’re just tweaked because some unskilled public comments are not that impressed with your life’s work. The machine is not as fun as the one that many are used to our local 7-11 and doesn’t include the non-Coke product that many people also like…how about applying your reduced cartridge design to make that better instead? How does your silly million dollar invention negotiate contracts to extend the flavors to other companies? Whatever….go back to your reading your radio frequencies, they will not talk back.
I like to mix 5 or 6 different sodas together to make my favorite blend.
doesn’t seem like this new machine will let me do that.
By the way all y’all … The Coke equivalent to Mtn Dew is ….
Mello Yello.
Hence our wondering why it isn’t included. It used to be available throughout most of the country (other than, apparently, California).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mello_Yello
Vault is replacing Mello Yello in many markets and is available on the Coca-Cola Freestyle.
I’m a computer consultant. Why on earth does it take so long (see video) to switch screens from the main lemonade button to the flavors screen!!! Boggles the mid why the delay, technology existed 20 years ago to switch such a simple screen in a fraction of a second
coke is the number one drink!
There is a LOT more to FreeStyle than what you are seeing but it is tech and not ‘in the cup’
The machines have network connectivity (ethernet and I believe cell based ‘wifi’) to allow the store/company/bottler to check the machine to see what flavors and mixes are selling quickly.
The system uses a patented RFID system to check in/out the cartridges and make sure they are put into the correct slot.
It automatically puts a flavor that is out into ‘out of order’ by removing it from the menu until it is refilled. Also the machine can ‘phone home’ about problems and automatically dispatch support or even alert the crew that a flavor needs replacing. I also believe there is a status screen that they can display.
It is POSSIBLE that other flavors/brands that are distributed by large Coke bottlers could end up in cartridges in the future.
Coke can easily test market flavors.
There is nothing from keeping a store from having 2,3 or ore of these when they are widely released.
Some of these features are in the current test units, some are not. The cool thing about this machine is that they can make firmware upgrades to improve the level of service and deal with issues.
I live in Atlanta, and my local movie theater is a test location for these (as of 10/31/2009). There are about six of them arranged between the two concession stands.
The concessionaires don’t pour your drink now; they just give you a cup and point you at the machines. I think you’ll find that the first time through, the machines are a bit daunting because of all the choices they offer. But on a trip back for a second drink, I found it easy and I was ready to try something unusual and different. Nobody seemed to be having a hard time with the machines, and there were enough of them that there was little or no waiting in line.
I’m looking forward to going back to that theater and trying some other combinations. And no, I don’t work for Coke. Heck, I prefer Pepsi and Mountain Dew. But IMO, Coke’s got a pretty cool secret weapon going on with these machines. Check them out if you happen to see one.
okay this seems like a great idea, but i didn’t see many of my favorite flavors of sodas. I hope Coke would let other people’s products on this machine. I didn’t see Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mt. Dew, Diet Mt dew, Dr. Pepper, Diet Pepper, Mug rootbeer, diet mug rootbeer and whole lot of others. And why can’t they include Vitamin Water on this machine too??? Vitamin Water is owned by Coke.
What is in it for Coke to allow other companies sodas?