Coca-Cola unveils the soda fountain of the future

With the introduction of a new beverage dispensing machine, soft drink giant Coca-Cola may have to update one of its famous former ad slogans to “Have a Coke and 104 smiles.”

Dubbed Coca-Cola Freestyle, the new soda dispenser offers more than 100 different beverages, all in one self-contained unit. It doesn’t seem possible, space-wise anyway, as anyone who has seen a fast-food employee struggle to fill up the ice bucket or refill the traditional “bag and box” syrup containers can attest.

But technology has come a long way, even in the beverage service industry.

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Using its own proprietary Pure Pour technology, Coca-Cola developed the machine by using small, highly-concentrated containers of ingredients. Those ingredients are then mixed with water and sweetener to create each individual drink. The total number of beverages that can be served before the containers run out is also comparable to the old system.

“In traditional machines, the syrups have to be mixed with CO2 and water in a larger scale,” said Shelley Kench, a Coca-Cola representative. “The ingredients that are in the cartridges are no longer what we call ’syrups.’ Now the ingredients are based on individual recipe for each drink based on that user’s selection.”

The company is currently testing the units in two Atlanta-area restaurants, as well as 10 Jack-In-the Box restaurants in Southern California, including one in Vista, the only test site in San Diego County.  There are plans to expand the testing sites to include Subway, Pei Wei, and Noodles locations in Southern California by the end of the summer.

So far, the new machine is a big hit.

“It’s much easier to maintain, and it’s a time saver and it saves storage,” said Oscar Hurtado, area coach (essentially a district manager) for Jack-In-the-Box in Vista. “It would take about 14 of the old fountain machines to do what one new unit can do.”

The Coca-Cola Freestyle uses a touch-screen interface that presents consumers with a choice of 18 “parent” brands like Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite, Diet Sprite, Fanta, Powerade, and more. After selecting one of those parent brands, they then select different flavors of the beverage. For instance, for Coke and Diet Coke, users can select, vanilla, lime, cherry, and even orange and raspberry.

“There are a lot of flavors you can’t get anywhere else,” said Kench, noting that the orange and raspberry flavors aren’t available in retail. “Today, consumers have more choices than ever before, so we’re just feeding them more choices for their Coca-Cola beverages.”

In addition, there are other uniquely-flavored drinks available, including strawberry, grape or peach Sprite (which is very tasty), seven kinds of Fanta, seven kinds of Powerade, six flavors of Vault energy drink, and just as many flavors of Dasani water, or its carbonated counterpart Dasani Sensations.

“I’ve seen stuff online kind of showing something similar, but [the machine] is really neat with the touch screen,” said Jeremy Larsen, 26, of Encinitas, who tried the Freestyle at the Vista Jack-In-the-Box. “The interface didn’t respond that quickly, but I’m sure that’s something that will be improved. But I really like it.”

After about 20 seconds of deliberating, Larsen landed on the Red Blitz Vault.

“It’s much more compact, saves a lot of space,” he said. “I want one in my room, but I want one with alcohol options,” Larsen joked. “I’m a bartender, so I want alcohol and juices so I can hit a few buttons, ‘Oh, there’s my Long Island.’”

Kench said that Coca-Cola’s development team is always looking at coming up with new flavors based on customer feedback.

With only one pour spout, the possibility exists that long queues form at the machine, but Kench didn’t seem concerned though it is one aspect they are evaluating in the testing phase.

“We’ve found that even with the old machines with six or eight valves, you typically wouldn’t have more than one person at the machine at a time anyway,” Kench said. ” So we don’t believe it’s going to be a major impact.”

Hurtado, whose Jack-In-the-Box location has had the machine in place since July 9, acknowledged that the process of filling a drink may be a bit longer, simply given the vast array of choices that now exist.

“Out of the thousands of people we get, you might have some slowdown with people scrolling through the options and saying ‘Wow, I have this many choices.’ But once they sense that someone is behind them, they’ll go ahead and make their selection. So far, for [Jack-In-the-Box] it’s been a non-issue.”

Kench didn’t comment on the cost of the machines on the production and implementation level, but she said that after the testing phase, the company hopes to begin a nationwide rollout of the Coca-Cola Freestyle in 2010.

So, if you’ve ever thought to yourself, “I could really use a Strawberry Sprite or a Raspberry Coke,” — and honestly, who among us hasn’t — your wishes may come true in the very near future. If you’d like to try the machine yourself, the Jack-In-the-Box is located at 260 Melose Ave. in Vista.

Eric Yates is SDNN deputy managing editor. SDNN lifestyle editor Joey Peña contributed to this story.

Tags: Array, barqs, beverage, cherry, Coca Cola, coke, dispenser, drink, Fanta, freestyle, future, Hi-C, Jack In the Box, lime, machine, minute maid, new, orange, pure pour, raspberry, SDNN, Sprite, vanilla, vault

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