BevNet is reporting that Coca-Cola is rolling out their Free-Style machines in several hundred C-stores in the Mass, Conn and Rhode Island areas. I had seen some reports on these a couple years ago but then had heard nothing more and did not realize they had been commercialized.

They allow Coke to dispense 100 different flavor combinations from a single coin operating machine. As I understand the operation, they use a common base (water, CO2, sweetener) and a battery of small micro dosing systems that dispense the actual flavor. Customers can combine flavors to make their own custom beverage.

I’ve long used Coke in my workshops as an example of the “good old days” when they offered a single product (Coke classic in a 6oz glass bottle) and only a single product. They now offer about 150 different “Coca-Cola” products and sizes in addition to Sprite and all the other non-Coke flavors. It makes for a lot of changeover in the plant.

Custom blending like this eliminates that entire inventory, the changeover, and all the other issues associated with a large number of SKUs.

Good for you Coke. I want to see more of this.

BevNet article here https://bit.ly/O3d8hA

I might also point out that Oden Corp has been doing this for several years now at a plant level. Their Mass-Blend system allows products such as cosmetics to be custom mixed on the fly; they use dual dispensing system. One side has a neutral base common to all products, the other has a color component, say tan, which can be mixed in varying proportions for either a lighter or darker finished product. Additional colorant dispensers can be added for even more variety.

https://www.odencorp.com/video-gallery/mass-blendae-continuous-stream-blending-systems