A couple of weeks ago, I took my wife and teenage kids to the Five Guys restaurant on West Ridge Road. After ordering our burgers and fries, we went to the end of the counter to fill our cups at the self-serve beverage station. Rather than the traditional machine with a dispenser for six or eight varieties of soda, we found a new machine with a single dispenser and a computerized touch screen, offering 22 varieties of drinks to choose from.
After I made my initial selection – classic Coca Cola is my choice – another screen offered additional flavor varieties: cherry Coke, vanilla Coke, Coke with lime … seven options in total. A quick calculation suggested that this one machine could dispense more than a hundred varieties of sodas, iced teas, sports drinks, and other beverages.
This high-tech soda fountain is called the Freestyle, and the Coca-Cola Co. thinks it will revolutionize the beverage industry.