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Topic: Coca-Cola FREESTYLE...the future of bad soda

Edward Havens
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 614
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Mar 2008

posted 09-02-2013 04:16 AM

I don't mind the Freestyle units. I do mind when someone who has a Freestyle unit doesn't use it to its full potential. I still have yet to find a business with a Freestyle unit using the Seagram's Ginger Ale flavors that are available.

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Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 09-02-2013 06:56 AM

I am on the same page as Tony. Yes it is a super concentrate, using drug making technology; super accurate. Calls out when carts are empty and reorders new ones, could notify manager on the cell phone.

You guys do know the General Cinema/Pepsi connection don't you? I don't know all the details, but as i understand it, there would be no Pepsi without General cinema. perhaps that is why service is so good. Louis

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Mark Lensenmayer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1605
From: Upper Arlington, OH
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 09-02-2013 07:05 AM

One big advantage of the Freestyle machine is that every flavor is available in a sugar-free form. With most fast food places offering a non-sugar choice only of Diet Coke, this gives me many more choices in drinks. There are also many non-carbonated choices, which is also great for me, since I need to avoid sugar and carbonation.

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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002

posted 09-02-2013 07:05 AM

Minute Maid is a Coca-Cola brand? I didn't know that. Fanta and Sprite are the only other non-coke ones which I recognise from here.

I don't like cola of any type.

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Mark Hajducki
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 500
From: Edinburgh, UK
Registered: May 2003

posted 09-02-2013 08:33 AM

I would expect there to be issues with products/flavours running out in busy sites. Refilling the machines would be a pain as the numerous cartridges are in the base of each machine, rather than back of house.

quote: Mike Blakesley
Either there's not enough ice -- no wait, there's NEVER enough ice

This would be a positive for the freestyle machines as the customer would be able to choose how much ice they get (in the UK customers would complain about getting 2/3 of the cup filled with ice).

quote: Tony Bandiera Jr
I can tell the nozzle is not rinsed between flavors, as even the ice water had residual taste of the drink before mine.

Will it let you dispense without a cup present? If it does just let it run for a few seconds before filling the cup.

In the UK Coke tends to be used as a semi-generic term for cola. I personally prefer Coke over Pepsi (UK Coke is made with sugar, Pepsi with HFCS). Freestyle machines have not made it this far north yet.

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Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 09-02-2013 08:53 AM

The cartridges are about like ink cartridges; very clean. As I mentioned, they tell YOU when they are empty. Quick; easy. Not at all like the ones we are accoustomed to.

As regards the non cleaning nozzle; not a factor. The mix must be 98% water.

Other than taste/speed, I see no objections. Perhaps the reboot time after changing cartridges.

Coca cola has many, many brands it owns. Look them up, you will be surprised. (I have some of their stock.)

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Martin McCaffery
Film God

Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-02-2013 10:53 AM

Not sure how you guys can drink any of that crap, but to each his own.

Just have to chime in about Coke's lousy service. When a regional Coke bought out the local dealer here they just screwed over and dumped all of the little guys. Pepsi has been very, very good to us. Coke came sniffing around about 10 years later, and yes, I hold a grudge. I told them to make me an offer that would include an apology and never heard back. We may lose a few sales to the Southern Coke Diehards, but not enough to notice.

FWIW, my assistant is one of the SCD's and brings her own Coke to drink.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 09-02-2013 12:20 PM

The Santikos Palladium AVX theater I visited outside Houston, TX had LOTS of those Freestyle machines. I'd never seen them before and wondered just what sort of compromises might have been made to fit a couple dozen drink choices into a single machine.

If I remember correctly I got a Coke Zero from one. I didn't remember it tasting bad, but then I might have been too distracted by the theater's center channel speaker being on the fritz.

Fountain sodas in general don't taste nearly as good as the bottled stuff. There's so many variables that can affect the taste. Too often it just tastes watered down compared to the bottled stuff.

IMHO, the very best Coca-Cola product one can get is Mexican Coke, sweetened with natural cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup bullshit and bottled in the classic tall, glass bottles. Chill it down ice cold and it is excellent.

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 09-02-2013 01:04 PM

Correction: Postmix fountain drinks don't taste as good as the bottled product. Premix, on the other hand, is the same as bottled since the only thing that's added to the mix on-site is the CO2.

The only downsides of premix is that fact that it's substantially more expensive than postmix, and the drinks are fizzier so you can't pour them as fast (have to set the nozzles to a slower pour) and it can take some time for the foam to go down, especially when the atmospheric pressure is low.

But the product you're serving to the customer tastes a lot better than any postmix.

**Yes, the weather really does have a big effect on serving premix.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 09-02-2013 02:15 PM

OK I'm not a concessions pro like you guys so I'm a bit confused. WTF is the difference between pre and post mix?

quote: Frank Cox
Premix, on the other hand, is the same as bottled since the only thing that's added to the mix on-site is the CO2.

That's how I've ALWAYS seen it done. Bag in the box connected to one tube, CO2 connected to another. Nothing else gets added in there. And yes the staff have always been able to change the CO2 themselves. CO2 isn't added to bottles on site so I don't see how they could be identical. No bottle has ever tasted as good as a McDonald's fountain. Also, WTF is "brix" and why is it called that?

I guess I spent too much time in the projection booth.

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 09-02-2013 02:29 PM

Postmix (the bag-in-a-box) is a heavy syrup; CO2 and water are added to it on-site. Premix is just "flat soda" -- everything is there except for the fizz.

A five gallon tank of premix gets you roughly five gallons of finished product. A five gallon tank of postmix gets you several hundred gallons of finished product.

These days, postmix comes in a bag-in-a-box. Premix comes in five gallon aluminum tanks. (Years ago, postmix came in tanks too, but that has changed.)

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-02-2013 08:36 PM

quote: Frank Cox
A five gallon tank of postmix gets you several hundred gallons of finished product.

No, no.....a five gallon tank of postmix gets you six gallons of product. The mix is 5/1.

Joe - "brix" is just the industry term for the setting of the ratio of syrup to carbonated water, as in "I need these machines to be brixed." I haven't got a clue where the term comes from. The little cup the technician uses to do the job is called a "brix cup." Probably named after somebody who invented the system, who had a name like Jack Brixman or something.

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 09-02-2013 08:49 PM

The default brix ratio being 5/1 for regular is where I would add 'color' the brix ratio to make the taste just a bit better by slightly increasing the soda/water ratio so the soda didn't have such a heavy taste.

I would do this simply due to where we didn't have a high water purification/filtration system like the product out of a bottle or can.

The results were positive coming from the patrons who would comment on how our soda would taste compared to the competition who would serve the same product - be it Pepsi or Coke..

Course, it all depends on how much ice is put in the cup first .. or, turn it around so the ice would last longer: add the product then add ice in the cup.

Below from wiki

quote:
Degrees Brix (symbol °Bx) is the sugar content of an aqueous solution. One degree Brix is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution and represents the strength of the solution as percentage by weight (% w/w). If the solution contains dissolved solids other than pure sucrose, then the °Bx only approximates the dissolved solid content. The °Bx is traditionally used in the wine, sugar, fruit juice, and honey industries

You're close Mike, here's the real person:

quote:
In the early 1800s, Karl Balling, then Adolf Brix, and finally the Normal-Commissions under Fritz Plato prepared pure sucrose solutions of known strength, measured their specific gravities and prepared tables of percent sucrose by weight vs. measured specific gravity. Balling measured specific gravity to 3 decimal places, Brix to 5, and the Normal-Eichungs Kommission to 6 with the goal of the Commission being to correct errors in the 5th and 6th decimal place in the Brix table.

I was taught by our local Pepsi people on how to brix soda towers back in the early 70's and we had a more complicated method on performing the brix tests on each head. Coke simplified methods with using a single brix nozzle and a pre stamped ratio cup to make the job quick and easy..

It all works no matter how you slice it.

-Monte

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Mark Ogden
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 943
From: Little Falls, N.J.
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-02-2013 08:56 PM

Beaten to the punch by Monte.

I kind of like these machines, it's cool to be able to get a lime flavored Diet Dr. Pepper, or whatnot. The only thing that bothers me is having to wait behind people trying to figure out how it works. Reminds me of when the ape-men first reach out to touch the monolith in 2001.

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 09-02-2013 09:48 PM

Postmix has changed since I last had anything to do with it, then. I remember that one tank of postmix (5 gallons) would last for weeks at the theatre that I worked at before I moved here and opened my own. The syrup was the consistency of something like molasses, and as I recall the lesser-selling varieties tended to expire rather than go empty.

That's 20+ years back so things have obviously changed.

I think this is something similar to what I remember:

12 Litre Pepsi Post Mix Syrup

That says their mix ratio is 6:1, and a 12 litre box gets you 72 litres of product. Which is a lot more than 6 gallons of product out of a 5 gallon box.

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