Coca-Cola Freestyle

From A:

J and I went on a lunch date to Firehouse Subs today.  We were very surprised to see their new soda fountain, the Coca-Cola Freestyle.  I had never even heard of this machine, much less used it.  And considering that we visited the World of Coca-Cola less than a year ago, I feel like we should have at least known something about it.

The first thing that struck me about the machine is how little space it takes up, as well as the fact that it doesn't take up any counter space:

It also only has one dispensing nozzle in the same area as the ice dispenser:

And with 100+ flavor options, it took me a while to decide what to try.  I was especially happy to see a variety of diet, caffeine free options, which are usually very limited (if available at all).  This included Caffeine Free Diet Coke (and associated flavoring options such as raspberry, lime, vanilla, orange, and cherry), Sprite Zero and flavoring options, Minute Maid Light lemonade, various flavors of Dasani water, and several Powerade flavors:

A few mysteries about this new machine remain:

1. What does the syrup storage area look like?  There must be so many different varieties - how are they stored and how often does each option need to be replaced?

2. How did Coca-Cola decide what size syrup dispensers should be used for each soda flavor?  I would think that an option like regular Coca-Cola would outsell most of the other flavor options, but by how much?  And even if Coca-Cola uses historical demand data from older soda fountains, the addition of so many flavor options (many of them quite obscure, or even new) would make predicting demand very challenging.

3. How long until this type of machine becomes the new standard?

In summary, I was very impressed by this new machine and excited about the options it provides.  I'm not sure if this is a universal Firehouse Subs machine, but I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has seen one of these anywhere else.