Coca-Cola wants in on your fancy drink orders

Your fountain drink order could soon be getting a glow-up.

Coca-Cola is experimenting with new ways to capitalize on Americans’ growing appetite for customizable beverages, from dirty sodas and colorful refreshers to energy drinks.

What’s bubbling

Coke has developed a prototype Freestyle drink dispenser—the touch-screen soda fountain with 100+ drink options—that’s capable of making dirty sodas, which combine soda with flavored syrups and cream.

• It’s also testing equipment with AMC Theatres that dispenses brightly colored refreshers and other customizable beverages.
• Restaurant beverages are becoming an increasingly important draw for customers, as beverage servings outpaced both food-only and food-and-beverage orders in Q2, according to Circana.

Coke has a pretty big testing ground. Since Freestyle machines launched 17 years ago, they’ve dispensed more than 67 billion 8-ounce servings. The machines give Coca-Cola real-time insight into what customers are pouring, where they’re pouring it, and when.

Zoom out: Coke is also helping restaurants create drinks that don’t necessarily carry its name. The company spent roughly 18 months working with Whataburger on its “Whatafreshers," and is currently developing an unbranded, customizable energy drink for restaurants to name themselves that’s expected to debut within a year.