Coca-Cola to let people make its drinks at home

[cali]

Coca-Cola is looking to tap into a new market, with plans to let customers make its sodas and other drinks at home.

The world's biggest beverage maker said Wednesday that it's buying a 10 percent stake in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. for $1.25 billion as part of an agreement to bring its brands into the fast-growing at-home market. Green Mountain is known for its single-serve coffee makers, but is developing a machine for cold drinks as well.

The deal comes as SodaStream makes an aggressive push to make its at-home carbonation machines a fixture in U.S. kitchens. The Israeli company has touted its machines as a cheaper, more environmentally friendly alternative to buying Coke and Pepsi drinks.

<snip>

Green Mountain's "Keurig Cold" machine is expected to roll out in the company's 2015 fiscal year. The company says the machine will let people make sodas, sports drinks and other beverages with the touch of a button.

<snip>

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2014-02-05/coca-cola-buys-10-percent-stake-in-green-mountain

[jakeXT]

1. Does it work in W. Virginia ?

[VanillaRhapsody]

2. I like my Sodastream....

sure beats lugging cans and bottles into my apartment and keeps me out of the stores.

[BeeBee]

3. I like my Sodastream as well...

but I always thought that Coke and Pepsi would have been smart to market their syrups through/with Sodastream sort of like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts do with Keurig.

[VanillaRhapsody]

13. Yep it is a smart decision I think....I can't wait!

bring on the Republican hated Diet Coke Stream!

[tammywammy]

11. My mom has a SodaStream.

Pretty neat. I don't drink much soda, but if I did I'd get one. Have you tried the teas they have?

[get the red out]

36. Love my sodastream

Wonderful invention.

[Coyotl]

4. It cost a lot to transport all that sugar water.

[msongs]

5. used to make our own cokes at home in texas. bottling plant sold jugs of syrup to take home

and fizz up any strength u wanted it. a tablespoon of coke syrup was a standard treatment for upset stomachs.

[LiberalArkie]

29. Before Nexium came out, I used to keep Cokes in the fridge with the caps off to get rid of the fizz

It settled my stomach like nothing ever else ever did. My mom used to do it for me when I was in elementary school. Of course that was when there was sugar in it. I did not have to worry about weight gain since I needed all the weight I could get.

I could not even swim as a kid, I would start off at the shallow end on the pool and would be under water before I got 15ft away.. I think I had about 5% body fat. No way could I float. So I never had a problem with weight gain.

[RoverSuswade]

33. And colds!

I remember those jugs. They had a big thick glass handle. We always mixed it stronger than directed. Sooooo good.

[surrealAmerican]

6. ... so they'll be selling the syrup then?

Why does this require a "partnership" with a manufacturer of carbonating machinery? They could sell their syrup without that.

[VanillaRhapsody]

14. uh patent law?

[surrealAmerican]

16. Coke owns the patent, coke can sell the syrup.

The machine you use to carbonate the water is irrelevant to that.

[VanillaRhapsody]

18. Yeah but Sodastream owns the patent on the machine....

[kcr]

22. It might use a different technology.

If not we can count on hearing about the lawsuit, I'm sure. Just like we heard about the patent application for the word "candy" that the developers of Candy Crush Saga filed.

[VanillaRhapsody]

23. Yeah but they own the bottles of fizz that you have to use with the machine.....

and Coke cannot market that!

[kcr]

24. I assumed Keurig would be using their own bottles

Since they're coming out with their own machine. I didn't realize Soda Stream monopolized the market on those. I wish they'd had a picture of the machine.

[VanillaRhapsody]

26. It has to screw into the machine so the screw in mechanism is what makes them different.

not to mention that the empty bottles that you have to use with the machine have specific threads that you can only use with the SodaStream.

[surrealAmerican]

30. It doesn't matter.

One bottle of carbonated water is indistinguishable from another bottle of carbonated water. Whichever company markets the machine, the resulting beverage is identical. Sodastream does not have a patent on carbonated water.

[VanillaRhapsody]

35. They have a patent on HOW the carbonation gets into the water...so yeah it does matter...

the bottles and the carbonator used is proprietary...sorry...

buying and lugging bottles of pre-carbonated water would defeat the purpose....might as well buy 2 liters of Coke the old fashioned way.

[surrealAmerican]

37. Their patent is on their particular machine.

You could fizz water at home with your own bottles and commercially available tanks of CO2, and it would not violate Sodastream's patent in any way. They did not invent carbonated water, nor the process by which it can be produced at home. All they did is to take an existing process, and put together a convenient kit. That does not mean they "own" the concept of carbonating water at home.

I understand that many people feel they lack the expertise and initiative to do this sort of thing themselves, but that doesn't mean it's not legal.

[VanillaRhapsody]

38. i didn't say illegal....

and I never said they own the carbonating...I am saying that the bottles and the carbonating device IS proprietary....


Yeah every Tom Dick and Harry just KNOWS how to make their own carbonated beverages...

If that were the case this company wouldn't exist...

[cali]

17. lol. that comment just about sums you up.

[VanillaRhapsody]

19. Oh puleeeze go on.....

in my best Willy Wonka voice....

Do you have something in your craw?


and that you felt you had to make this "jump" into the conversation shows that you do!

[cali]

20. uh, I started this thread. I've commented in it several times.

[VanillaRhapsody]

21. Yes but you HAD to reply to my response to another poster with a ridic poke at me...

I feel soooo special! I love that I have gotten so far under your skin however. I am taking up space in your head rent free!

[VanillaRhapsody]

34. and the fact that you feel the need to post random jibes at me...just about sums YOU up!

doesn't it?

[Vashta Nerada]

7. I was wondering how I can get fatter even faster, and this is it.

[hunter]

8. Hmmmm... I wonder if you could do sparkling "wine" that way?

Vacuum out all the water and alcohol, add the alcohol back to the "syrup" and...



...ersatz "champagne" on tap!

[VanillaRhapsody]

15. I guess you could make a Virgin Mimosa that way!

[libdem4life]

9. Oh what will the supermarkets do with only 2 soda aisles. Ah, potato chip makers. Corn tortilla

wedgers...hey, that sounds pretty good, come to think of it.

[joeybee12]

10. And here we have the real reason the Sodastream Super Bowl ad was pulled...

Coke bullied the network. They don't want the competition.

[cali]

12. that makes sense.

[okaawhatever]

25. I'm sure this will help Coke offset problems with water shortages in the future. nt

[bravenak]

27. I'll buy one.

I already have a soda stream, what's one more appliance! I love new stuff.

[cali]

28. I don't get that at all, but then I don't even like soda.

I like to drink water, though I do love my morning coffee and afternoon 'cuppa'.

[Major Nikon]

31. Cube-cola is available online and reported tastes just like coke because it uses the same recipe

You can make it at home from scratch from the recipe posted online, but it's a pain in the ass because it requires some obscure ingredients and the emulsification of certain essential oils. You can buy the concentrate and syrup from Cube-cola.

http://cube-cola.org/index.php?route=product/category&path=20

Supposedly the taste is exactly like coke. I've never tried it because I just don't drink that much cola and the concentrate alone will cost you $3.50 per 2L bottle so it's actually cheaper to buy it at the store.

[trublu992]

32. Sorry Coke, I getting a high fructose free SodaStream

[Heywood J]

39. Isn't SodaStream the one made in a West Bank settlement?

Wasn't that the whole reason behind the Oxfam thing?

[dembotoz]

40. i think so--guess i will stick to tea

guess it all depends on which evil you want to support