Coca-Cola Freestyle Fun

What is this Futuristic Soda machine?
It's the Coca-Cola Freestyle™!

Hey there readers!  I've made mention of the Coca-Cola Freestyle™ machine before because Jerry Built Burgers has them, as do some locations of Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  Firehouse Subs on Westheimer and Bullritos on Voss also have it too!  For me the notable one is at the one at Gessner and Westheimer near the Randall's at Woodlake Square Shopping center as it's closest to where I live and is in that great Five Guys location.   This blog post is mainly about WHY I like these machines so much and where you can find them in Houston.

Beverage Family Choices 

First of all, have you every been bummed because you wanted a certain soda or drink and they didn't have it?  (I mention this because my older sister and Scott Pilgrim both like Coke Zero, but do not like Diet Coke!)  Have you ever wanted to try new sodas or flavours, but the restaurant you were eating at had narrow choices?  The Coca-Cola Freestyle machine takes care of BOTH of these problems.  There are literally HUNDREDS of different combinations for you to choose from for your beverage enjoyment, and you could have multiple variations on the same sodas every time!

Fanta choices include Orange, Grape, Strawberry
Cherry, Raspberry, Fruit Punch and Lime.  

In order to share this wonderful device with you, dear readers, my son Jason and I made a trip to Five Guys Burgers and Fries on Gessner and Westheimer for an early dinner and a chance to show you some of the features of this cool soda fountain.  When you first come to it, you see the main touch screen which shows the beverage family choices.  Depending upon what the establishment has chosen, this can be a very large number from Powerade, to HiC, to Fanta.  Some locations may have Dr. Pepper, while others may have Mr. Pibb.  In any case, you first touch the circle of the beverage family of choice.  Then your next step is to choose your variety.  These are largely based on flavoured syrups being added to the main beverage.  For example, Fanta has such choices as Cherry, Orange, Lime, Grape and Fruit Punch.  To me this is a good set of choices because one of my fondest childhood memories is of a pizza place whose name is lost to the ages that served a shrimp pizza and had cherry soda on tap.  The Cherry Fanta tastes quite similar to it.

A few other examples of choices:  if you were a fan of Diet Coke with Lemon and were unhappy when they pulled it off the shelves, it's available in the Coca-Cola Freestyle at the Gessner/Westheimer Five Guys and at Jerry Built Burgers.  With both Diet Coke and Coke Zero, you can add cherry, lemon, lime, vanilla, cherry vanilla and raspberry.  Dr. Pepper and Diet Dr. Pepper are only available in regular, cherry and cherry vanilla varieties, however.  They even have Seagram's selzer water with various fruit flavours and Dasani plain water with the same fruit flavours.  There are literally hundreds of possibilities

So easy to use, Jason showed me how!

Personally, I will usually pair a Fanta Cherry or a Coke Zero with Raspberry with a Little Bacon Cheeseburger at Five Guys.  When I get a spicy burrito at Bullritos, I'd pair it with a Fanta Lime or a Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper.  More choices at the consumer's hand is a good thing for diners, in my opinion, and I for one am glad that Coca-Cola and restaurateurs in Houston are making these choices available to us.  My only request would be for them to add Pineapple and Lemon to the Fanta Family.  I've always enjoyed carbonated lemonade, which can usually only be found in the Frou-Frou French and Italian style sodas that can be found at Whole Foods, Rice Epicurean or Randall's.  There are a lot of Europeans in Houston who are used to Fizzy Lemonade and this would be a welcome choice.  Coca-cola might even want to consider adding Beverly (a bitter, non-alcoholic soda with Quinine sold in Europe) for folks to try.  Granted Beverly is only popular in Italy, but you can try it at Epcot Center, and the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta or Las Vegas.

On their website and on Facebook, there is a Locator set up for you to find one!

And remember to Eat and Drink Happily, Y'all!!!
早安, 你们!!!