Coke Tests New Insta-Tea Machine

Iced tea is huge here in the South. It’s everywhere, but you are rather limited in your tea options. Most places offer sweet tea, and maybe unsweetened tea if it’s a fancy joint. I’ve even found sweet tea served out of a 55 gallon trash can. Gary Valentine (the guy who looks like Kevin James but isn’t) does a hilarious bit (1:33 in) about it. Sweet tea is definitely king, but Coke wants to replace the monarch with democracy.

Bloomberg News says in a press release that Coca Cola is field testing a machine, Flex Fresh, that makes iced tea on demand. It can make more than several different combinations of iced tea with the press of a few buttons. You can choose green or black tea, sweetened or unsweetened, and peach, raspberry, or lemon flavor.

Coke seems to be trying to tap a burgeoning market with this new contraption. The trade product sheet says that tea consumption increased 81% between 1997 and 2007.

I still don’t think it beats actually brewing and steeping whole leaf tea to make iced tea, but at least you won’t get sassed by a waitress if you want your tea sans sweet.

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