Coca-Cola takes on starbucks?

[johnder]

An article over at MSNBC talks about how ...

For the past two years, Coca-Cola has been quietly investigating ways to brew high-quality coffee, espresso and teas quickly in individual servings, a review of the company's patent and trademark applications shows. The company filed five U.S. patent applications in 2005 for coffee and tea "pod" designs, single-serving brewing machines, and a system to steam milk to make hot espresso and cappuccino. Coca-Cola already has been awarded two patents.

Coca-Cola tipped its hand at a Dec. 7 analysts' conference in New York at which Mary E. Minnick, president of worldwide marketing, mentioned a brand of coffee, tea and a "proprietary dispensing technology" called Far Coast that will be launched in four countries. Sometime in 2006, she said, Coca-Cola would invest in marketing the brand.

As far as what kind of "coffee" they would use in the vending machines...

As for where Coca-Cola would get its coffee, experts say the company has been close to the vest. On Jan. 13, a Coca-Cola subsidiary in Australia announced it was buying Grinders Coffee Group, a Melbourne company that roasts, grinds, packs and sells coffee and equipment to trade customers. Its 2006 revenue is projected to be about $11 million, according to published reports

It should be interesting to see how this turns out. Obviously this can't be a drop in replacement for their existing vending machines as they obviously will need a water supply line. Unless of course they make the units totally self contained in which it has a supply of brewing water, along with a drain bin and waste canister for the "spent" pods.

I would hasten to guess this machines will require quite a lot of service and maintenance. The cleanliness factor of these machines worries me as well. Granted the pods in theory wont be leaving grinds around, but there we definately be some residual brewed coffee in the mechanisms that will turn bitter quickly.

[phaelon56]

If they use a system akin to the way a Keurig operates I don't think there will be much in the way of residual artifacts but I agree that it will call for more maintenance than the typical soda machine.

If they can make a soda vending machien that sits outside all winter long and all summer long and keeps the soft drink at the right temperature... never freezes even when it's -20 F... I'm sure they can pull this off.

But I'd be shocked to see a big conglomerate use high quality coffee no matter how it's brewed.

[jsolomon]

They may do like Douewe Egberts did for a while with Burger Kings. They provided a toddy-like coffee concentrate that you the individual stores then had a dispensing machine that simply added hot water to.

When BK was serving DE coffee, it was much higher quality than the brewed that McD's was serving at the time. Actually, it was the best coffee you could purchase in my University's student union at the time. If I were looking for an engineering solution for a coffee dispensing machine, that is the way I would go. I have had way too many "brewed" coffees from machines that actually steep the grounds right there where the grounds were not filtered well, if at all.