Inside Coca-Cola’s secretive innovation labs: How the beverage giant wants to automate dirty soda and refreshers
ATLANTA Coca-Cola is branching out into new customizable drinks and trend-driven equipment as consumers and food service operators increasingly want more options. Tucked away in an anonymous office park not far from its global headquarters here, Coke has been working on a flood of innovation at its secretive labs, including a way for its Freestyle drink dispensers to make dirty sodas, which combine pop with flavored syrups, cream or other ingredients. In partnership with AMC Theatres , it is testing a Micro Matic dispenser that can make brightly colored refreshers. And Coke has more white-label beverage options on the way, like an energy drink that can be customized by color and flavor. For many restaurants, handcrafted drinks like refreshers or iced coffee have become an important way to drive traffic and sales, even as diners broadly cut their spending. In the second quarter of this year, beverage servings at restaurants outpaced both servings of food alone and food with beverages, ...
