Soda Machines for Geeks?

PhaseBurn writes "In all my findings, I've yet to see things like Bawls or Jolt in a soda machine. Even bottled water is hard to come by... Working in a call center for an ISP, we don't have to worry too much about what's popular with the rest of the world, and so, I'm tasked with finding a vending machine replete for geeks. While Jolt can come out of any normal soda machine that supports plastic bottles, the glass Bawls bottles woultn't fare so well. Do they make a soda machine that would work for this? What's around your office... And what's popular among the geeks today, as I want it to appeal to the vast majority of our staff?" Why use a vending machine when a community cooler would work just as well. With that aside, what kind of beverages would you like to see more of in vending machines?

Comments

Mmmm... tea

[Copperhead]

One of the more popular traditions I've started at my office is the 3:30 teatime. A nice cup of Earl Grey with fellow programmers about non-work related subjects (strictly enforced!) is perfect for breaking up the boring afternoon.

Re:H2O!!!

[iankerickson]

And tea is a good middle-ground between soda and water. No jitters or stomach problems like people get with soda or coffee. Ironically, it's cheaper than either, as long as you don't buy the overpriced yuppie-oriented brands like you see in coffee shops. You're talking about bottled water, right? People drink everything but tap water because most tap water is disgusting (whether or not it's any different than what you get in a bottle). If you live where the tap water is clear, clean, and free of clorine, you're pretty lucky.

If you're addicted to caffienated soda or coffee, you can wean yourself off of it without the withdrawal symptoms (bad headache, being disoriented, mood swings) by switching to tea. Two tea bags, 1/3 cups of sugar, some lemon or lime juice (very little), and a quart of boiling water in thermos makes something as powerfull as Mountain Dew. The sugar thickens the mix to get a similar consistency to uncarbonated soda. I used to make tea so strong that it scared my co-wokers who tried it. If you learn how to do it right, there's nothing weak or bitter about good tea. I've backed off on it to a more conservative recipe, but it's something that's cheap to experiment with. It's true you can make a tea that's as bad for you as soda or coffee, but there's nothing stopping you from adjusting the strength of it over time, which you can't really do with coffee or soda.

Don't leave the tea bags in more than three to five minutes (it varies with how hot the water is and the container) or it will be too bitter. Or get an iced tea recipe off the web. Or just pour the tea (after it's brewed for 5 minutes) into a metal or glass pitcher and leave it in the fridge overnight. (Rubber or plastic pitchers leave an aftertaste in the tea). For cold tea, you can make huge batches in advance on the weekend with little extra effort (making tea is a procedure that "scales up"). Adjust the ingredients until you find a mix you like, as the proportions make a big difference in the final product.

You can save a lot of money over time this way. I think I was losing an easy $2 a day on soda. I did the math on what it costs to buy tea, lemon juice, and sugar, now that I've bought the thermos, it's less than 25 cents a day. I don't know if you can get bottled water that cheaply (because I hate the plastic taste in bottled water). I don't find tea as addictive as soda either, so it's not like you're trading one craving for another.

For your vending machine, think about making a hot water tap available for people to use, and maybe an ice machine too. That way they can make hot or cold tea at work, if they don't want to or forget to make it at home. Some places go so far as to supply the tea bags and sugar, but it doesn't sound like you can do that.

Re: Tea, and

[The_Guv'na]

Tea is good and refreshing, I like mine with no milk and a slice of lemon. Too much coffee gets me feelin crappy after a while. Water is cleansing, but sometimes boring, but I guess that's only a problem if your job is boring.

The ideal vending machine for me would be where I could make up my own recipe. Most soft drinks served in bars are usually just concentrates and carbonated water mixed in the nozzle, meaning only 1 large pipe is needed, and several small ones for the concentrates.

I'd have a machine with a choice of coffee, tea, carbonated/still water, mineral water, caffiene solution [in 100 mg increments, up to a safe maximum of 500mg], several fruit flavours, cola, spirit shots [25ml, 3 per drink, max], and beers. Add a simple touchscreen interface, and you got yourself the coolest vending machine in the world! Many ingredients would take up relativeley little space. If the water could be taken from the main pipe and carbonated in the machine, then the machine can be pretty small, or can be made to accomodate a good selection of other drinks such as Bawls, various bitch pisses [Metz, Breesers, Reefs, Archers etc...], and/or whatever.

Naturally, it will run embedded Linux and Apache to provide drink statistisc on the intranet, saving wasted trips and allowing prompt re-stocking. But beware the boss who sticks in a webcam!

Comments invited... How about a casemod? ;-)

Ali