Sales of both Keurig coffee makers and soda are declining. But both Keurig and Coca-Cola are betting consumers will want to make their own soda at home.
Keurig Green Mountain / Via keurig.com
For more than a century, Coca-Cola has closely guarded its soda recipe and the production of it. The black fizzy drink has been something that came ready made from a soda fountain at a restaurant, or from bottles and cans at stores or vending machines. Chances were, it came from a bottling facility somewhere far far away.
But beginning tomorrow, Coca-Cola will offer its consumers the ability to do something they’ve never been able to before: to make a Coke at home. The option comes via a partnership between the drinks giant and K-Cup maker Keurig Green Mountain, which on Tuesday will launch its new Keurig Kold machine.
The Keurig Kold is a countertop pod appliance, much like Keurig’s coffee machines, and launches for sale online on Tuesday. In retail outlets, there will be a limited launch in certain cities — including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York — ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season. Keurig Kold won’t be available nationally until the 2016 holiday season.
The machine works with pods which will contain a syrup for a specific soda, say, Coca-Cola, Sprite, or Fanta (so you can’t mix your own flavors), as well as a chamber with carbonated beads. Unlike the well-known SodaStream machines, the fizz comes from the pods, rather than a carbonator in the appliance.
Coke’s brands won’t be the only ones available for the new machine. Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the maker of Dr Pepper, 7 Up, and Canada Dry, is also making its brands available on Keurig Kold. Keurig will also offer pods for iced teas, flavored waters, and cocktail mixers.
Venessa Wong / BuzzFeed News
Soda consumption is declining. Sales of Keurig’s mainstay product — the single-serve coffee maker, which is used in about 20 million U.S. households — are down. An established at-home soda maker, SodaStream, is battling declining U.S. sales. And lastly, consumers have voiced discontent about the amount of waste produced by plastic single-serve pods.
On top of that, the Keurig Kold machine isn’t cheap: it costs from $299 to $369. Each pod, which will make one 8-ounce soda, will cost about $0.99 to $1.29, steep compared to what consumers are accustomed to paying for a soda at supermarkets.
Coca-Cola has enough confidence that people want a pod-powered soda machine that it now has a 16% stake in Keurig. Deryck van Rensburg, president of global ventures at Coca-Cola, told BuzzFeed News the product will be targeted at higher-income consumers at first, including those who want to entertain guests or who want to stock a variety of cold beverages at home.
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