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 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.
Venessa Wong / BuzzFeed News
Soda consumption is declining. Sales of Keurig's mainstay product — the single-serve coffee maker — 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 home.
Coca-Cola has enough confidence that people want a pod-powered soda machine that it now has a 16% stake in Keurig. "We're very excited about Keurig Kold," said the President of Coca-Cola North America J. Alexander "Sandy" Douglas, Jr. at a conference in May. "What Keurig brings is a strong technology capability ... We think it's innovative."
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