Freestyle aka Chemical Coke

[number six]

What's everyone's thoughts on the Free Style coke machines?

When they first appeared at I think Firehouse subs.. I was pretty jazzed. The flavors were endless and I love Vanilla Cokes for example.

But after you get passed that you realize they don't taste quite right in most cases. Ie a Freestyle coke and a normal (ie bag-in-a-box) coke are two very different things. Instead of having actual syrup the Freestyles work off injecting super concentrated whatever from cartridges. I'm going to assume there's some variance caused by the restaurant because it does taste better at some chains than others.. for example the Freestyles at Wendys are just terrible.

Anyway I've grown to hate them. I usually just get Ginger Ale there because it mostly tastes like Ginger Ale but everything else just tastes fowl, like flat generic soda.

[k7]

i like them, but wendy's does seem to not know how to load their machines.

the ones at wawa seem to taste OK when i hit them up.

i'm stuck with diet, so ANY variety pass a "Diet Coke" is a miracle for me. chemicals or not, just hold the sugar.

[tufnel1530]

i like them, but wendy's does seem to not know how to load their machines.

the ones at wawa seem to taste OK when i hit them up.

i'm stuck with diet, so ANY variety pass a "Diet Coke" is a miracle for me. chemicals or not, just hold the sugar.

try Zevia if your publix has it... its supposed to be "healthy" diet soda (whole foods carries it).

Its a different flavor but its also not full of noxious chemicals that will melt metal.

[Niloc]

Only used them a few times, there's one at the Moe's near my office.

I like it but I haven't tried many combinations, so I don't know if some taste off.

Mellow Yellow + lime is my go-to, that's a good one.

[Niloc]

i like them, but wendy's does seem to not know how to load their machines.

the ones at wawa seem to taste OK when i hit them up.

i'm stuck with diet, so ANY variety pass a "Diet Coke" is a miracle for me. chemicals or not, just hold the sugar.

Best tasting zero-sugar beverages IMO:

Gatorade Zero - lemon-lime or orange, cherry is OK too, some other flavors are terrible.
Fresca - helps that there's no non-diet Fresca so they just try to make it taste as good as they can.
Coke Zero - not great really, but tastes more like Coke than Diet Coke does. Cherry version is also OK.
Diet Cherry 7-Up - often diet lemon-lime sodas taste pretty close to "real" but give me a headache - this one does not. No idea why.
Diet gingerale - as long as it's not Vernors. Vernors with sugar, maybe, without - holy shit no.
Ocean Spray 5-calorie cranberry juice - this is surprisingly good.


My elderly father drinks diet store-brand cream soda. His taste buds must all be dead now.

I mostly drink just water these days, occasionally the store-brand version of Crystal Lite. The Walmart brand is the same, the orange flavor & cherry-lime are both decent for what they are.

I love soda with sugar (or corn syrup - I don't give a fuck about corn syrup), and fruit juice, but those have to be very occasional things and I'd rather get my calories in food instead of drinks.

[k7]

try Zevia if your publix has it... its supposed to be "healthy" diet soda (whole foods carries it).

put 3 into my walmart cart.

Best tasting zero-sugar beverages IMO:

Gatorade Zero - lemon-lime or orange, cherry is OK too, some other flavors are terrible. - i down these like water. they're all pretty good. i think they come in colors, not flavors.
Fresca - helps that there's no non-diet Fresca so they just try to make it taste as good as they can.- fresca grapefruit is awesome.
Coke Zero - not great really, but tastes more like Coke than Diet Coke does. Cherry version is also OK. - coke zero is good. beats diet pepsi. diet coke tastes like the 2000s Tab Cola.
Diet Cherry 7-Up - often diet lemon-lime sodas taste pretty close to "real" but give me a headache - this one does not. No idea why. - i do diet mountain dew. that's about it.
Diet gingerale - as long as it's not Vernors. Vernors with sugar, maybe, without - holy shit no. - i love the more obnoxious ginger ales. canada dry is BORING. diet vernors and hansens are harsh on the taste buds. i'll take them both.
Ocean Spray 5-calorie cranberry juice - this is surprisingly good. - i will try this.

[number six]

Asptertane gives me horrible headaches so I usually avoid diet.

I gave up Caffeine a few years ago so i rarely drink sodas at all.. but when I do I want a real one dammit and not some horriblly fake flavored one.

[tufnel1530]

Asptertane gives me horrible headaches so I usually avoid diet.

I gave up Caffeine a few years ago so i rarely drink sodas at all.. but when I do I want a real one dammit and not some horriblly fake flavored one.

try Zevia, its got Stevia in it so its sweet and doesnt give me the usual diet soda kinda gut rot.

They have decaf and regular ones..

The fake Dr pepper is good also, they have one to knock off every flavor, Mt dew, grape etc.

[number six]

try Zevia, its got Stevia in it so its sweet and doesnt give me the usual diet soda kinda gut rot.

They have decaf and regular ones..

The fake Dr pepper is good also, they have one to knock off every flavor, Mt dew, grape etc.

I've been OK just staying away from soda in general. I can't even imagine the diet is all that great for you overall.

[toastbot]

Most diet soda has a bad aftertaste to me, and that's actually on purpose. I remember reading about a soda company (Coke?) was doing market research for their diet products, e.g. blind taste tests and stuff, and they found that people generally preferred their diet soda to have a bad aftertaste because it made them feel like they were making a sacrifice (flavor) instead of indulging in the usual sweet taste.

Lately I've been sticking to the flavored Polar seltzers. There's juuuust enough flavor to cross the "not water" barrier for me, plus zero aftertaste. Black Cherry and Orange Vanilla are my go-to flavors.

If we're having burgers or pizza or something, nothing goes better with American junk food than a soda with REAL cane sugar, so I always keep some 8oz. cans of Real Sugar Pepsi around for those occasions.

[number six]

Yeah if I do drink soda I try to get one of the hipster brands with the cane sugar.

Mostly I've found plain ole' water with a small amount of fruit juice in it is just fine. Most of the fruit juice stuff (Limeade, etc) is so sweet just a splash will flavor up an entire glass of water.

I used to use those drops but just like diet soda many of those have a funky after taste and are full of weird chemicals.

[Miracleman]

Freestyle machines in a commercial location suck because...

1-If you don't clear the nozzle before pumping your choice, your choice will be tainted by whatever mutant-mix the previous person chose.
2- Where a location used to have a dispenser of 8 to 10 nozzles/flavors that could all be used at once, freestyle has ONE NOZZLE where multiple idiots spend multiple minutes trying to decide which of the 50 (?) mutant-mixes they want, causing a 10 person deep line waiting for just plain f'ing Coke. I think AMC Downtown Disney had 10 of them and still had lines.
3- Even pre-covid I hated having to use a touchscreen that thousands of nose-picking kids (and adults) had used.

The GOOD thing about Freestyle machines is that they were created by Inventor Dean Kamen, whose medical inventions have saved and improved the lives of tens of thousands of people. Even as his Segways were putting people IN hospitals. He created a revolutionary water filter he wanted to get to disaster areas and third world locations where bad water was the only choice. So he basically gave the Freestyle to Coke if they'd put his self contained water filter in those needed areas.

[number six]

It's great his work has helped so many people but freestyle coke still sucks.

Also, the do allow for touchless access now. You use a QR code to control the machine.. which makes me wonder if there's a time limit on the code as you could dump out a nice large grape coke from the comfort of your car later if you were a dick.