Soda connoisseur thread. Does anyone else have a bad experience with these machines? The tons of options are nice...

>Soda connoisseur
People who think they're connoisseurs of pedestrian things annoy me. Connoisseurship implies an appreciation for complexity and nuance of flavor in foods difficult for the average person to have a wide range of experience with. Soda does not qualify.

I think you're getting a little too angry over something that's not that serious.

God I hate these fucking things. Freestyle machines are utter shit and they should all be round up and destroyed. They're only good for creating garbage meme sodas with three different additives

It's not anger, it's just that bad usage annoys me. Like when someone describes a recipe they've made for years as their famous whatever. Or when someone class a talented hme cook a chef. Or when people refer to grilling outdoors as BBQ. Or assuming Italian American food is Italian food. Or in NYC calling all Latino food Spanish food. Just bad usage.

where do you think you are?

Cherry Powerade, nigger.

Carbonated Drinks > Coke > Place Cup Under Dispenser > Pour

>This one location in particular always has terrible tasting coke, you can see the syrup splashing on the inner sides of the cup as it is being poured.
Report them to Coke.
Betcha some local bottling company will take away their machine pivileges for not serving good product. Or find out they're using local water versus the purified, not replacing or cleaning parts, or some hack.

I feel you though. There are some places, I take a bottled drink versus the fountain because it's ready and no line.

Why would you want regular Coke. Obviously Cherry Coke is superior.

>They're only good for creating garbage meme sodas with three different additives
>talking shit on my grape sprite n' ginger ale

The ones that i've used are really slow and they have the worst touch screens i have used for a while, plus the button gets stuck some times.

The Pepsi ones are much better

To be fair there's a wide variety of variation in sodas by region. If someone was versed in say varieties of pacific Asian sodas that are no longer minted, or other more obscure or limited production products and understands their nuances (say for example differences between Virgils Root Beer vs Jonse's and so on) then it would be fair to call them a connoisseur.
In this case however just enjoying coke and sprite probably wouldn't count

the quality is different. there's definitely a slight difference in coke with a vanilla flavoring added versus straight vanilla coke, but overall I will give coke props. anybody who claims to taste a substantial difference between coke from a freestyle machine versus regular tap either has shit water, a broken machine (far broken), or it's mental. coke is far better in a country that uses coke instead of HFCS.

maintenance is the real problem. when you go to a moes and get to try the exclusive flavor and they're out and all the syrup they have is coke + sprite (less than a regular place) it's a massive fucking letdown.

freestyle machines are fine, a lack of proper maintenance is not.

I don't expect much in the way of quality from such machines. That's not what they're for.

If there's a line for one of these things, it's usually because of a kid who either can't reach the buttons, or can't decide what he'she wants without talking about it.

meme machines and the touchscreens never get disinfected

I love these machines. Mixing Fanta lime with Fanta raspberry

Get the coca cola app and use your phone to save your favorite flavor. Or mix flavors and make a custom drink.

I'd argue that because soda is fundamentally not a nuanced tasting thing. The flavors are rarely complex, and often synthetic. Also being an industrially mass produced product it does not display the kind of variation you find in traditionally produced products. It's like claiming to be a connoisseur of fast food TV dinners or breakfast cereal. There is no room for connoisseurship because we're talking simple foods that don't vary from batch to batch.

>get the coca cola app

What is wrong with today's world?

The orange cream soda at Wendy's is fucking based

>soda
>minted
This irritates me just as much as 'no such thing as a soda connoisseur' is irritated.

peach mello yello is GOAT

This. Restaurants that have exclusive flavors on these machines are neat.

They're less tactile to use than a standard fountain. Filling the cup is easier with the fountain because it's a mechanical operation, whereas freestyles are electronic. Freestyles are also less hygienic than fountains because you have to touch the screen and button and have to be cleaned, but fountains can be used without any actually dermal contact. I really like coke with lime added though, so I prefer freestyles despite the reasons stated above.

>Implying soda can't have complexity and nuance

You're using a shitty machine or it's in a shitty location then because every time I've used them it's been perfect and coke is as easy to access as in any fountain. You sound like an absolute fucking moron 2bh

Then hurry the fuck up faggot and quit making lines. You're the only one that can't read fucking C O K E right fucking there. Shithead.

yes they are terrible. Every time I use one, it usually has some residue left in its nozzle from the previous person who used it, so my Dr Pepper gets mixed with their shitty ass diet Grape soda or whatever the fuck they drank, and it always tastes funny to me. Also I don't like having to use that dirty ass touch screen with grease all over it.

...

>Every time I use one, it usually has some residue left in its nozzle from the previous person who used it, so my Dr Pepper gets mixed with their shitty ass diet Grape soda

Maybe try letting it run for a second before putting the cup under, you useless pussy.

They are whatever, tho Wendy's Orange Cream Soda is good

as an Iowan i would like to know where i can purchase this elixir

I drink Raspberry Coke and I know of nobody that likes that flavor so I'm good, it's always in stock

I like the raspberry coke too, I'm surprised it's not more popular. I usually mix it with vanilla coke.

I had to manage and keep up one of these fucking machines. It constantly broke down and needed replacements for the flavor packets all the time.
The most common issue is that it fucks up the squirter and gets the percentages of water/syrup/carbonation fucked up. Your drinks are almost always watered down because cheapskate owners manually change the programing to use less syrup. It's probably happened to you before and you didn't even notice.
You've been had faggots.

I've never had a problem with them. Usually there's only ever one other person in line since most ppl get what they want and get out the way.

The only time there is ever a line is when an old person is confused and backs up the line since they don't know how to use it. If that happens and I'm behind them I offer to help, they say thank you for the help and the line moves fast again.

Thanks for backing me up, all these dumbasses are fixated on my issue with its convenience, and ignoring the rest of my post about how the quality can be fucking shit.

I fucking hate those machines because they ruined the taste of coke by a hint of vanilla of it and too fucking flat.

>Managers tampering with shit to save a few bucks.
I fucking hate that shit. I used to work freight and the forklift had a battery that ran so fucking hot it felt like my feet were burning and I smelled ozone on the fucker. I finally got them to let me put water in the battery and it took over 10 gallons of distilled water just to fill the bone dry cells on the damn thing.
Total cost: five bucks. Then the back wheel peeled off and I had to run the fucker on the rim until the battery cracked from the vibrations.

If there's only one dispenser and you need to hit 3-4 shitty touchscreen buttons to get there then yes it will inevitably move a lot slower than multiple dispensers that multiple people use immediately.
Why are you being such a little bitch about this? Just so you can feel like you're smarter than another user who pointed out an annoying fact about it?

Protip: make a counterclockwise triangle starting from the left in the upper right corner of the screen to access the secret menu.
You can open the door and sell the cartridges for like, a hundred bucks

>Selling it.
>Not just drinking the nectar direct.