PepsiCo Tests New Flavor-Infusing Fountain Dispenser

PepsiCo's "Touch Tower"

Freestyle, meet “Touch Tower.”

Four years after the launch of Coca-Cola’s Freestyle, an innovative soda fountain dispenser that allows consumers to create customized drinks, PepsiCo will begin testing “Touch Tower,” a new machine that gives people the ability to add a variety of flavors to a range of its soda brands, according to the Associated Press. News of the test launch was first reported by industry publication Beverage Digest.

Unlike the vending machine-sized Freestyle, “Touch Tower” appears to be small enough to sit atop a counter and is designed for restaurants and other on-premise retailers of fountain soda that don’t have a lot of space for a large dispensing unit. Fitted with a tablet-like screen, “Touch Tower” enables consumers to add up to four flavor shots – lemon, cherry, strawberry or vanilla – to eight varieties of PepsiCo –owned drink brands, including Pepsi and Mountain Dew.

PepsiCo, which has approximately 30 percent of the overall fountain soda business in the U.S., will initiate a series of test launch of “Touch Tower” beginning next week in five Denver-area locations of Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill . If successful, it’s likely that PepsiCo will broaden availability of the machines to other chain restaurants where its products are sold, including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken.