Coca Cola Freestyle

Who doesn't love vending machines? More importantly, who doesn't love Coke? I love Coke. Do you love Coke? It's possible that the entire population of the world, with the exception of my fiance, Michael, loves Coke.

So, in this age of consumerism, where everyone wants to do their own thing, and forge their own, brave trail through the mountains of life, what better than a vending machine that dispenses customised drinks? Why drink lemonade like everyone else, when you can make up your own beverage? Why toe the party line when you can be an inventor? A brave discoverer of new culinary frontiers?


You know what, I may sound sarcastic, but this is fricking awesome and I want to go to America right now so I can try one of these babies out.

The deal is, Coca Cola has unveiled this new breed of vending machines, called Freestyle, which are programmed to dispense 140 different flavours by way of a touch-screen interface. You simply select the basic drink you want (Coca-Cola, lemonade, etc), and then you can add further flavours like cherry or whatever. Apparently, you can also choose your drinks by calorie count, or caffeine, and you can even choose how much to put in your cup - I know that sounds lame, but it does mean you can add loads of different flavour combos, so you can add in some limeade on top of that cherry cola to create something a bit more unique - and probably utterly disgusting.


Coca-Cola will be monitoring every transaction (Big Brother, Big Brother, 1984 has come!) and might use the machines to trial new flavours and see what consumer demand is. The vending machines supposedly use some new magical technology which makes it possible for the machines to stock a much larger range of flavours than ever before, and keep everything fresh, so it's mixed right on the spot. So, this is more of a soda fountain than an actual vending machine, but I won't argue.

If you live in Orange County, California, you might have seen one of these in your local restaurant. Lucky b. I hope you like them, because if you do, maybe we'll end up with them in the UK. One day. I can dream.

The Elusive Thanksgiving Dinner

As a Brit with no real American friends - at least, not for years since I fell out of touch with various people - Thanksgiving holds a real fascination for me. Not only because it's at the heart of the American experience, but also because it's both every where and totally evasive at the same time. Thanksgiving episodes parade on the TV all the time, always with a great big dinner slap bang in the middle of it, but precious little is ever really said about what the heck everything is. It's weirdly like a roast dinner, but weirdly not, and this difference has always fascinated me. I remember watching a Thanksgiving episode of Friends where all the characters gather together to recreate their favourite meal, for me, the best part of the episode was learning about what actually went into a Thanksgiving dinner. Even after all that, there's still plenty that mystified me... what the heck are tater tots, etc.

Ever since I started being able to call the shots in the kitchen and spend my own money on food, every year I've led friends and family alike in a crazy crusade to recreate a proper American Thanksgiving. Every year everyone has to suffer through bizarre concoctions which are distinctly unfriendly to the English palette*. And every year I still feel like I haven't quite got to the real American heart of Thanksgiving. But it's around this time of year that I start thinking about it again, and get my books out in order to figure out what I'll be serving up in November.

In reality, I think the part that's missing is the fact that the dinner, divorced of the holiday, is really not the Thanksgiving experience, but I've never been one to turn down the opportunity to roast a big chunk of meat and have my friends around to eat, no matter what the circumstances.

* I fully appreciate that most Americans will want to lynch me for this sentence, but bless you, sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top is pretty bizarre this side of the pond... And should you feel disgruntled, just think about our fondness for eating yeast extract on toast and you'll understand where I'm coming from...