Duchess New Soda Machines Offer 125 Flavors

Duchess Restaurant replaced its soda machines with two Coca-Cola Freestyles, tall red machines with a touch screen. On Wednesday afternoon, Tyler Vaglivelo, 10, of Monroe pushed his cup into the lever for ice and pressed a few buttons before pouring his drink.

"I got Sprite mixed with Powerade," he said.

Dr. Alan Vaglivelo, who serves on the Board of Education, and his wife had taken their children to lunch. "They love the machine," Vaglivelo said.

Lou Berkowitz, owner of Duchess, said the machine offers 125 different flavors.

Nevertheless, Bev Stebbins of Oxford, a former Monroe resident, said she stuck with caffeine free, diet Coke.

"I think it's cool," she said. "Once everybody gets used to it, I think it will be great."

The machine was designed by Pinin Farina, the designer of the Ferrari. Felipe Sosa, a senior sales executive for Coca-Cola who was at Duchess Wednesday, talked about the history of the Coca-Cola Freestyle.

"It was rolled out in the last year-and-a-half throughout the country," Sosa said. "But it's relatively new in Connecticut. This is the second one."

The other machine is in the Duchess in Ansonia.

"It's not in McDonald's, Wendy's or Burger King in Connecticut," Berkowitz said with a smile. "They don't have it."

Berkowitz said it has been in the Ansonia restaurant since March 25 and has only been in the Monroe location for five days.

"The machine is unbelievable," he said. "On Sunday I was here and the teenagers were so excited about this machine, they were jumping up and down."

'It makes a better drink'

The brands in the machine include Coke, Seagrams (seltzer and ginger ale — not alcohol), Dasani, Barq's, Powerade and HiC and each choice has sub-groups to choose from. A handicapped feature lower down on the machine allows someone in a wheelchair to use arrows to scroll over choices and enter them in.

"A lot of these are proprietary flavors for this machine that you can't find in the grocery store," Berkowitz said, adding some of those flavors include Peach Sprite and raspberry and orange Coke.

"There's non-Coke brands here," he said. "We can now serve Dr. Pepper. Before Coca-Cola allowed McDonald's to have it, but they wouldn't let us have it."

When the machine is idle, the screen-saver can advertise different flavors or meals at Duchess. Sosa said the machine is easier to clean than the older model, because there is only one nozzle.

In addition to the sub-flavors, Sosa said some kids like to mix different sodas together making what they call a "hurricane."

"It gives great value to Duchess, because you're giving your customers more choices," he said.

Sosa also believes the Coca-Cola Freestyle is more consistent in making a good cup of soda.

"The products are mixed together for the first time in the cups," Sosa said. "It makes a better drink. I love the Sprite Peach. It's great and it's cold all the time."

"There's a recipe for every soda," Berkowitz said. "Every soda tastes perfect. I thought that was just Coke hype, but it's true."