Matters of drink

I came across something rather interesting the other day. Well, interesting to me, and you know how easily amused I am.

I always ask for water when I go to a self-service coffee shop. And usually that means they give you a cup and you get it yourself from the soda machine. Typically, that would look like this one, at the Panera Bread in Sunnyvale:

I’d consider this a mechanical version—the dispensing of the various types of beverages is managed by pushing a mechanism.

But a couple of weeks ago I went to Le Boulanger in Mountain View—which they’d obviously revamped since the last time I was there months and months ago. And I found a state-of-the-art electronic self-serve machine:

The only mechanical element is pushing your container against the lever to get ice. For the beverage you use the touch-screen to make your choice and hold until you’ve got enough. Here’s a close-up of the panel:

Twenty-two options, compared to the eight of the old-style machine.

I’m kind of curious how it works behind the shiny screen—I suppose no differently, really, from the mechanical version. The ability to have nearly three times the choices is probably a function not of how it’s mixed on the back end, but of how many spigots you can put on the user side.

Certainly looks cooler, too.