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Coke Freestyle Now Launched

Skyscraper said:
Unfortunately not, as @Alix says they're only valid at the park they're purchased from.
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at Legoland the staff on the stall said they could be used at all of the parks, that annoying because I’ve only been to Legoland once and probably won’t go back for about a year…
 
I don’t get why they haven’t launched some kind of Merlin pass freestyle cup that’s valid at all the parks (even if you have to pay for a refill each time). I’m sure it must be possible as the Coke system seems pretty clever.

As it stands for got 2 towers cups and 2 Thorpe cups. Then I’ve got a voucher again this year which means I’ll be getting another cup from one of the parks.
 
Still no real Coke or Mezzo in the machines.

Disappointing. Makes it useless to me.
 
To be honest I can see why they don't. How much do they contain? 700ml? Refill that with full fat 3 or 4 times and that's an awful lot of sugar.

Fair enough if you're a grown up making your own decisions, but what about all the coaches full of unattended kids? It's the sort of thing where you've got to think it's probably for the best...
 
John said:
Surely it's just because of the sugar tax? They have no way of working out how much you should be paying so can only offer the drinks that are exempt.
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Other Coke Freestyle places, like Five Guys, have an original Coke option - although no flavours allowed on it now.

I presume they pay a blended average based on the amount of that they dispense vs every other option, on each cup?
 
WillPS said:
To be honest I can see why they don't. How much do they contain? 700ml? Refill that with full fat 3 or 4 times and that's an awful lot of sugar.

Fair enough if you're a grown up making your own decisions, but what about all the coaches full of unattended kids? It's the sort of thing where you've got to think it's probably for the best...
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I’d be more concerned about the sugar free stuff tbh. It contains aspartame which is a source of phenylalanine and I discovered the other day this can have the same effect as caffeine. Everything in moderation is the key I think, and people should be allowed to choose if they want to rot their own teeth or not.
It’s more likely to be the sugar tax as John says above.
 
Companies do not have to pass the charge on to you. They even could program the chips in the cups and charge 2 separate prices. Children be damned, I am (apparently) an adult and want a nice drink. At least it's not the horrid new Pepsi.
 
Poisson said:
Companies do not have to pass the charge on to you. They even could program the chips in the cups and charge 2 separate prices. Children be damned, I am (apparently) an adult and want a nice drink. At least it's not the horrid new Pepsi.
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The machines certainly are capable of differentiating between tiers of purchase levels, such as if a person was charged a premium for access to regular coca-cola, and ones programmed to dispense only sugar free options.
If you go to watch a film at Vue, you ask for regular coke and they charge you the sugar tax, and your cup allows the dispensing of a full sugar option.

I agree it's really getting to be ridiculous now with this relentless curtailing of our own personal choices of what we consume. And that is the reason why I have not once taken advantage of my free cup and refill at the parks.

I suspect they don't offer the option because the sugar tax they could charge customer would soon be negated by endless refills on a hot summer's day.
Also, sugar attracts wasps, so I wonder if that was taken into consideration as you would get people dumping flat dregs into bins, or even on the ground, exacerbating the issue.

Though they do say, if an insect would eat it, it's fit for human consumption. And they wouldn't go near the artificially sweetened garbage.
 
We need to encourage people to consume fewer calories, especially the dead ones in soft drinks.
It's not "relentless curtailing of personal choices", you can still choose sugar, and pay more in most instances.
Our population, national and worldwide, is getting fatter and fatter, sad fact.
Obesity is now a massive problem for the NHS...should we just stand by and let the nation get even more obese?
Government needs to do something to make the nation healthier, wouldn't you agree.
Never seen so many oversize people in theme parks, the problem is getting worse, very quickly.
 
It's a decision by Coca-Cola, more than Alton Towers or Merlin, and is part of Coke's long term strategy to remove and reduce sugar in their drinks offering.

This article is a little dated, from 2019, but it reports on the direction that Coca-Cola is taking to offer "healthier" options in Freestyle machine.
www.beveragedaily.com

Coca-Cola cuts back on sugar with bubbler beverages

Shifting consumer taste is causing major beverage companies to adapt, make ‘healthy’ drinks taste better and be more accessible. Coca-Cola is using its Freestyle machines and new bubbler dispensers to highlight its ‘craft, elevated’ drinks in the market.
www.beveragedaily.com www.beveragedaily.com

I'd suggest that this is part of a strategy to self-regulate, lest the government decide to do it for them.

Edit: It's also worth highlighting that the sugar tax, in the UK, is paid by the manufacturer. It's not paid by the consumer and it's not paid by the retailer. Quite simply Coca-Cola have removed the options slowly over the years to pay less tax.

The UK sugar tax, officially called the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL), has a two-tiered system:
  • Tier 1: Drinks with 5 to 8 grams of sugar per 100ml - Taxed at 18 pence per liter
  • Tier 2: Drinks with more than 8 grams of sugar per 100ml - Taxed at 24 pence per liter
Exemptions
  • Drinks with less than 5 grams of sugar per 100ml are exempt.
  • Pure fruit juices.
 
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Coca Cola still make "full fat" coke and so far haven't amended the sugar content, and as people have mentioned it's still available for Freestyle machines. Just like Maccies changing Fanta and Oasis to "zero" versions, it's more for cost reasons more than anything else. No matter how much they want to push the health side of things, they'll happily dish out your fries, greasy burgers, nuggets and Flurries.

Regardless of the specifics who pays the sugar tax to the HMRC, that tax is passed onto the business (i.e. Merlin) and ultimately onto the customer though as the wholesale and retail costs are higher as a result. It's a margins reasoning more than anything else - much less hassle to pay for the cheaper, sugar free versions than muck about with lower margins for sugared drinks or specific cup activations.
 
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