by MATTHEW NASH

Sequim Gazette

Sequim has entered the space age of soda or at least the era of better quenching thirst.

 

Taco Time, 110 River Road, recently introduced its new Coca Cola Freestyle machine, a soda fountain that amps up classics like Coca Cola and Diet Coke to offer 130 different variations of pop and water.

 

Coca Cola with orange? How about a Coke on the rocks with raspberry? Or just stick with a Sprite.

 

Joey Orr, Sequim Taco Time manager, said she’s been loving Hi-C with orange vanilla because it tastes like a creamsicle.

 

“It’s so much fun to be able to drink all the different things,” Orr said.

 

Sequim’s Coca Cola Freestyle features all Coke products, including diet, zero and caffeine free, Sprite, Mello Yello, Powerade, Hi-C, Dasani, Barq’s, Fanta, Minute Maid, Seagram’s Sparkling Water, regular water and Pibb, which is being phased out for Dr. Pepper.

 

Testing for the machines began in 2009 and they first appeared on the peninsula in Kitsap County Taco Times. Other fast-food chains are following suit nationwide but the Sequim and the Port Angeles Taco Time, 1105 E. First St., are the first on the North Olympic Peninsula.

 

The touchscreen machine replaces soda fountains that required heavy syrup boxes and bags with something Orr described as similar to computer print cartridges.

 

To replace a soda supply, she scanned a cartridge in front of the machine, opened it up, watched for a light come on over the spot she needed to swap, popped out the old cartridge and clicked in the new one.

Below the dispenser, people in wheelchairs and children can use buttons to navigate the screen. Sixty of the flavors are sugar-free, Orr said.

As for trying a “Graveyard,” the children’s trick of combining all available flavors, Orr said soda makers steer people away from trying it because it dilutes the original soda’s flavor.

 

“If you were to try it, you’d need a pitcher,” she joked.

 

Call Taco Time at  683-7082 for more information.