The coffee vending machine is a vending machine that dispenses hot coffee and other coffee beverages. Older models used instant coffee or concentrated liquid coffee and hot or boiling water, and provided condiments such as cream and sugar. Some modern machines prepare various coffee styles such as mochas and lattes and use ground drip coffee, and some fresh-grind the coffee to order using a grinder in the machine.
The machine was invented in the United States by the Rudd-Melikian company in 1947, [1] debuting as the "Kwik Kafe". Several U.S. companies also began manufacturing the machines in 1947, and by 1955 over 60,000 existed in the U.S. Today, coffee vending machines exist in various areas of the world, and are very common in Japan.
A coffee vending machine is a type of vending machine that dispenses hot coffee. Some of the machines, particularly older models, utilize powdered instant coffee mixed with hot water, and some of these offer condiments such as cream and sugar. [2] Some newer models fresh-brew the coffee using hot water and ground coffee beans, and some also grind the coffee to order using coffee grinders installed in the machines, as well as providing various condiments. [3] [4] Some modern machines also provide other hot drinks such as tea, espresso, lattes, cappuccinos, mochas and hot chocolate. [4] [5] [6] Some of the machines dispense canned coffee, and some dispense both hot coffee and iced coffee. [7] [8]
Public coffee vending machines typically require payment, functioning as coin-operated machines, and some also accept bills and credit cards. [9] Some do not require payment; these are typically found at places of employment, whereby the company furnishes the beverage to employees free of charge. [10]
Machines that purvey hot and iced coffee are common in Japan, and many of them are placed in street locations. [8] In Italy, some of the machines purvey up to 18 coffee varieties. [6]
The coffee vending machine was invented in the United States by the Rudd-Melikian company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1947, and the machine was named the Kwik Kafe. [lower-alpha 1] [12] The machine would drop a paper cup through a chute onto a platform and fill the cup with hot coffee prepared using instant coffee and hot water. [13] The Kwik Kafe took five seconds to prepare a cup of coffee. [13] The Kwik Kafe machines were placed in U.S. locations through the process of franchising. [13] At a 1948 convention in Philadelphia, Lloyd K. Rudd, president of the Rudd-Melikian company, stated that Kwik Kafe machines purveyed 250,000 cups of coffee on a daily basis. [14]
Additional companies that manufactured coffee vending machines in 1947 in the United States include the Manning & Lewis company, Knapway Devices and the Bert Mills Corporation. [13] [15] Some machines in 1947 used a liquid coffee concentrate that was mixed with boiling water, and one such machine charged a nickel for a cup of coffee and dispensed a wooden spoon to mix the cream and sugar. [16] By the year 1955, over 60,000 coffee vending machines existed in the United States. [13]
Touch screen coffee machines, such as those introduced by Bella, Bravilor Bonamat and La Marquise are becoming increasingly popular[ when? ] as they allow closer engagement with customers. [17] In 2009, Douwe Egberts introduced a conceptual coffee vending machine named BeMoved, which has touch screens with drag and drop features to select ingredients and interactive features such as the ability to access news, weather information and stock prices as the coffee is prepared. [18] The BeMoved machine also has a motion-sensitive video camera that can take an image of the user and remember the user's coffee preferences via personal profile settings, as well as an interactive video game named Shoot-Em-Up, which involves jumping in front of the machine while the camera and software coordinate the jumping with the video game play. [18]
Instant coffee is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans that enables people to quickly prepare hot coffee by adding hot water or milk to coffee solids in powdered or crystallized form and stirring. The product was first invented in Invercargill, the largest city in Southland, New Zealand, in 1890. Instant coffee solids refers to the dehydrated and packaged solids available at retail used to make instant coffee. Instant coffee solids are commercially prepared by either freeze-drying or spray drying, after which it can be rehydrated. Instant coffee in a concentrated liquid form, as a beverage, is also manufactured.
A vending machine is an automated machine that dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or payment is otherwise made. The first modern vending machines were developed in England in the early 1880s and dispensed postcards. Vending machines exist in many countries and, in more recent times, specialized vending machines that provide less common products compared to traditional vending machine items have been created.
Frappuccino is a line of blended iced coffee drinks sold by Starbucks. It may consist of coffee or crème base, blended with ice and ingredients such as flavored syrups and usually topped with whipped cream and or spices. It may also include blended Starbucks refreshers. Frappuccinos are also sold as bottled coffee beverages in grocery stores, convenience stores and from vending machines.
An espresso machine brews coffee by forcing pressurized water near boiling point through a "puck" of ground coffee and a filter in order to produce a thick, concentrated coffee called espresso. Multiple machine designs have been created to produce espresso. Several machines share some common elements, such as a grouphead and a portafilter. An espresso machine may also have a steam wand which is used to steam and froth liquids for coffee drinks such as cappuccino and caffè latte.
Hot chocolate, also known as hot cocoa or drinking chocolate, is a heated drink consisting of shaved or melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and usually a sweetener. It is often garnished with whipped cream or marshmallows. Hot chocolate made with melted chocolate is sometimes called drinking chocolate, characterized by less sweetness and a thicker consistency.
Georgia is a brand of coffee drinks sold by The Coca-Cola Company. The brand is named after Coca-Cola's home state of Georgia. Launched in 1975, it has since expanded to markets in Singapore, South Korea, India, Bahrain, and the United States.
A soda fountain is a device that dispenses carbonated soft drinks, called fountain drinks. They can be found in restaurants, concession stands and other locations such as convenience stores. The machine combines flavored syrup or syrup concentrate and carbon dioxide with chilled and purified water to make soft drinks, either manually, or in a vending machine which is essentially an automated soda fountain that is operated using a soda gun. Today, the syrup often is pumped from a special container called a bag-in-box (BiB).
Senseo is a registered trademark for a coffee brewing system from Dutch companies Philips and Douwe Egberts. The system is known for the coffee pods it uses to brew the coffee.
Coffee service refers to the many and various styles in which coffee is made available to people, such as in restaurants and hotels. In particular, it sometimes refers to the set of dishes and vessels utilized to serve and consume coffee, akin to the notion of a tea service.
Kwik Trip is a chain of convenience stores founded in 1965 that has locations throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan under the name Kwik Trip, and in Illinois, Iowa, and South Dakota under the name Kwik Star, although the Dixon, Illinois, location operates as Kwik Trip. The company also operates stores under the name Tobacco Outlet Plus, Tobacco Outlet Plus Grocery, Hearty Platter, Kwik Spirits, and Stop-N-Go. Kwik Trip, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
An electric water boiler, also called a thermo pot, is a consumer electronics small appliance used for boiling water and maintaining it at a constant temperature in an enclosed reservoir. It is typically used to provide an immediate source of hot water for making tea, hot chocolate, coffee, instant noodles, or baby formula, or for any other household use where clean hot water is required. They are a common component of Japanese kitchens and the kitchens of many East Asian countries but are found in varying use globally. Smaller units are portable. Some thermo pots are designed with a feature that can purify water.
Instant soup is a type of soup designed for fast and simple preparation. Some are homemade, and some are mass-produced on an industrial scale and treated in various ways to preserve them. A wide variety of types, styles and flavors of instant soups exist. Commercial instant soups are usually dried or dehydrated, canned, or treated by freezing.
The cuisine of Kosovo is a representative of the cuisine of the Balkans and consists of traditional dishes by ethnic groups native to Kosovo. Due to Albanians being the main ethnic group in Kosovo, it is mainly an expression of Albanian cuisine, also adopting some elements of other Balkan countries.
A frappé coffee, cold coffee, Greek frappé, or just frappé is a Greek iced coffee drink generally made from spray-dried instant coffee, water, sugar, and milk. The word is often written frappe. The frappé was invented in 1957 in Thessaloniki through experimentation by Dimitris Vakondios, a Nescafe representative. Frappés are among the most popular forms of coffee in Greece and Cyprus and have become a hallmark of postwar outdoor Greek coffee culture.
Cyrus Melikian (1920–2008) was an Armenian-American coffee industry pioneer credited with several inventions that propelled coffee use into the American public. He is credited, along with his business partner, Lloyd Rudd, as the inventor of coffee vending machines and the first US fresh-brew machine. Furthermore, Cyrus was instrumental in several other inventions, including coffee pods, post-mix vendor icemakers, and in-machine coffee bean grinders.
CoffeeFest is a regional, annual coffee festival that is held every last weekend in September on the Ušće street in Belgrade, Serbia, across the Ušće Shopping Center. The Belgrade coffee, tea and hot beverage festival is supported by the Serbian Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, City of Belgrade Belgrade Tourism Organization, Serbian Tourism Organization, and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. The festival organizer is a PCO company Oivivio LLC headquartered in Beverly Hills, California.
A French fry vending machine is a vending machine that dispenses hot French fries, also known as chips. The first known French fry vending machine was developed circa 1982 by the defunct Precision Fry Foods Pty Ltd. in Australia. A few companies have developed and manufactured French fry vending machines and prototypes. Furthermore, a prototype machine was also developed at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
North Korean cuisine is the traditional culinary practices and dishes of North Korea. Its foundations are laid by the agricultural and nomadic traditions in southern Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula. Some dishes are shared by the two Koreas; however, availability and quality of Northern cuisine is much more significantly affected by sociopolitical class divides.