"closed" ingredient systems...

I have used this heading to group together three other types of machines. Whilst the Incup machines could also be described as “closed” systems, there are a number of Incup drinks suppliers vying for the business and it is usually possible to change suppliers. I have therefore excluded Incup from this section. 

The machines I have called “closed” depend upon a system for delivering the drink, which is only available from the one manufacturer. In other words, once you have committed yourself to these machines, you have only one source of ingredients available to you. If you stop buying, your machine will not work.

At the lowest level price-wise are the drink dispensers that use disposable cardboard cartridges, attached to which is a primitive dispenser, usually activated by an elastic band or similar device. These cartridges slot into a basic machine and when they have been used, you simply throw the cartridge and dispenser away and insert a new. A variation on this theme is the “container” system. With this system the drinks come in small containers, rather like the jam-pots that you see on the breakfast tables of hotels, except that these containers, contain Tea, Coffee Soup etc., They are slotted into specially made machines, from which they are dispensed. The user then releases the foil, pours the drink into a cup and adds water from the machine. Both of these two systems are rather old fashioned and whilst they do have their admirers, they are nowhere near as popular as they were 10 or 15 years ago.

+ Plusses
· Easy to fill machines
· Easy to use
· Low maintenance
· Inexpensive to acquire
· Easy to keep clean
· Flexible drink quality

- Minuses
· Average drink quality
· Tied to one supplier
· No control over costs
· Drinks are expensive
· Requires storage space
· Can create a lot of mess