I don’t have many vices. But I’ll admit that I do enjoy a Diet Coke from time-to-time. And my latest hedonistic pleasure is Diet Coke blended with orange soda.

The cola/orange blend isn’t something I ever “make” on my own. I could buy a bottle of diet coke and a bottle of orange Fanta and mix them together. But I’ve never done this. It seems so complicated.

So, how do I satisfy my craving?

With the Coke Freestyle machine. It allows you to blend flavors together effortlessly. Vanilla coke? No problem. Cherry coke zero? Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Oh yeah, lemon flavoring is in there too…I think.

Yesterday I had a chance, for the first time, to peek inside of one of these machines. I was so gobsmacked that I forgot to take a picture! (the picture below of the innards is from http://blog.visualhero.com/news/benchmarking-the-coca-cola-freestyle)

On the inside it looks like a row of printer cartridges. When they run out of a flavor or sweetener, they just pop out one cartridge and plug in another. Seriously, it is as easy as changing the toner in your ink jet printer. I saw them do it.

This is a great example of cross-pollination innovation. An approach from one industry (printers) applied to another unrelated industry (soft drinks).

When struggling with a challenge, I like to ask, “What is this like?” or “Who else has solved a problem like this?” It leads to fascinating solutions…just like the Coke Freestyle.