How dey do dat?, Part XXVIX...

It seems Coke is deploying an amazing new soft drink bartending dispenser with the capability of providing up to 120 different drinking substances. Every possible combination of caffeine, sugar, carbs, fiber, vitamins, herbs, juices, etc. will be available and carefully tracked.

Coca-Cola Co. is using micro-dosing technology from drugmakers, a smart phone operating system from Microsoft Corp. and style tips from Italian auto designers in its latest attempt to revive falling sales of fountain drinks.
Coca-Cola spent four years developing a self-serve beverage dispenser that can pour as many as 120 drinks. It uses 40 percent less storage space than traditional six- or eight-tap fountains, said Gene Farrell, the project’s manager.
Code-named “Jet,” the company will test the touch-screen- operated fountain in fewer than 10 Atlanta restaurants starting this month and another 70 or more in Southern California during the summer. The company declined to say where the expanded trials would take place or whether any Jets have been sold.

Coca-Cola is betting a larger variety of beverages, including Orange Coke, Powerade and Minute Maid juice, will lure fast-food consumers back to buying drinks with their hamburgers. People even may pay more for greater choice and a better tasting, colder beverage, Farrell said. [More]

 Cute.

But it was this sentence that struck me.

Coca-Cola sells concentrated beverage syrup to restaurants, convenience stores and entertainment venues to be mixed at the fountain with water, carbon dioxide and high-fructose corn syrup sweetener. 

Is that right? I always thought the HFCS was already in the syrup, as part of the we'll-kill-to-protect-the-secret-recipe strategy.  Alas, I am too ancient to have begun employment in a fast food establishment as a pimply teenager. 

Anybody out there know how fountain machines work?