As
a dedicated tea drinker, I am always interested in new serving possibilities.
BOS produce cans of ice tea for their vending machines in South Africa. They
specialize in their local rooibos or red-bush tea, which is particularly good
for you apparently.
With
no caffeine and low tannin, but with lots of antioxidants, flavanones and the
like we should all be thinking about sipping some. It’s not just good for us,
though. The Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust on the Severn Estuary of the
UK fed it to their tadpoles.
Not
ordinary tadpoles mind you, but tadpoles of both yellow and green banded poison
dart frogs from the Amazon, which were reared in pint glasses (there is a local
hostelry not far away) and did very well, growing up fungus-free (1). This was
in 2010 and perhaps we’d better keep our coat collars turned up and hats pulled
down to avoid any dart attacks from breaking the rules.
Clearly
this tea is not to be sneezed at and BOS are pioneering a new vending scheme that
has the blogosphere in a hubbub although not seemingly all of a twitter (1, 2).
BOS
have installed chatty vending machines which are called “Bev” and these are for
iVending in that you have to tweet to Bev that you are ready 4T and she will
deliver a cold can with a friendly bit of chat in exchange for your Twitter address.
Currently,
there aren’t too many Bevs about although there are plans a foot to clone her
in a big way and spread her service wide and far so soon many more of us will
be drinking iVended ice tea. Maybe the concept will spread to other goods
locked away in vending machines.
Can
you see the golden future? Your local vending machine will have learned your
needs and preferences and as you travel, the machines will communicate and,
like a good butler, make sure your needs are available at your pit stops and
final destination.
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10252907
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18535165
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzUXa6JThVQ&feature=player_embedded
