[hackerspaces] The Club-Mate Design Pattern, now for US Hackerspaces!

[Ron Bean]

"Nick Farr (hackerspaces.org)" <nick at hackerspaces.org>

>If this effort is successful, it will help us prove to investors and
>potential creditors that there is a viable market for Club-Mate in the
>US.  We'll be able to buy in much bigger volume, save on shipping
>costs and offer special pricing to US Hackerspaces, so you can help
>fund your operations with it just like Hackerspaces in Europe do.

The current issue of Make: Magazine has an article about an open-source
version of Club-Mate (called "Dave-Mate") made by a guy at the Hack
Factory in Minneapolis. (Make #23, p40)

Another option would be to find a small bottler in the US to make
something similar. Around here we have Sprechers (known nationwide for
their root beer), and Brown Bear (a local brand). Other places probably 
have similar companies. 

A third option would be to find out if the Club-Mate people in Europe
would sell you just the syrup, for local carbonation (which is the easy
part). That's the way the fast-food people do it, which means all the
major brands (and some not-so-major ones) are available that way.
If you don't want to build your own carbonator, you might convince a 
small bottler to run it through their bottling machine for you.
It really doesn't make much sense to ship water all the way from Europe.