Press Release

South Florida Beverage Company Fresh Blends Wins Best Kiosk Innovation at the Automated Retail & Kiosk Innovation Awards

Cloud-connected beverage platform honored for redefining operational erfficiency and user experience in automated retail and QSRs.

February 26, 2026

Fresh Blends®, the global leader in iced and frozen beverage automation, is proud to announce that we have been named Best Kiosk Innovation at the Automated Retail & Kiosk Innovation Show's 2025 ARKI Awards. This award recognizes the most creative and effective advancements in kiosk design, functionality, user experience, and technology integration. The ARKI Awards spotlight the companies and technologies shaping the future of automated retail. Winners are selected based on their ability to solve real-world operational challenges, enhance user interaction, and create new opportunities across industries.

We were honored for our Fresh Blender Plus® platform, which redefines operational efficiency and the consumer experience in self-service retail. The Fresh Blender+® combines advanced clean-in-place sanitation for up to three months, Ecoblend+® in-cup blending technology, integrated ice making, and a 21" HD touchscreen interface to deliver high-quality, chef-crafted beverages with no preparation and virtually no waste.

Our innovation includes fully automated sanitation cycles that reduce cleaning labor, remote diagnostics and monitoring that minimize downtime, precision volumetric dispensing that ensures consistent ROI, and cloud-connected software that enables real-time analytics, menu updates, and operational alerts. The platform supports crew-serve, self-serve, and self-pay models, making it adaptable across convenience and specialty retail, foodservice, fitness centers, education, healthcare, and travel environments.

To learn more about Fresh Blends®, our award-winning Fresh Blender Plus®, our full menu of delicious iced and frozen beverages, including USDA-certified, aseptic organic options, and our new performance nutrition program, which delivers protein shakes, protein coffees, energy fruit smoothies, and more in 60 seconds or less, visit our website at www.freshblends.com/business and contact our team at sales@freshblends.com.

Photo: Pictured from left to right: Kenneth Lundberg, Chief Technology Officer, and Chef Joseph Knauss, Director of Innovation at Fresh Blends®

About Fresh Blends

Fresh Blends® is a food technology company and the developer of the world's leading self-serve beverage platform and automated smoothie robot, delivering better-for-you iced and frozen beverages in seconds. Designed for high-volume throughput to eliminate prep, reduce waste, and minimize labor, each Fresh Blender® provides a consistent, chef-crafted experience with every order. The Fresh Blender® received a 2019 Kitchen Innovations (KI) Award from the National Restaurant Association Show, recognizing cutting-edge equipment that enhances efficiency, safety, and sustainability through automation, and was named Best Kiosk Innovation at the 2025 Automated Retail & Kiosk Innovation (ARKI) Awards for addressing key operational challenges in unattended retail. With more than 4,000 Fresh Blenders® deployed across the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Europe, and over 100 million drinks dispensed, operators can serve smoothies, shakes, cold brew frappes and lattes, iced and frozen lemonades, and USDA organic aseptic iced and frozen beverages made with no artificial colors, sweeteners, high-fructose corn syrup, or preservatives. Fresh Blends® also offers a functional performance beverage program featuring protein shakes, protein coffees, energy smoothies, and refreshers, all delivered in 60 seconds or less. The platform supports crew-serve, self-serve, and fully unattended self-pay models across convenience retail, micro markets, military, foodservice, fitness, education, healthcare, and travel and entertainment environments.