A beverage dispensing system comprising: a plurality of beverage dispensing containers, each container comprising: a communication element having storage means storing data indicative of the contents of the particular beverage dispensing container; a beverage dispensing arrangement comprising: a reservoir of beverage located within the container; a manually actuatable dispensing valve for selectively controlling the flow of beverage from the reservoir to a container outlet; a dispensing actuator; and an electro-mechanical structure including an electrically-driven pump that directs beverage from the reservoir, out of the dispensing valve upon actuation of the dispensing actuator; the beverage dispensing system further comprising: a computing device; and a base unit upon or within which, in use, the plurality of containers are positioned, the base unit comprising: at least one base-container transceiver for wirelessly reading data from and writing data to the communication element; at least one base-device transceiver for wirelessly communicating data with the computing device; and a control unit for controlling the communication of data from the computing device to the communication element and vice-versa, the control unit further being operable to control the dispensing valve of each container and to control the operation of said pump, wherein the plurality of beverage dispensing containers are operable to stand on a surface independently of the base unit; wherein the dispensing actuator is configured such that a user manually dispenses the beverage using the dispensing actuator to selectively dispense beverage from the plurality of beverage dispensing containers independently of the base unit; and wherein the computing device is a portable device separate from the base unit and is configured to run a software application providing a user interface to allow a user interactively to dispense the beverage from the plurality of containers. a plurality of beverage dispensing containers, each container comprising: a communication element having storage means storing data indicative of the contents of the particular beverage dispensing container; a beverage dispensing arrangement comprising: a reservoir of beverage located within the container; a manually actuatable dispensing valve for selectively controlling the flow of beverage from the reservoir to a container outlet; a dispensing actuator; and an electro-mechanical structure including an electrically-driven pump that directs beverage from the reservoir, out of the dispensing valve upon actuation of the dispensing actuator; the beverage dispensing system further comprising: a computing device; and a communication element having storage means storing data indicative of the contents of the particular beverage dispensing container; a beverage dispensing arrangement comprising: a reservoir of beverage located within the container; a manually actuatable dispensing valve for selectively controlling the flow of beverage from the reservoir to a container outlet; a dispensing actuator; and an electro-mechanical structure including an electrically-driven pump that directs beverage from the reservoir, out of the dispensing valve upon actuation of the dispensing actuator; a reservoir of beverage located within the container; a manually actuatable dispensing valve for selectively controlling the flow of beverage from the reservoir to a container outlet; a dispensing actuator; and an electro-mechanical structure including an electrically-driven pump that directs beverage from the reservoir, out of the dispensing valve upon actuation of the dispensing actuator; the beverage dispensing system further comprising: a computing device; and a base unit upon or within which, in use, the plurality of containers are positioned, the base unit comprising: at least one base-container transceiver for wirelessly reading data from and writing data to the communication element; at least one base-device transceiver for wirelessly communicating data with the computing device; and a control unit for controlling the communication of data from the computing device to the communication element and vice-versa, the control unit further being operable to control the dispensing valve of each container and to control the operation of said pump, at least one base-container transceiver for wirelessly reading data from and writing data to the communication element; at least one base-device transceiver for wirelessly communicating data with the computing device; and a control unit for controlling the communication of data from the computing device to the communication element and vice-versa, the control unit further being operable to control the dispensing valve of each container and to control the operation of said pump,