How craft sodas are shaking up the soft drinks market, from Kim Kardashian drinking Poppi, to BTS inspiring Sanzo
- DJ Steve Aoki and actor Simu Liu loved Sanzo so much they became investors – Kimino and Avec are 2 more drinks brands experimenting with enticing Asian tastes
Move over Coca-Cola, Pepsi, 7 Up and Mountain Dew – in the last few years there’s been an explosion of new soft drink brands offering healthier ways to quench our thirst. These refreshing canned alternatives offer more natural flavours, from lemon and lime, to calamansi, yuzu and even blood orange spiced with jalapeño.
With far less sugar than classic soft drinks, mostly using natural sugars rather than artificial sweeteners, these artisanal seltzers appeal to young consumers with their punchy, colourful and sleek packaging.
According to Data Bridge Market Research, the global craft soda market was worth US$687 million in 2022 – a figure expected to rise to more than US$1 billion by 2030.
The research company reports that consumers are turning to craft sodas as a healthier option, bridging the divide between traditional soft drinks and sparkling water. On top of that, they address the trend, among Gen Zers especially, for more non-alcoholic drink options. It should be said, though, that they also work well as mixers: after all, why have a rum and coke when these new sodas can bring an extra touch of sophistication?
Sanzo is one such soft drink, launched in 2019 by Sandro Roco, a Filipino-American from Queens, New York, and described as “the first Asian-inspired sparkling water”. Roco’s path to the craft soda industry is an unusual one, with previous careers in nuclear engineering and investment banking before he joined a fashion start-up in 2018.
“My office at that apparel start-up had a huge fridge with free snacks and such. We were previously a Diet Coke office and then that summer everything started flipping to La Croix and Bubly [both flavoured sparkling waters]. There would be five different brands, but all the same lemon-lime and grapefruit flavours. I just felt like, ‘Is there not room for more depth here than just these standard flavours?’ And that’s how the journey started,” Roco told food and dining site Eater.
At the time, Crazy Rich Asians was No 1 at the box office and K-pop boy band BTS were taking the US by storm in its first tour of the country.
“With what I was seeing in the world around me, I felt there was an opportunity to introduce flavours that were not on grocery shelves at all. Where was the BTS or the Crazy Rich Asians of the grocery aisle? So I launched Sanzo out of my 500 sq ft apartment in Queens, starting with three flavours,” he recalls.