Barely a month ago, a group of friends got together and decided to pursue a shared passion of giving Chennaiites a taste of their own soda. Inspired by their own memories of drinking goli soda (also known locally as paneer soda) at nondescript shops in the bylanes of Mylapore, Triplicane or during a highway pitstop on the way to a temple, Balaji Rajan and Sowmya Kumar Arjun along with two others
(who are silent partners), started Kozzmo, a premium Codd soda brand, with the idea of invoking the same kind of nostalgia in others. “Almost every Chennaiite we spoke to had a memory of drinking goli soda — be it with their grandparents, or from a pottikadai outside their school,” says the duo.
Kramer connect
Launched on March 1, Kozzmo currently retails out of That Madras Place and Azzuri Bay in Adyar. Members of the Gandhinagar Club, Boat Club and the Alumni Club, can also find Kozzmo’s sodas in the club’s refrigerators. About how the brand name came up, Sowmya, a mother of two and a Carnatic vocalist says, “We are all fans of Seinfeld and Cosmo Kramer on the show. Additionally, it fits in perfectly with our brand image which is cosmopolitan,” adding that the bottle has just about enough space (once the marble is popped), to top it with a small peg of alcohol. In fact, the bottle comes with a leaflet listing out exciting cocktail possibilities and details of the history of the Codd bottle on the other side.
Savour the flavours
The four flavours that they have currently are the classic paneer soda, grape, lemon and orange. Interestingly all of them are named after rock songs because the founders are all fans of classic rock music. “So we have Bed of Roses (paneer soda), Purple Haze (grape), Lemon Tree (lemon) and Laguna Sunrise (orange),” informs Balaji, who quit his job as a Senior Business Development Manager to pursue his startup dream and hopes to launch 25 flavours by the end of the year. “In the works currently are a pineapple flavour, a mango fizz and my personal favourite — a throwback to the Archie comics — the ice cream soda flavour,” he beams.
Pop goes the bottle
The goli soda bottle, usually green, is actually called a Codd Bottle, named after its American inventor Hiram Codd. The 150-year-old bottle has remained unchanged over the years, and the design is quite ingenious. One side of the bottle has two ridges at the neck called the eyes. It is only from this side that the drink can be poured out into a glass. Try pouring it out the other side, and the marble automatically bobs up and acts as a topper.
Going marbles
The fascination, especially among pop culture enthusiasts, is of course, the bottle, but Balaji bursts our bubble telling us that the bottle is not for keepsakes and is diligently recycled. “We take back the bottles that we give out as they are quite expensive to manufacture,” admits Balaji, who refuses to reveal how the marble pops back up once it is popped.
Details: 9790925460 or email kozzmocoddsoda@gmail.com