The Story Behind Our Unusual Soda Flavours

Most soft drinks start with a category. Cola. Lemon. Orange. Something safe, something familiar, something that fits neatly into a shelf. POPZ doesn’t really start there.

It starts somewhere messier. Somewhere closer to a sweet shop, or a half-remembered flavour, or a combination that probably shouldn’t work, until it suddenly does. That’s the space we’re interested in. The one between nostalgia and curiosity.

Because the truth is, the best unusual soda flavours aren’t invented out of nowhere. They’re usually hiding in plain sight, in desserts, in sweets, in moments people already love but haven’t thought about in years.

What we do is pull those ideas out, shake them up, and see what happens when they become something you can drink.

Take Lemon & Popcorn. It sounds like a mistake at first. But then you think about it properly, that salty-sweet contrast, the brightness of citrus cutting through something rich and buttery. It’s already a combination people enjoy without questioning. We just pushed it somewhere new. Not to be strange for the sake of it, but to make something that feels oddly right once you try it.

Raspberry Jelly goes in the opposite direction. There’s nothing complicated about it. It’s bold, unapologetically sweet, and instantly familiar. For a lot of people, it brings back something specific, school puddings, party tables, that wobble you couldn’t resist. Turning it into a drink wasn’t about reinventing it, it was about capturing that same playful hit of flavour in a lighter, more refreshing way.

Then there are flavours like Strawberry & Basil, where the idea is less about nostalgia and more about evolution. Strawberries are easy, everyone’s on board. Basil is where things shift slightly. It adds freshness, something a bit more lifted and unexpected. The result isn’t confusing, it just feels… sharper. Cleaner. Like a classic that’s grown up a little without losing what made it good in the first place.

And then there’s Orange Marmalade. This one leans fully into nostalgic flavour inspiration, but with a bit more depth than people expect from a soft drink. Marmalade has that bittersweet edge, something layered, something that lingers. It’s less about pure sweetness and more about balance. That’s what makes it interesting to turn into a drink, because it gives you something that feels familiar but slightly more considered.

Across all of these, the thinking is the same. We’re not trying to create the next trend or chase whatever flavour is having a moment. We’re more interested in flavours that already mean something, the ones people recognise instantly, even if they haven’t tasted them in years.

That’s where the magic tends to happen.

Because when you take something familiar and shift it just enough, you get that reaction we’re always chasing, the pause, the second sip, the “wait… that’s actually really good.”

That’s what creative soft drink flavours should do. Not just taste good, but surprise you slightly. Stick with you. Make you curious about what else is possible.

And if it feels a bit unexpected along the way, even better.

We raid the sweet shop so you don’t have to.

For the flavour-curious: Explore more nostalgic favourites, strange combinations, and flavour experiments across the POPZ world.