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Is there still room for early-stage CSD brands that play on heritage appeal rather than having pretensions of being "modern sodas" or slashing indulgent sugar levels? A pair of former middle school teachers have been testing that notion for the past 7 years with Northern Soda brand that's been slowly rippling out from its Minnesota base. The founders and co-CEOs are Davod Zarghami, who serves as chief sales officer, and Jesse Hopkins, in COO role. What they offer is a "1950s-style recipe, as soda used to be," with cane sugar as sweetener, as David described it to us. And these are hefty amounts of sugar, 40 g and up, for 150-170 per 12-oz can. The pair operate an integrated co out of their base in New Brighton, outside of Minneapolis, with a 3-head can line and front-of-house taproom just like craft brewers deploy. Like craft brewers, they rotate their basic offerings - in classic styles like Root Beer, Cream Soda and Black Cherry - with seasonal and other specialty items like Minnesota Apple, Mango Citrus and Caramel Cream. Some tie in with local orgs like Minnesota Zoo Foundation. The co's Northern Special is undertaken in partnership with St Paul Winter Carnival with Winter Wonderland Caramel Cream as flagship flavor. Tho the founders are biased toward cane sugar as sweetener, they do offer a Diet Root Beer with a Splenda/sucralose sweetener combo and are considering diet extensions for their Black Cherry and Cream Soda flavors too.In recent update, Zarghami didn't disguise that 2025 has brought its challenges, with sales trailing 2024 levels tho he's hopeful new distribution will allow the co to finish the year even. He and Hopkins have been working with GBS Growth Partners to plot expansion over past coupla years and recently brought on Hanson Faso as broker to deepen penetration of central US and broaden footprints in retailers like Target, where it occupies flex space in 25 stores; HyVee, where it's in 60+ stores, and in Fresh Thyme, where it's carried statewide and now ready to expand beyond Minn borders.The taproom serves very much as a so-called third place, serving in-house slushies and offering a range of board and arcade games while also hosting birthday parties and wedding receptions for those seeking an NA venue. Flights of different flavors are served on paddles, craft-beer-style. Retro-style posters deck the walls with slogans like, "Catch a Northern!" Not surprisingly, Dry January period can be a boon for the taproom.As for Northern's origin story, it essentially "started as a joke," Zarghami said. Hopkins had been in the space once before: as website recalls, "He owned a craft soda company but he sold it and regretted immediately."The partners started with 1,500-sq-ft plant in Arden Hills for their first 6 years, then migrated to a 10K-ft space in New Brighton with the front-of-house taproom. That's open 4 days for direct retail and offers 40+ flavors including 10 rotating on-tap small-batch entries, some of them exclusive to the taproom, and 30 flavors offered in cans. Programming ranges from sewing classes to "paint your pal" art days. The slushies use the syrups employed in making the sodas. It's got an "old-school pop shop" where patrons can mix and match 6-pks and cases. Production tours help connect Northern Soda's audience to the brand. Given Minnesota's identity as hotbed of Delta-9 THC bevs, is that a consideration for the taprooms? "Not at this time," Zarghami said. "We're pretty focused on the 1950s-style." Besides, as a family-friendly taproom that serve as a welcoming place for those in recovery, that addition could prove jarring.By now, 90% of the business is wholesale, and Northern has been working with GBS to expand its reach. One natural constituency has been on-premise operators looking to diversify their NA offerings, including bars, restaurants and craft breweries, some 65 taprooms from Owatonna to Two Harbors up north. On grocery side, Northern Soda has entered those regional Target stores and has open door to expand further in Midwest once it lines up DSD distributors to support move, Davod said.For distribution, Northern started with local house Market Distributing, a distributor of GT's Kombucha that was acquired by specialty food house Lipari Foods in 2022. Lipari expanded brand to its Detroit base as well as Penn, Ohio, Virginia, Carolinas, NY and DC. Central Market in Texas sought brand out and established a base in Texas via Chef's Warehouse as distributor. Chains like Lewis Drug in SD and HyVee mainly are direct-ship customers. DSD is in mix too, including Dahlheimer and Michaud in Minn, with Northern operating some routes of its own too. It's seeking partner in SE Minn area around Rochester and Winona as well as in adjoining Wis.Another strong channel has proved to be military bases via Sodexo, over 40 bases now, starting in Northeast with likes of Andrews Air Force Base, Fort Bragg and West Point and more recently adding bases in SE states like Fla, Ga and SC. The outlets reach native Minnesotans looking for a taste of home and serve to recruit fans from other regions.Tho soda space is ever-crowded - just this week comedian Ben Stiller threw his hat in ring (story above) - Zarghami professes to be happy about the hubbub. "I want to see a healthy craft category, that was explained to me by the craft brewers," he said. By now he figures relationships the pair have established and the flexibility that comes with being a smaller player should stand them in good stead as they patiently build out.

PROFILE: 'Modern Soda'? From Minn Base, Northern Soda Works Retailers, Brewery Taprooms, Military Bases with Unabashedly Old-School Offerings

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