15 Best Latin Sodas To Quench Your Thirst (2024)

The best part of traveling might be to try cuisine and beverages unique to the region and cannot be found at your local supermarket back home.

While you may be familiar with Coca-Cola or Pepsi, tons of popular soft drinks are produced from various Latin American countries.

Some of the best Latin sodas include Inca Kola, Guarana Antarctica, and Materva. These fizzy beverages range from sweet to sour with quirky flavors in all sorts of intense colors and are all refreshingly unique.

While many of these Latin soda pop is not available outside of the region, you might be able to find a few brands at your local supermarket in the Latin food aisle.

You can also search online to find latin shops willing to ship some bottles to you directly.

Read more about the most popular and iconic Latin sodas, from how they were made to a description of their distinct flavors.

1. Inca Kola

José Robinson Lindley and his family emigrated from England, forming a bottling business to manufacture and sell drinks in Lima, Peru.

In 1935, he introduced a new carbonated beverage named Inca Kola that grew in popularity, soon becoming one of Lima’s most popular drinks.

The soft drink’s patriotic branding and marketing campaigns soon positioned Inca Kola’s position as the soda of Peru, rivaling Coca-Cola in market share.

Despite the drink’s success, the company suffered and went into debt in the 1980s due to the civil unrest caused by Shining Path rebels and hyperinflation in the 1990s.

Eventually, Coca-Cola purchased half of Inca Kola.

This intensely yellow beverage, reminiscent of a yellow highlighter, is also widely known as “the Golden Kola” and amongst the most popular drinks in Peru.

The drink is slightly fruity with the flavor of lemon verbena.

Some people say that the drink tastes like bubblegum. Other people swear that they can smell and taste pineapple, lemon, lime, or even bananas.

It is a refreshing drink when chilled ice-cold and consumed on a hot summer day, but most people from Peru drink it at room temperature rather than serving it over ice or as a base mixer for alcoholic drinks.

You can buy Inca Kola at Amigofoods or Amazon.

2. Guarana Antarctica

Guarana Antarctica is a famous drink from Brazil made from using the Guaraná plant.

The Guaraná plant has a high caffeine content with more than three times stronger than regular coffee plants.

The soft drink includes the extract of the Guaraná plant and caffeine, and its success has spawned a wide range of spin-off drinks.

These drinks include an açaí version, zero sugar varieties, and a champagne flavor.

This golden-caramel-colored beverage is carbonated and tastes like a sugary ginger ale with apples and a hint of berry.

While there are many Brazilian companies that manufactur guarana soda, Antarctica is the king. It also happens to be the official sponsor of the Brazilian soccer team.

3. Materva

Materva is a soft drink initially manufactured and popularized in Cuba back in 1920.

This popular soft drink is essentially a herbal tea with bubbles made with yerba mate.

While dried yerba mate leaves are often used to brew a hot drink, it is usually bitter.

However, the Materva soda is delightful with a taste similar to a cream soda or ginger ale.

Materva can be found at all Miami restaurants and supermarkets. and many latin areas in the U.S, as Cawy Bottling Company has manufactured the drink since the 1960s.

The founder of the company began producing Materva to diversify their product lineup.

In 2002, the soft drink was given the “Best Local Soft Drink” award by the newspaper Miami News Times.

4. Kas

Kas is a soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo that originated from Spain in 1956.

It was primarily used as a mixer for alcoholic drinks but was soon acquired by Pepsi-Cola de Espana when the brand grew in popularity.

It was soon launched to the Mexican market for consumption as a competitor to Coca-Cola’s launch of the grapefruit-flavored beverage Fresca in 1994.

Kas is a soft drink that comes in many different fruit flavor varieties such as grapefruit, orange, lemon, apple, and herbal extracts.

Kas limon and naranja being the most popular. You can buy both Kas flavors at Amigofoods.

Kas also produces a soft drink beverage named Bitter Kas, a fizzy drink that is bright red/pink in color and that is a bitter alternative to their usual orange and lemon sodas.

Designed as an adult nonalcoholic drink after a meal, it is not as sweet as Kas.

It includes a blend of more than twenty different spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon, and gentian root.

Both Kas drinks are delicious when chilled or poured over ice!

5. Jarritos

Jarritos is a soft drink founded in 1950 by Don Francisco Hill in Mexico.

The soft drink is made with real cane sugar and is manufactured in various fruit flavors.

Additionally, it is less carbonated than other popular sodas available for sale.

In Spanish, the word “jarrito” means “little jug” and refers to the Mexican culture of drinking water and beverages in clay pottery jugs.

By selling a bigger bottle with a coffee-flavored soda, Jarritos broke away from Mexican soft drink norms.

Soon after, the founder Hill created a method to strip tamarind juice extract and released the first Mexican tamarind-flavored soda.

Other flavor varieties such as lemon, fruit punch, and mandarin followed, which helped popularize the brand, ultimately becoming Mexico’s national soft drink.

And a popular Mexican drink to wash down your favorite Mexican dish.

6. Good-O Kola

Good-O Kola Champagne soda was invented in Puerto Rico in 1902 after the Spanish-American war.

The drink became a popular soda in Puerto Rico, where it is still prevalent today.

The soda is a light brown or dark yellow and tastes like a cream soda with a bubble gum aftertaste. It has a dry finish while being a sweet fizzy beverage.

Despite being named champagne, it has no connection to the alcoholic beverage.

7. Fress

Fress Kolita, also known as Frescolita, is a very popular Venezuelan soda made with cane sugar and bright red.

It is very similar to a cream soda while tasting a bit like bubble gum.

Other people say that it tastes like a melted creamsicle.

8. Ironbeer

Ironbeer is a soda originally made in Havana, Cuba, back in 1917.

It was Cuba’s national soda for many years until Fidel Castro came into power.

The corporation became the Cuban government’s property, ultimately exiling the families that ran the company to the United States.

However, the brand started to be produced in Miami, Florida.

It is noted to taste like a fruiter Dr. Pepper soda, but other reviewers mention that it tastes like a mix between Orange Sunkist and Coca-Cola, or a combination of cream soda and root beer.

9. Coco Rico

Coco Rico is a soft drink from Puerto Rico that was first introduced in 1935.

It is a refreshing soda with a coconut flavor that is not as strongly flavored as other soft drinks on this list.

One reviewer mentions that Coco Rico is similar to carbonated water with a sweet coconut aftertaste that is refreshingly sweet when the soda is chilled.

As the drink gets warmer, you can taste more of the mellow coconut flavor.

10. Colombiana

Colombia is home to more than arepas and Bandeja Paisa.

Have you tasted Colombiana?

Postobón produces Colombiana in Colombia, one of the largest beverage companies in South America.

The package on the soda notes that it is a “Colombian style cola champagne” and “con sabor a Colombia,” which translates to “tastes like Colombia.”

This peach-colored beverage tastes like a sweet cream soda with a fizzier punch than a regular cream soda.

Tasters note a slight almond flavor with a vanilla or banana smell with a hint of spice that makes the drink not as sweet as other champagne sodas available on the market.

11. Jupiña

Jupiña is a soft drink produced by Cawy Bottling Company in Cuba and is a pineapple-flavored soda.

The name comes from “Jugo de Piña,” which translates to “juice of pineapple.”

It is a very sweet drink, and reviews mention that it is one of the sweetest pineapple sodas that makes it great to pair with fatty or salty food.

12. Postobon

While Postobon is the largest beverage company in Colombia, it is also a soft drink. And one of Colombia’s favorite drinks.

While many Postobon soda flavors such as pineapple, grape, lemon, and orange, the most commonly known Postobon soda flavor is “manzana Postobón,” or a soda that is apple flavored.

The apple-flavored Postobon soda is light pink, but other reviewers mention a grape or cherry aftertaste instead of tasting thoroughly like apples.

It is a delightful drink that tastes amazing when chilled!

13. Country Club

Country Club is a beloved soft drink from the Dominican Republic.

On the classic glass bottle, it is labeled “La Bebida de Distinción,” which translates to “the drink of distinction,” and “Country Club Refresco National Dominicano,” which translates to “National Dominic Refreshment.”

The drink is the self-appointed national favorite soft drink of the Dominic Republic.

People from the tropical island enjoy the frambuesa or raspberry flavor when eating traditional Dominican dishes.

While it has the consistency of a cream soda with a creamy feel and not too much fizz, the raspberry soda is chock full of sugar, with about 47 grams of sugar in every Country Club 12 ounce bottle.

This is more than 8 grams of sugar than in a co*ke bottle.

Reviewers suggest drinking it over ice or adding a spritz of lime juice to cut down on the sweetness levels.

14. Pap & Bilz

Pap and Bilz Chilean sodas were first launched in 1927.

Pap was named as such because it is a papaya flavored soft drink. And Bilz received its name after it’s creator.

This fizzy beverage is one of the most popular soft drinks in Chile.

The drink is bright yellow, and it is highly recommended to serve ice cold to enjoy this refreshing beverage with your favorite Chilean dish.

15. Tropical

Tropical is a soda from Honduras. It is bright yellow and is a banana-flavored soft drink.

It is very sweet with an artificial candied banana taste that will give you a sugar rush!

Tropical also has other flavors such as strawberry and apple in various other colors.

This fizzy beverage enjoyed ice-cold for maximum refreshment.

Conclusion

If you are bored of drinking the same soft drinks such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi, try these 15 best Latin sodas.

These Latin beverages come in all sorts of unique flavors and colors.

These sugary drinks are best-enjoyed ice cold to refresh you on a hot day.

Or how about when enjoying your favorite Latin sandwich?

Sources

Jorge Garcia

Our blog is all about sharing our love of Latin American foods & drinks. We’ll bring you articles and recipes of the very best Latin American & Spanish cuisine. Amigofoods was founded in 2003 and is the largest online grocery store offering a wide variety of hard to find freshly imported foods & drinks from all over Latin America and Spain.

Read more about the author & Amigofoods on our About Us page.

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