Sparkling natural fruit juices from Mizoram

Zomawii and Phillipe, the founder and co-founder of Local All Natural Soda
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

An existing brewery set up. Surplus indigenous fruits. No storage or processing facilities for farmers to utilise their perishable produce. These three concerns gave birth to Local All Natural Soda, India’s first premium craft soda beverage from Mizoram in the Northeast. 

Zomawii Khiamgte thought the best solution to the problem was to make use of the existing facility to make fresh fruit sodas. Her confidence in the product, Local, came from her co-founder, also her husband, Phillipe Rodrigue, being a brewer who had worked with the Unilever group.

Local All Natural Fruit Soda
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Zomawii says, “Phillipe was a brewer in Mizoram. The brewery was ours but we had to shut it down after Mizoram became a dry state. We saw fruit farmers of the region suffer due to the lack of processing/storage units. Our indigenous fruits have unique flavours. With a focus on three ingredients that the State produces— Pomelo, Khasi Mandarin and Mizo Ginger varieties named Thingpui and Thinglaidum — we decided to try fresh fruit sodas. When we approached the government with a proposal, they were more than happy to see an initiative for the farmers.” 

Zomawii harvesting ginger
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangements

In 2021, Zomawii and Phillipe set up Local All Natural Soda to promote sustainable agriculture and community empowerment in Northeast India.

However, Zomawii makes it clear that they are not in the health segment; the sugar content in Local All Natural Soda varies from 5% to 8.5%, depending on the fruit/ingredient used. The total sugar content is approximately 1/4 in comparison to other packaged fruit juices. “Our products use sugar but we thrive on the use of natural fruit juices.”

The brand focuses on taking the good flavours of of fruits from Mizoram to the rest of the country. She adds, “Right now we are available in Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka.” 

The Local All Natural Fruit soda unit at Mizoram
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

The founders don’t want to jump on the pan-India bandwagon yet. “We don’t want to bite off more than we can chew,” she says. The brand is presently targeting cities that boast of a strong pub culture because “not everyone visiting pubs drinks alcohol,” she adds.

Zomawii says through the Local brand, they want to educate people in the rest of the country about the fruits and spices produced in the region. “Pomelo is our native fruit. Its flavour and juiciness is unmatched. Unfortunately, we hanker after grapefruit which is imported. The same goes for the orange; most of Mizoram grows the Khasi Mandarin in abundance; these are sweeter, firmer and tastier. Mizoram’s gingers are GI-tagged. It commands a price of ₹200 in the market, but the farmers get ₹20 per kilogram; they barely make any profit. When we approached the farmers for the drink, they were more than happy to work with us,” adds Zomawii.  Local All Natural Soda buys directly from farmers by paying four times the price at which middlemen used to buy from them.