(Cambridge, Massachusetts - August 21, 2023) - Culture Pop Soda announces that it has more than tripled its retail distribution over the past six months, expanding its reach drastically beyond the 20 Boston-area stores the brand started out with during the pandemic following its launch.

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Today, Culture Pop Soda is proud to be available to consumers in nearly 7,000 stores across the country. In New England, Polar Beverage now distributes Culture Pop and the brand can now be found at major chains like Shaws, Stop & Shop, Whole Foods, Wegmans, and Walmart, in addition to the regional accounts that have sold the brand since its inception. From Concord to Alaska, Culture Pop Soda can also be found at Albertsons/Safeway, Kroger, Sprouts, Meijer, Target, and more.

Founder/CEO Tom First & team began selling Culture Pop out of the back of his car - an ode to his beginnings in the beverage industry 30+ years ago when co-founding Nantucket Nectars by selling juice off of a boat in Nantucket Harbor with his college friend, Tom Scott.

Tom First, a veteran in the beverage industry, has a knack for turning simple ideas into extraordinary successes. Nantucket Nectars, a brand that started out on the island of Nantucket, eventually became a staple in households nationwide and is now owned by Keurig Dr Pepper. Since selling Nantucket Nectars, First has been an investor and partner in many other food & beverage brands including Essentia Water, Yasso, and Jeni’s Ice Cream. But now, he’s chosen to get back in the driver’s seat and do it all over again.

”I thought my wife might kill me when I first brought up the idea to start another beverage company. I promised both of us that I’d only go forward if the product tasted great, and the packaging was amazing. We were able to create something special, so here we go!.”

This time around, with the global pandemic in full swing, the logistics of starting up a beverage company were challenging. Challenges included the obvious hit to in-store traffic, soaring material costs, and supply chain disruptions - to name a few. However, once a handful of Boston area stores took the product, indicators of success were already there. A winning product formula and impactful, eye-catching packaging gave First & the founding team confidence that they were on to something great, even in the midst of uncertainty.

First’s local independent grocery store, Concord Market in Concord, MA, took a chance and gained the honor of becoming the very first Culture Pop retailer Throughout the next several months, First & team loaded their cars with cases and hand delivered the product to a growing number of local stores including Roche Brothers, Eataly, Crosby’s, Pemberton Farms, and more. First even enlisted his sons to help service the brand’s ecommerce fulfillment duties from their front porch.

The Boston-area community has quickly embraced Culture Pop from the onset and the team is set out to replicate that feeling throughout the country. You may have also been tossed a can from the brand’s field team while passing through The Esplanade or Newbury Street. Notable fans include Olympians Alix Klineman and Kelley O’Hara, as well as Joanna Gains and Brad Corrigan of Dispatch. Content creators from the likes of Chris Olsen and Allison Kucharczyk are brand partners as well, sharing Culture Pop with tens of millions of followers.

Culture Pop cans read “fizzy & gutsy” on the front, emphasizing two key pillars of the product in a fun way. The brand just recently launched its first ad campaign with video streaming online and branded trucks covering the roads of southern New England. The video spot showcases Culture Pop’s new approach to soda, through a lively animated series. It was important to the team to use video format as a way to fully engage consumers through sight, sound and emotion. The brand is also gaining traction on social media as an emerging generation of consumers have been drawn in by the product through viral content and partnerships.

There’s a reason why Culture Pop has seen much success. The largest category in the beverage industry, carbonated soft drinks, is being redefined by First & team by using real, simple, clean ingredients that consumers are increasingly searching for in grocery aisles. Sugary sodas and ultra-sweet diet replacements have been in decline for years. Functional beverages, (drinks that provide a health benefit of some sort) have become an obsession with a growing generation of consumers who pay attention to ingredients on nutritional labels, and over the past three years, functional sodas have tripled the size of the specialty soda category.

Emerging brands like Culture Pop are taking on legacy carbonated soda drink giants, and quickly winning over consumers through bright packaging, full flavors that aren’t overly sweet, engaging marketing, and functional benefits. All of which have previously been absent from traditional sodas. Culture Pop brings consumers back to carbonated soft drinks and introduces new consumers to the category, drawing them from other large beverage categories like seltzer, soda and other functional drinks.

Through rapid growth and national expansion, Culture Pop maintains its Boston roots and continues to integrate itself with the New England community. The company’s headquarters are in Cambridge, with product innovation taking place locally. Culture Pop is still an upstart in the beverage industry, yet its early success is a strong indicator for longevity.

Press Contact: Bobbie Burgess

Email: bobbie@drinkculturepop.com

About Culture Pop Soda

Culture Pop Soda, founded in 2020, is intelligently flavored by crafted combinations of real, organic fruit juice, herbs & spices, and live probiotics. Each of the brand’s seven flavors are based on familiar, fruit favorites, but leave out refined sweeteners, artificial and high intensity sweeteners like stevia, and added sugars found in traditional sodas. Culture Pop is delicious, refreshing and not too sweet.

Culture Pop Soda is vegan, certified non-GMO, gluten-free, plant-based, shelf-stable, and kosher. Each 12 oz can is packed with billions of live probiotics which aid digestive health, which is also proven to impact overall wellness. Culture Pop Soda is also available online in 12 packs at https://drinkculturepop.com/ and on Amazon for $32.99 and free shipping.