#cacaofruit

We are absolutely thrilled to share some huge news with our community. Kaoba has been featured in two of the most prestigious publications in the world of food and drink: JancisRobinson.com and the Financial Times.

It is a significant moment for us (and for the cacaofruit movement) to be recognised by globally respected voices in the industry.

Redefining "How to Drink Less Wine"

The features centered around a topic that is becoming increasingly relevant to many of us: mindful drinking. In her article, "How to drink less wine," renowned wine critic Jancis Robinson explores the growing desire for sophisticated, complex alternatives to alcohol.

We are incredibly proud that Kaoba was highlighted as a top choice for those looking to celebrate without the compromise. You can read the full article on Jancis Robinson’s main site here: Read: How to drink less wine

The conversation continued in the Financial Times, where the unique profile of cacaofruit was recognised as part of this shifting landscape. Read the Financial Times feature here

Why the World is Waking Up to Cacaofruit

Why are wine experts and financial journalists suddenly talking about cacaofruit juice? Because people are realising that "alcohol-free" doesn't have to mean "boring."

For a long time, the non-alcoholic options were limited to sugary sodas or plain water. But as more people look to celebrate life’s moments with clarity and health, they are turning to ingredients that offer depth, complexity, and sustainability.

Kaoba is leading this charge. By harnessing the ancient power of the cacaofruit (the pure, zesty pulp that surrounds the cocoa bean) we provide a drink that is:

Complex & Sophisticated: With notes of tropical lychee, pear, and citrus, it rivals the complexity of a white wine.

Sustainable: We upcycle the cacaofruit pulp that would otherwise be wasted during chocolate production.

Naturally Good: Packed with antioxidants and gentle energy, it’s a celebration that feels good the next day, too.

Join the Cacaofruit Celebration

The recognition from Jancis Robinson and the Financial Times confirms what we at Kaoba have always believed: Cacaofruit is the future of drinking.

Whether you are cutting back on wine, looking for a new pairing for your dinner, or simply want to enjoy a delicious, sustainable beverage, there has never been a better time to pour a glass of Kaoba.

I am absolutely thrilled (and honestly, a little humbled) to share some massive news with you all.

Our company, Kaoba, has just been featured in two of the most prestigious publications in the food and drink world: JancisRobinson.com and the Financial Times.

When I started this journey, my goal was to bring the incredible potential of cacaofruit to the world. To see our work recognised by such globally respected voices isn’t just a win for Kaoba; it feels like a pivotal moment for the entire cacaofruit movement.

Redefining “How to Drink Less Wine”

The features centered around a topic that is personally very important to me: mindful drinking.

In her article, “How to drink less wine,” the legendary wine critic Jancis Robinson explores the growing desire for sophisticated, complex alternatives to alcohol. As someone who loves the ritual of a good drink but wanted a healthier balance, this really resonated with me.

I am incredibly proud that Kaoba was highlighted as a top choice for those looking to celebrate without the compromise. To have a wine expert of her caliber appreciate the complexity of our product is the ultimate validation.

You can read Jancis’s full article here: Read: How to drink less wine

The conversation continued in the Financial Times, where the unique profile of cacaofruit was recognized as a key player in this shifting landscape. Read the Financial Times feature here

Why the World is Waking Up to Cacaofruit Juice

Why are top wine experts and financial journalists suddenly talking about cacaofruit juice? I believe it’s because people are finally realising that “alcohol-free” doesn’t have to mean “boring.”

For a long time, if you weren’t drinking alcohol, you were stuck with sugary sodas or plain water. I wanted to change that. I wanted to celebrate life’s moments with clarity and health, using ingredients that offer depth, complexity, and sustainability.

This is exactly why I built Kaoba. By harnessing the ancient power of the cacaofruit (the pure, zesty pulp that surrounds the cocoa bean) I set out to provide a drink that delivers on three main fronts:

Complexity: I wanted notes of tropical lychee, pear, and citrus that could rival the complexity of a fine white wine.

Sustainability: It was crucial to me that we upcycle the cacaofruit pulp that would otherwise be wasted during chocolate production.

Natural Goodness: I wanted a drink packed with antioxidants and gentle energy—a celebration that feels good the next day, too.

Join Me in the Cacaofruit Celebration

The recognition from Jancis Robinson and the Financial Times confirms what I have believed since day one: Cacaofruit is the future of drinking.

Whether you are cutting back on wine, looking for a new pairing for your dinner, or simply want to enjoy a delicious, sustainable beverage, I’d love for you to try what we’ve created.

Thank you for being part of this journey with me. Here’s to better drinking!

It feels like only yesterday we were standing in a home kitchen, staring at a bubbling sodastream and wondering if we were crazy.

Now, as we head into the Christmas break, I’m looking at the spreadsheets and I have to pinch myself. Since our standing start launch in February, over 100,000 cans of Koaba have been drunk across the UK. We’ve gone from a kitchen experiment to being stocked in over 600 locations.

For a business that started with just £5,000 and zero marketing budget, this year has been a journey equal parts exhausting and exhilarating. As we close out the year, I wanted to pull back the curtain on how we got here, the struggles we faced, and the people who helped us fly.

We didn't have investors throwing cash at us. We had a small pot of savings and a belief in a little-known ingredient, cacaofruit.

Before we ever canned a drop, we were making cacaofruit soda at home. We knew the flavour was unique, but we needed validation. We needed to know that you liked it. We spent those early days hunting for that "Wow" reaction when people took their first sip. Once we had that confirmation, we enlisted the help of our local marketing agency, Creative Direction, who helped us build a brand that looked shelf-ready before we even hit the streets.

Hit the streets we did, literally. We launched by going door-to-door in London, selling the dream one person, and one can, at a time.

We owe a massive debt of gratitude to the industry voices who shouted about us when we were still small. A huge thank you to The Grocer for featuring us early on -  that industry stamp of approval was gold dust.

The real whirlwind started with Sorted Food. When the YouTube giants gave us a full feature as a "future drink," we simply weren’t prepared. We thought we were ready, but the response was explosive. You guys sold us out several times over. We were scrambling to fulfill orders, completely blown away by the demand. It was a trial by fire that taught us a massive amount about scaling, and fast.

One of our biggest hurdles was educating the market on a flavour they hadn’t tried before. But once people tasted it, the creativity started flowing.

While Koaba is a refreshing soft drink on its own, this year saw us evolve into a serious mixer contender. We’ve had the privilege of collaborating with heavy hitters like the Campari Group, Ocho Tequila, Cazcabel Tequila, CleanCo, and many others. Seeing our liquid turned into incredible cocktails has been a major highlight of the year.

I won’t sugarcoat it, taking on the large incumbent brands as a startup is a fight. Behind the Instagram posts and the sales figures, there have been plenty of sleepless nights.

The reality of startup life is managing cash flow on a shoestring, chasing people who won't pay invoices, and wearing a dozen different hats in a single day - jumping from Head of Sales to Marketing Intern to Logistics Manager in the space of an hour. Every time we felt the burn, we’d see another order come in, or another person post about discovering their new favourite drink, and it kept us moving forward.

As we enter the festive period, our Christmas orders have been huge, and we are ending the year on a massive high. We are thrilled to announce that next year, Koaba is going global, with plans to launch into Europe and the UAE.

Finally, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us. To the partners, the stockists, and the agencies, thank you.

Mostly, thank you to you. Especially those early adopters who ordered a trial pack when we were just a weird new fruit soda on the internet. We will never forget that early support.

Here’s to a refreshing Christmas and an even bigger New Year.

It does not smell like a chocolate bar. It smells like a tropical mix of sharp citrus, jasmine, and ripe mango.

For centuries, the world has been obsessed with the seeds of the theobroma cacao tree. We dry them, roast them, and grind them into the dark, bitter confection we know as chocolate. In our obsession with the seed, we completely ignored the fruit that protects it.

I was standing in the dappled shade of the canopy, watching a harvester work. He moved with the precision of a surgeon, using a long pole to hook a ripe pod high in the branches. It fell with a dull thud and with a practiced crack of the machete, he splits the thick, pebbled husk open.

Inside, it looks nothing like a dessert. It looks alien and beautiful - rows of seeds covered in a glistening, snow-white pulp - this is the cacaofruit.

“Try it,” he said, handing me a cluster of the wet seeds.

I put one into my mouth, expecting the bitterness of raw cocoa. Instead, I got a shock of electric sweetness. The texture is creamy, almost like custard or a soursop. The flavour was a complex puzzle of bright notes of lychee, the mellow sweetness of pear, and a zesty finish that reminds me of lime or yuzu. It is refreshing, hydration in its purest form, designed by nature to sustain life in the sweltering heat of the tropics.

“And then what happens to this?” I asked, gesturing to the white pulp I was still tasting.

“We let it drip away,” he shrugged. “We need the seeds for the chocolate.”

It hit me right then, standing in the mud of the rainforest floor. For every pound of chocolate the world devours, pounds of this incredible, nutrient-dense fruit are discarded, left to rot into the soil. It wasn’t just a waste of food, it was a waste of flavour.

That was the moment Kaoba was born.

The problem with cacaofruit is that it is fleeting. Once the pod is cracked, that bright, zesty flavor begins to ferment almost immediately. In the wild, it’s a race against the clock. To share this flavour with the world, we didn’t need to add anything except stop time.

At Kaoba, our process is an exercise in restraint. We don’t cook the fruit down into a syrup, or let it drown in refined sugars or bury it under artificial preservatives. We simply harvest the pods at their peak ripeness (when they turn sunset-orange or deep yellow) and cold-press the pulp immediately.

The juice is then blended with sparkling water and sealed into a can. That’s it.

The result is a preservation of that exact moment in the rainforest. When you crack open a can of Kaoba, the hiss of carbonation releases that same floral, citrusy bouquet I smelt in the jungle.

A New Kind of Soda

Drinking Kaoba is a confusing experience for your brain, in the best possible way. You see “cacao” on the label, and you expect heavy, dark, and milky, but the liquid is clear and golden.

On the palate, it is champagne-like in its effervescence. It pairs the tartness of a green apple with the tropical lushness of a lychee. It is sophisticated enough to be a mixer in a gin cocktail, yet simple enough to be a post-workout refresher. It is the freshest cacaofruit soda on the market because we treat it like a fresh juice, not a soft drink.

We are not just selling a soda, we are closing a loop. By harvesting the fruit for Kaoba, we are providing farmers with a second stream of income from the same crop. We are taking what was once 70% waste and turning it into 100% flavour.

Nature did the hard work of engineering the perfect tropical refreshment. We just built the can.

It does not smell like a chocolate bar. It smells like a tropical mix of sharp citrus, jasmine, and ripe mango.

For centuries, the world has been obsessed with the seeds of the theobroma cacao tree. We dry them, roast them, and grind them into the dark, bitter confection we know as chocolate. In our obsession with the seed, we completely ignored the fruit that protects it.

I was standing in the dappled shade of the canopy, watching a harvester work. He moved with the precision of a surgeon, using a long pole to hook a ripe pod high in the branches. It fell with a dull thud and with a practiced crack of the machete, he splits the thick, pebbled husk open.

Inside, it looks nothing like a dessert. It looks alien and beautiful - rows of seeds covered in a glistening, snow-white pulp - this is the cacaofruit.

“Try it,” he said, handing me a cluster of the wet seeds.

I put one into my mouth, expecting the bitterness of raw cocoa. Instead, I got a shock of electric sweetness. The texture is creamy, almost like custard or a soursop. The flavour was a complex puzzle of bright notes of lychee, the mellow sweetness of pear, and a zesty finish that reminds me of lime or yuzu. It is refreshing, hydration in its purest form, designed by nature to sustain life in the sweltering heat of the tropics.

“And then what happens to this?” I asked, gesturing to the white pulp I was still tasting.

“We let it drip away,” he shrugged. “We need the seeds for the chocolate.”

It hit me right then, standing in the mud of the rainforest floor. For every pound of chocolate the world devours, pounds of this incredible, nutrient-dense fruit are discarded, left to rot into the soil. It wasn’t just a waste of food, it was a waste of flavour.

That was the moment Kaoba was born.

The problem with cacaofruit is that it is fleeting. Once the pod is cracked, that bright, zesty flavor begins to ferment almost immediately. In the wild, it’s a race against the clock. To share this flavour with the world, we didn’t need to add anything except stop time.

At Kaoba, our process is an exercise in restraint. We don’t cook the fruit down into a syrup, or let it drown in refined sugars or bury it under artificial preservatives. We simply harvest the pods at their peak ripeness (when they turn sunset-orange or deep yellow) and cold-press the pulp immediately.

The juice is then blended with sparkling water and sealed into a can. That’s it.

The result is a preservation of that exact moment in the rainforest. When you crack open a can of Kaoba, the hiss of carbonation releases that same floral, citrusy bouquet I smelt in the jungle.

A New Kind of Soda

Drinking Kaoba is a confusing experience for your brain, in the best possible way. You see “cacao” on the label, and you expect heavy, dark, and milky, but the liquid is clear and golden.

On the palate, it is champagne-like in its effervescence. It pairs the tartness of a green apple with the tropical lushness of a lychee. It is sophisticated enough to be a mixer in a gin cocktail, yet simple enough to be a post-workout refresher. It is the freshest cacaofruit soda on the market because we treat it like a fresh juice, not a soft drink.

We are not just selling a soda, we are closing a loop. By harvesting the fruit for Kaoba, we are providing farmers with a second stream of income from the same crop. We are taking what was once 70% waste and turning it into 100% flavour.

Nature did the hard work of engineering the perfect tropical refreshment. We just built the can.

We’re thrilled to announce that Kaoba is officially launching in Dubai in early 2026, marking a bold new step in our mission to share the incredible taste and sustainability story of the cacaofruit with the world.

This isn’t just another drink arriving on the scene. Kaoba brings something entirely new - a refreshing, clean, tropical flavour profile with notes of lychee, lime, and honeysuckle, made from just two natural ingredients, pure cacaofruit juice and sparkling water. It’s simplicity at its most premium, clean drinking, elevated.

From Dubai’s beach clubs to select restaurants, Kaoba is setting a new standard for mindful refreshment. It’s the drink you can sip in the sun, enjoy with friends, or mix into a light cocktail, all while knowing it’s made from an upcycled fruit that’s 100% sustainable.

This launch represents months of tireless work, late nights, and an unwavering belief in what Kaoba stands for. We wouldn’t be here without the dedication of our team and our valued stakeholder Daniel Thompson, whose guidance and belief in the brand have helped make this milestone possible.

Something special is happening in chocolate shops across the UK. Chocolatiers from London to Edinburgh are now offering Kaoba Cacaofruit Soda

By serving Kaoba, these forward-thinking chocolatiers are introducing their customers to the whole cacaofruit experience, from the bean that becomes chocolate, to the juicy white pulp that surrounds it. For centuries, that pulp was discarded. Now, it’s being upcycled into a refreshing, tropical, naturally sweet soda with hints of lychee, lime, and honeysuckle.

Kaoba is redefining chocolate culture, giving customers the chance to taste what nature intended all along: the full flavour of the cacaofruit. It’s clean drinking, made with minimal ingredients (just sparkling water and cacaofruit juice), 100% sustainable, and made for those who value flavour, transparency, and innovation.

By stocking Kaoba, chocolatiers are not only expanding their offering, they’re helping customers discover the origin story of chocolate in a glass. It’s a step toward zero waste, ethical sourcing, and a new way to experience cacao.

We're officially declaring it: winter is here! While we absolutely adore Kaoba served chilled and sparkling on a hot day, we've been experimenting in the kitchen, and guess what? We’ve stumbled upon a winter drink recipe that’s so good, it tastes like Christmas in a glass! Seriously, get ready for your new go-to holiday beverage.

You might know Kaoba as your go-to refreshing fruit soda, packed with the goodness of upcycled cacaofruit. But what if we told you it's also the secret to the most aromatic, comforting, and warming drink you'll have all season?

🌟 Introducing the Kaoba Winter Warmer! 🌟

Forget boring hot drinks, this is a game-changer! Imagine the unique, tropical sweetness of Kaoba, transformed by classic winter spices into a symphony of festive flavours. It’s light and fragrant.

Here’s what you’ll need for this incredibly easy recipe:

1 can of Kaoba Cacaofruit Soda (Original is perfect!)

2-3 whole star anise

A pinch of whole cloves (about 5-7)

1 slice of dried orange (or a fresh orange slice, if that's what you have!)

Ready to get warm and toasty? Here’s how you make it:

Pour & Spice: Gently open your can of Kaoba Cacaofruit Soda and pour it into a small saucepan. Toss in your star anise, cloves, and orange slice.

Heat Gently: Place the saucepan over medium-low heat. We’re not looking for a rolling boil here, just a gentle simmer to let those beautiful winter spices infuse their magic. Watch for a little steam to start rising, and let it warm through for about 5-7 minutes.

Serve & Sip: Carefully pour your fragrant Kaoba winter drink into your favourite mug. Take a deep breath of that incredible aroma – doesn't that just smell like Christmas cheer?

A deliciously warming, spiced fruit drink that’s perfect for chilly evenings, festive gatherings, or just a little moment of peace by the fire. It’s naturally sweet, so no need for extra sugar!

✨ Want an extra kick? ✨

For the grown-ups looking for a little something extra, a shot of brandy stirred in at the end takes this winter spiced Kaoba to a whole new level! It’s the perfect festive cocktail addition.

We're so excited about this, we'll even be sharing a video tutorial very soon to show you exactly how it's done! Keep an eye on our social channels and blog for that.

So go on, grab a can of Kaoba, embrace the cozy season, and create your own Kaoba winter warmer. Don't forget to tag us in your pictures! We'd love to see your creations.

Happy cozy sipping!