Karma Cola full range

Craft soft drinks business Karma Cola has secured its first major UK supermarket listing.

The supplier is next week rolling out its Karma Cola, Gingerella ginger ale and Lemony lemonade to 200 Waitrose stores (rsp: £1.59/330ml bottle).

The business was founded by New Zealand designer Simon Coley and business partners Chris Morrison and Matt Morrison, with the dual aims of creating a cola with authentic natural ingredients and making a difference to the lives of farmers in countries such as Sierra Leone. To achieve this, Coley established the Karma Cola Foundation with fairtrade pioneer Albert Tucker, now the chair of the foundation.

Most of the ingredients in the eponymous cola are organic, and include cane sugar, barley malt extract, vanilla extract, lemon juice and the kola nut, which is rarely used in modern recipes, said the supplier. The kola nuts are grown in the village of Boma in Sierra Leone, while Gingerella uses fairtrade ginger grown by farmers in Sri Lanka.

“There are almost two billion branded cola drinks drunk every day, globally,” said Coley. “Until now, the people that grew the name ingredient in the world’s most popular drink flavour didn’t receive a penny. We wanted to launch a brand that connected the drinkers with the producers of kola in West Africa.”

Coley said the business’s first challenge was establishing how to get fresh kola nuts and find out more about the people that grow it. Tucker connected All Good Drinks with the NGO Welthungerhilfe, operating in Sierra Leone, which led them to the village of Boma.

“We then sourced the best fairtrade and organic ingredients from around the world for our not-so-secret recipe,” added Coley. “We’re very open about what goes into our drinks. You have a right to know everything that’s in your food and drink. If you can’t recognise or pronounce it you should think twice about putting it in your body.

“Our long-term aim is for the Boma and Tiwai communities in Sierra Leone to become self-sufficient, so as well as literally building bridges, helping send kids to school and paying for teachers, we’re helping them build their own commercial infrastructure.”