Sodas, spices, and scale: Inside India’s ethnic beverages revival

India’s massive unorganised ethnic beverages market is undergoing rapid transformation—and expansion—as traditional tastes and desi flavours like jaljeera, aam panna, shikanji, sattu, imli, and kala khatta, make a resurgent return to the palates of consumers, young and old.

One could perhaps argue that it all started with the disruptive brilliance and, what FMCG analysts call, “category-creating playbook” of Lahori Zeera, a homegrown beverage brand from Haryana that burst into national consciousness a few years ago, as it made north India swoon over its 10-rupee cumin-flavoured soda.

By marrying natural flavours and familiar tastes with quintessential desi nostalgia, Lahori Zeera turned the humble jeera soda into a Rs 500-crore juggernaut. Today, its 160 ml PET bottles are ubiquitous in north India’s small towns—from bus stops and temple promenades to corner stores, roadside dhabas, and paan shops.

“Priests are giving out our product with prasaad in Vrindavan and Haridwar. Gurdwaras in Punjab are serving it as a part of langar,” Lahori Zeera Co-founder and COO Nikhil Doda tells The CapTable. The beverage has replaced tea and coffee as the welcome drink in jewellery emporiums and car showrooms in north India, he claims.

By tapping into general trade channels and the vastly underserved Tier III-IV markets, where larger beverage brands continue to have a diminished presence, Lahori Zeera has cracked open an all-new niche in India’s non-alcoholic beverages market—estimated to be valued at Rs 1.5-2 lakh crore by 2030.

The space has traditionally been dominated by legacy giants like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Parle Agro, Bisleri, Dabur India, Tata Consumer Products, and others. But now, they’re all playing catch-up with multiple ethnic-flavoured beverages on the shelves.