Sandro Roco - Sanzo Sparkling Water
Sandro Roco’s Sanzo sparkling water is a modern take on Asian flavored beverages with authentic taste and health in mind. The Queens, NY native was walking through H-Mart in New York’s Koreatown when he was inspired to create a beverage using ingredients unique to the Asian community in a way not yet seen/tasted before. Sanzo’s first flavor was calamansi, a beautiful citrus fruit from the Philippines that bodes well with sparkling water. Next came the flavors lychee from Thailand and Alphonso mango from India. Presented as a sparkling water, these flavors celebrate and preserve culture in a beautifully subtle way, maintain a taste very familiar within the AAPI community, and are low in calorie with no added sugar.
Sanzo has partnered with AAPI retailers in NY and LA like Momofuku, Boba Guys and Spoon & Pork, and can be found in markets and local natural food stores all around New York City and at Alfred Coffee locations in Los Angeles.
What is the inspiration behind Sanzo? And when did you decide to pursue it as a sparkling water business?
I was inspired to create Sanzo after walking into H-Mart in New York’s Koreatown and noticing a gap between the modern, clean labels of the new-age “American” brands and the preservative- and sugar-laden labels of the legacy Asian brands.
In my view, America’s tastes in not just food, but culture at-large are easternizing. There's a litany of proof points, but to name just a few:
1. Parasite just recently took home Best Picture among its 4 Academy Awards
2. Crazy Rich Asians was the 6th highest grossing romantic comedy of all-time in the US.
3. BTS sold out the 91k-capacity Rose Bowl on back-to-back nights. 88Rising also did a capsule collection with Guess that sold out in 20 minutes.
Yet, you see very little of that influence on the beverage shelves. Our mission is to build the modern beverage brand the world deserves, accurately reflecting and celebrating Asian flavors.
How did you decide on the flavors calamansi, mango and lychee?
Primarily, the goal was to celebrate fruits that I felt for far too long had been "hiding" in syrups, sugars and concentrates. Calamansi was definitely the first. I felt like it was the best possible version of a citrus fruit, but perhaps needed a medium like sparkling water to truly shine.
Alphonso mango and lychee came after and followed a similar hypothesis of wanting to celebrate the beauty and natural nuances of the underlying fruit.
Was there a lot of trial and error when creating the drinks, sourcing the fruit, perfecting the flavor?
It took a bit of iteration to figure out the right concentration of fruit juices/purees and the correct sourcing. But if I'm being honest, the formulation is so simple that once we got linked to the right people, the rest of the product wasn't too hard to put together. The complexity of the beverage business, quite frankly, has been the bigger source of learning and experimentation.
What has been the reaction to Sanzo since it launched?
The AAPI community enjoys these beverages because they're seeing their flavors represented in a very new way, but by someone from the community. And folks not in our community have also enjoyed the discovery of new flavors in a sparkling water category that is competitive, but not super differentiated in its flavor offerings.
To build on this, though -- if we could have just been successful within the Asian-American community and at Asian or "Asian-adjacent" eateries, I would've been pretty happy. And with retail partners such as Momofuku, Boba Guys, Nom Wah, and Spoon & Pork (among many others), I'm already so grateful to have the community support us.
But we're also seeing that we're a top beverage at places like by CHLOE., a multi-store vegan fast casual concept primarily based in NYC, and Alfred Coffee, a multi-store uber-trendy coffee shop concept. And that has me feeling even more so that my hypothesis of cultures crossing over through beverages is accurate.
How has growing the brand been challenging and been rewarding?
Launching and growing a beverage brand is not for the faint of heart. The day-to-day work is tremendously "unsexy", and you really have to embrace the process and the little wins that come along such as shipping efficiencies, improvements in gross margin, etc.
But the rewards have significantly outweighed the challenges. Again, I would've been super happy with just creating a beverage that better served our community. When we get Instagram DMs or emails saying "I feel like I've been heard", gosh that's so rewarding.
But seeing that we're starting to bridge cultures, that people are really embracing the mission and worldview behind our brand, that builds purpose. And as an entrepreneur, but I guess also as just a human, that sense of purpose just makes you feel really alive.
What is important about highlighting Asian flavors in a low calorie, no sugar added sparkling water?
After several decades, it seems we've identified consuming too much sugar as the culprit of many health-related issues in this country. Consumer trends are reflecting this, and it's not just at trendy coastal grocers.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of Asian-inspired offerings don't quite reflect these trends. And I think that's a big reason why our products get stuck in the corner of the "ethnic aisle". As we're seeing broader popular culture increasingly easternize, I felt like it was important to have a beverage that truly reflected the times.
Whether Sanzo is a taste of home or a source of discovery, I felt like stripping away the sugars, concentrates, extracts, etc. was the best way to present, preserve and celebrate these flavors.
Do you have other flavors you are planning to produce?
I do, but nothing I can share at this time :)
Are there any events or pop ups for Sanzo coming up?
We do! The best way to stay up-to-date on our ongoings is to follow us on Instagram @drinksanzo. A follow on our account gets you info on new product and distribution launches as well as hopefully entertaining and educational memes and call-outs to the Asian-American and natural foods communities.
Photos courtesy of Sandro Roco
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