We didn't set out to start a beverage company. We set out to find a sparkling water that didn't annoy us.
It should have been easy. Water plus CO2. The two most abundant things on earth. How hard could it be?
Turns out, very hard. In India, at least.
Option A: imported European brands. Great water, but Rs.250-400 per bottle. For water. We love sparkling water, but not enough to take out a loan for it.
Option B: Indian brands that add "minerals for taste" and sodium bicarbonate and whatever else. Read the label — that's not sparkling water. That's a science project.
Option C: flavoured sparkling water with "natural essences" that taste like someone waved a lemon over the bottle from across the room.
None of these worked. We wanted something simple: clean water, properly carbonated, no additives, at a price that doesn't make you feel guilty buying it daily.
So we made it.
SOMA is water and CO2. That's the ingredients list. That's the whole thing. No minerals added for taste. No sodium bicarbonate. No natural or artificial flavours. No sweeteners of any kind.
We carbonate at a level that gives you real, satisfying bubbles — not the wimpy fizz that goes flat before you finish the bottle. When you crack open a SOMA, you hear it. You feel it. The carbonation has presence.
The name? SOMA comes from an ancient word for a divine drink. We're not claiming divinity. We just liked that something so simple — water with bubbles — could feel special.
We priced it at Rs.99 for 330ml. Not because we couldn't charge more. Because we want you to buy it every day without thinking twice. Sparkling water shouldn't be a luxury. It should be a staple.
We launched in Bangalore because that's home. The city is full of people who care about what they consume, who read labels, who've traveled enough to wonder why India doesn't have a proper sparkling water.
Now it does.
No investors told us to add flavours. No marketing team said we need a health claim. No one convinced us to put "enhanced with vitamins" on the label.
It's just water. It's just bubbles. It's just honest.
That's why we made SOMA.