Although often aimed at a younger audience, popular culture — or simply pop culture — is anything that is currently “in” with a majority of the public. Given how quickly pop culture changes it can be hard to keep up with and define.

As consumer preferences evolve, carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) are seeing key attributes of these products take on a new meaning. Culture Pop Soda, Watertown, Mass., is redefining what it means to be a “pop” or soda (depending on the region) in this current market.

“Consumers are looking for better, healthier products, and traditional carbonated soft drinks have been declining for several years,” says Tom First, founder and CEO at Culture Pop. “Consumers are reading labels, and many young people didn’t grow up drinking Coke or Pepsi. Modern soda brands like Culture Pop are bringing new consumers into the category and likely reclaiming consumers who left.”

Modern soda has become the growth segment for CSDs, First adds, and he expects that trend to continue with probiotic and prebiotic sodas having carved out their own segment in the CSD category,

“Gut health has proven itself as a true function that people care about,” First says. “It may have started with kombucha, but we’ve made it more accessible with products like Culture Pop. Our flavor profile is familiar, and I think brands in the modern soda category have made gut health more mainstream.”

General health awareness and consumer attention to ingredients have helped the probiotic and prebiotic soda segment grow, he notes.

“There’s been increasing press coverage connecting the human gut to overall health and disease prevention,” First shares. “I think attention to probiotics first broadened with yogurt, but over the last 10 years, it has become a major focus and priority for consumers. OLIPOP brought prebiotic fiber to carbonated soft drinks and has done a great job helping build the category as well.”

First founded Culture Pop in 2020 after he saw an opportunity to bring functionality and cleaner, real ingredients to the category. He previously co-founded Nantucket Nectars and later worked with an array of brands across the food and beverage industries.

“People love carbonated drinks, but so many of the options are loaded with sugar and other sweeteners,” First says. “I really wanted to bring better ingredients to a functional beverage and deliver a carbonated soft drink to consumers who were looking for no high-intensity/artificial sweeteners and who were left out of the category.”

Embracing authenticity 

Culture Pop’s portfolio consists of classic soda flavors like Lemon Lime and Grape. First notes that the Strawberry Rhubarb and Orange Mango & Lime offerings have been the brand’s best-selling flavors for a while, but the brand’s collaboration with singer-songwriter Noah Kahan to release Sparkling Black Cherry has been seeing great success.

The limited-edition flavor with Kahan aligned with a donation of $100,000 from Culture Pop to his mental health initiative, The Busyhead Project. The mission-first partnership, which was cemented in October 2025, is built on shared authenticity and New England roots.

“We were looking for a partner to help us spread the word about Culture Pop, and Noah represents everything Culture Pop stands for,” First recalls. “He’s authentic and refreshingly real. He was a fan of the brand since his club days in Vermont and built a community by being himself, and that’s exactly what we’re doing with soda: making something for real people.”

Not to mention, Black Cherry is Kahan’s favorite flavor, and it literally flew off the shelves, First adds.

Culture Pop recently launched its first lemonade flavor, Sparkling Raspberry Lemonade, which First says he is “really excited about.”

“It hits on the nostalgia and seasonal readiness of lemonade, with a lightly sweet, tart and complex flavor, but staying true to our mission leaves out high-intensity sweeteners,” he shares.

The single biggest difference between Culture Pop and the other probiotic sodas on the market is that it delivers a full-flavored carbonated drink without being overly sweetened, First says.

“We do it with a juice blend, herbs and spices, and a live probiotic,” he notes. “We don’t use any artificial sweeteners, stevia or refined sugar, just organic fruit juice to give Culture Pop its slightly sweet taste.”

The brand is always looking to create newness for its customers, First shares, often drawing inspiration from cooking and cocktail recipes to spark ideas for new flavors.

“We’re currently focusing on perfecting and expanding our soda line and are very excited about our expansion into lemonade with our new Sparkling Raspberry Lemonade flavor, which just launched,” he says. “This is one of my favorites yet, and I can’t wait to see what people think of it.”

Rising pop-ularity 

Available in retailers across all 50 states, the brand is distributed nationwide through broadline distributors like KEHE and UNFI, as well as direct-store-delivery (DSD) distributors in a large part of the United States.

“The brand has strong distribution in the national channel and significant distribution in conventional grocery, and is in the early stages of developing distribution in mass channels like Walmart, Target and Costco,” First shares.

Last year, Culture Pop announced it was launching in all Costco locations in the Northeast. The launch included a new, exclusive 15-pack of Culture Pop featuring three fan-favorite flavors: Orange Mango & Lime, Strawberry Rhubarb and Black Cherry.

“Launching in Costco is a milestone for Culture Pop,” First said in a statement at the time of the launch. “As a Massachusetts-based brand, we’re excited for even more people across the Northeast to experience what makes our soda different. We want shoppers to read our ingredient statement because we’re proud of how we make Culture Pop. No refined sugars, no sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit or aspartame — just real ingredients that taste amazing.”

First notes that the brand is expanding its distribution in conventional grocery stores this year and hopes to see continued growth as the year progresses.

“Through our DSD partners, the brand is constantly expanding distribution into new channels, such as independent grocers, foodservice and QSR,” First says. “In the coming years, we expect significant growth with larger retailers as the brand gains greater awareness beyond our strongest region, the Northeast.”

Culture Pop recently increased its advertising efforts, employing regional radio and advertising to help grow brand awareness and let consumers know that it is “a different choice in the modern soda category,” he notes.

“The ads are pretty homespun, fun and seem to be well-received so far,” First adds.

“I really wanted to bring better ingredients to a functional beverage and deliver a carbonated soft drink to consumers who were looking for no high-intensity/artificial sweeteners and who were left out of the category.”

– Tom First, founder and CEO at Culture Pop Soda

And, the brand’s partnership with Kahan has been “huge,” he says.

“He is such a natural ambassador for the brand, and pulling an ecosystem of consumer touchpoints around that partnership has been so fun,” First explains. “From radio spots to a social campaign, we’ve built out how this partnership lives amongst our current and future customers. We released an [limited-time offering] (LTO) of Noah Kahan Sparkling Black Cherry, which helps connect our relationship with Noah and the retail trade.”

He describes the LTO can as a beautifully packaged product that draws a lot of attention to Culture Pop’s shelf sets.

“We also love hearing from our community,” First says. “The tidbits they send us — like their hunt for the Noah Kahan collab, favorite flavors, what they want to see from us next — always make an impact on what we do next.”

Describing the brand’s fanbase as strong and loyal, the CEO shares that he is extremely grateful for their support.

“People who really understand Culture Pop do, and we’re always working to connect with them,” First states. “I actually still answer a portion of our customer service emails and social comments to this day.”

Culture Pop is always trying to reach new consumers, and taking to the streets and in stores is one of First’s favorite things the brand does.

“You can often find me around Boston, inviting new customers to try the product,” he says. “We love to bring Culture Pop to you, so keep an eye out for us.”

Whatever might be next from the brand, it is clear that Culture Pop aims to deliver on authenticity and nostalgia.