THE NORKA STORY

Based in Akron, Ohio, and originally founded by Jacob Paquin in 1924, The NORKA Beverage Company was known for its line of hand-crafted sparkling beverages. Following prohibition in 1920, breweries switched to producing soft drinks which prompted Paquin to open his own factory for NORKA (Akron spelled backwards) at 608 Spicer Street.

The NORKA bottling plant was a two-story building that covered 25,000 square feet and employed more than 50 workers with a fleet of 15 trucks.

NORKA was a hometown favorite with Akronites and was mainly sold in a six-county area surrounding Akron. During peak production in the late 1930’s, NORKA filled one thousand wooden cases a day with twenty-four thousand bottles. The original NORKA product line featured premium 7oz, 12oz, and 32oz sparkling beverages in custom glass bottles.

“NORKA Tastes Better” and “Everybody Likes NORKA” were the main slogans for the company, which distributed embossed tin signs to display on walls of local grocery stores, service stations, restaurants and other soda distributors.

Original NORKA flavors included:

• Orange

• Cherry-Strawberry

• Ginger Ale

• Root Beer

• Cream Soda

• Grape

• Lemon-Lime

• Mixer called “QK”

NORKA shut down operations in 1962, capping off nearly 40 years of soft drink history.  Now, 53 years later, we’ve revived this iconic local brand as a craft soda featuring the original flavors of Orange, Cherry-Strawberry, Ginger Ale and Root Beer, with more to come. Today’s NORKA Sparkling Beverages are made with Pure Cane Sugar, 100% Natural Flavors, and are both Caffeine & Gluten Free. We hope you agree that NORKA simply Tastes Better!