Pop quiz: What Akron soda company turns 100 today? (Hint: It's 'Akron' backwards)

May 7 marks the 100th anniversary of NORKA Beverage , the soda named after Akron but spelled backwards.

Although the company wasn’t in operation from 1962 until Michael Considine started to revitalize it in 2014, the NORKA president is carrying on a legacy that is, in part, familial.

Considine shares a connection with NORKA’s founder, Jacob Paquin. Considine’s grandmother, Gene, was friends with Paquin’s daughter, Olive. The two walked to the NORKA manufacturing plant after school, Considine said.

“The orange was their favorite,” he said. “So, they would pick up an orange and continue their walk home.”

This year, Considine is celebrating NORKA’s anniversary with his friends, including some who are also clients.

He’s consistently restocking the popular pops at the Peanut Shoppe in Akron, where he and store owner Marge Klein, the first customer he sold to in 2015, both said they’re “like family.”

And he’s keeping up with deliveries to Ali Hovan, co-owner of HiHo Brewing Company in Cuyahoga Falls, who called Considine a friend.

"We want to promote each other, always,” Considine said from HiHo’s parking lot during a delivery there.

Considine said he will also have a "NORKA bar" at his wedding this fall.

“Gotta have a selection of all the flavors,” he said.

In order of popularity, those are root beer, cherry-strawberry, orange and ginger ale.

“But all do very, very well,” Considine said.

What’s good about NORKA?

Considine said he’s modernized recipes of the four NORKA flavors from when they were available during the 20th century NORKA era. The drinks are all made with cane sugar and natural flavors. The root beer has vanilla bean, cherry-strawberry has cherries and strawberries, ginger ale has ginger and orange, orange.

Sourcing with natural flavors comes with a higher price, but as Considine put it: “NORKA has to taste great. You can’t skimp on ingredients.”

Akronites and people from surrounding communities like to support local, Considine said.

“The local customer supports us, grabs us — and that's amazing that they’re supporting local like that,” he said. “But the other part of that is, it’s a great-tasting product. They wouldn't keep purchasing it if it didn't taste right.”

That all meshes with the HiHo team’s efforts to locally source what they don’t make themselves, Hovan said.

“We could have gotten Coca-Cola or Pepsi or whatever, but we just wanted to work with someone local,” she said. “And we like the product.”

In the summer seasons, HiHo uses the orange NORKA to create a shandy, which Hovan said is a popular beer style.

“When we do put it on, it's here and gone. It's definitely a labor of love, though, opening all the bottles and dumping it in,” she said, laughing.

Where is NORKA available?

In addition to the Peanut Shoppe and HiHo, customers can find NORKA locally in Acme Fresh Market and The Farmer’s Rail locations, among others.

It’s also available online on the NORKA website, Amazon, eBay and Summit City Soda.

Some locations, such as ball parks and pools, don’t allow glass — and some people like cans — so NORKA started canning its root beer last year.

Big out-of-state NORKA customers include Pops on historic Route 66 in Oklahoma, Jim’s Apple Farm in Jordan, Minnesota, and the Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop chain, Considine said.

The company also recently landed a distributor in Australia.

“It's kind of wild to me that NORKA's going places that I want to go,” Considine said.

NORKA's celebration

All year, NORKA is selling 100th anniversary T-shirts, tin signs, plastic cups, coasters and stickers, Considine said.

Liz Scott Designs created the graphics for the 100th anniversary items, as well as all of NORKA’s other designs, which were inspired from its original run, he said.

“I think Liz did a fantastic job of keeping our packaging in line with that history,” Considine said.

As with other years, NORKA will host special giveaways in 2024 at Taste of Akron, Akron Art Expo, PorchRokr and Akron Comicon, he said.

What are NORKA’s future plans?

NORKA works with a Northeast Ohio co-packer and a Pennsylvania distributor but also distributes out of a facility off of Industrial Parkway in Akron. There, the company is renovating its dock space and parking lot, Considine said.

He said he plans to add fresh takes on two more NORKA flavors that were part of the company’s original lineup — grape and cream soda. Those could launch as soon as this fall, he said.

Then, there’s the push to make freezer pops in grape, orange, cherry-strawberry and root beer flavors. Considine said he plans to release those in summer of 2025.

Klein said many of the customers that have come through the Peanut Shoppe said they cannot eat dairy, so the popsicles would add to the store’s non-dairy selection.

After recently hearing that NORKA is expanding into popsicles, Hovan began discussing with Considine the possibility of hosting a popsicle release party at HiHo.

"This is how small businesses work,” Hovan said. “We just were like: 'Let's do it! You want to do it? Let's do it.’”

NORKA's customer base grows

NORKA has only grown in popularity at the Peanut Shoppe, where a NORKA-branded cooler is one of the first emblems of local history to greet customers when they come into the store.

Local history: What the shell? Unusual items are on display at the Peanut Shoppe in Akron

“Some people come here every day for lunch and get one,” Klein said. “Oh, yeah. I have noticed that. The same guys I wait on almost every day — they always have a bottle of NORKA.”

Thanks to growing customer support, Considine projects 2024 will be one of the best sales years for NORKA since he started selling the soda pops again.

“To have that support keeps us going, keeps me passionate, and it's the reason we're here today and the reason we're growing and continue to do new and fun things that customers appreciate and hopefully enjoy,” Considine said.

Patrick Williams covers growth and development for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at pwilliams@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @pwilliamsOH.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Pop quiz: What Akron soda company turns 100 today? (Hint: It's 'Akron' backwards)