Among the 50 tables of samples at the Taste of Somerville event on Wednesday will be Wander Cat Cola, a fizzy drink that’s locally crafted and handmade with whole spices by Somerville resident Allison Ventura.
You’ll still be among the early tasters to sample Wander Cat Cola, though the unusually flavored beverage has been available at New Leaf Espresso or at pop-ups since launching last year.
It all started with a drink at a Japanese convenience store. Ventura came across Iyoshi cola while traveling in Shibuya and was immediately intrigued by the surprising flavor profile of what’s considered the first craft cola. Unlike most American colas, Japanese craft colas feature a wider range of flavors, such as citruses and botanicals, and less sugar – reminiscent of the drinks marketed here in the 1880s as health products to alleviate various ailments.
This sparked Ventura’s imagination, but “the craft cola community in Japan is what really inspired me,” Ventura said. “It’s a collaborative and friendly community of people trying to reinvent a known commodity and tell their own story through their product.”
She wanted to re-create the spirit of that community and bring the same excitement for craft cola back to Somerville; last year, she quit her career in tech to become a soft drink entrepreneur. She started her business at “probably the worst time,” she said – around when the presidential administration changed and many resources to help smaller businesses became more restrictive.
“The amount of risk any individual person is willing to take will be different depending on their circumstances, but regardless, you just have to get started,” Ventura said.
Brand and taste
First, she needed to come up with a brand identity. She played around with the concept of “wandering,” which reflected her career trajectory and invoked a sense of curiosity. She also knew that she wanted a mascot, one that could take her place at times. As a lover of cats, it seemed natural that felines would feature in the brand. Cats are inquisitive creatures, and she hopes the same sense of curiosity would pique a passerby’s interest. “I hope curiosity gets people to try my cola … You might be surprised by what you taste.” The logo and branding concept was developed in collaboration with designer Adam Danielson of Ducktail in Portland, Maine.
Developing a cola and bringing it to people is not easy. Producing the physical product, complying with food safety regulations, getting the right permits, finding retail locations – it all takes time and effort. Many hours of experimentation and lots of taste testing went into just developing the base cola formula.
Next came finding ways to bring the cola to consumers. Most brick-and-mortar locations require high upfront commitments and overhead costs. Even local farmers markets and spaces such as Bow Market are competitive to get into.
Pop-ups and collaboration
To test how the cola would do with real customers, Ventura started with one-off pop-up collaborations with local businesses. Wander Cat Cola launched in a partnership with Yume Wo Katare, a local ramen shop in Porter Square, in June 2025. (Yume Wo Katare was also the first home for the Basque cheesecakes made by Duly Lee under the Korean Momma name). The cola and ramen combination proved to be a success, enough for the pop-up to return regularly. Soon after, the cola made its way to local fairs, from the Fluff Festival in Somerville to the Gore Place Sheep Shearing Festival in Waltham.
“I’ve learned there are way more markets and festivals than I ever knew existed,” Ventura said.
Ventura found help in navigating the bureaucracy and finding resources at Somerville-run online office hours and was able to work with local shops including Curio Spice Co. and New Leaf Espresso. “I would have no business if it weren’t for the collaborative nature of other small businesses in the area,” Ventura said. “I’m currently working on building relationships with other small businesses that might be interested in selling my craft cola concentrate, so stay tuned on those collabs.”
A future of more flavors
Serving consumable beverages at local markets comes with its own set of logistical hurdles. “Liquids are dense and very heavy. They don’t compress at all,” Ventura said. She typically serves her cola at markets with a small team of one or two, so the work is pretty intense, especially at busier festivals such as Fluff Fest. But seeing customers’ faces light up after a taste, or chatting with customers who go out of their way to seek out her cola, more than makes up for it. “What I’m doing is a little unorthodox, and you never know if you’ll find your people, but I’m beyond grateful for those who really appreciate what I’m doing.”
Ventura uses a commercial kitchen in Charlestown to make small batches of cola syrup to serve at in-person events; a food processing center in Greenfield makes bottled syrup for larger production runs.
“I definitely want more flavors, and I’d love to highlight local ingredients more if possible as well. Although my first thought was a brick-and-mortar, I actually like that my syrup can be served at existing restaurants that I’ve come to respect and I can provide them with a new revenue stream. I want my cola to be a gift to stores and restaurants that I admire as much as it is business for myself,” Ventura said.
How to get it
New Leaf Espresso sells Wander Cat’s concentrated bottled syrup, and it’s on the shop’s daily menu: Mixed with espresso, it’s called the Somerville Fridge Cig – a jokey reference to cans of soft drinks being an addictive habit – and is one of the cafe’s signature drinks.
“I just love how spice forward it is. It’s not just sweet. You really get a lot of the different spices in it that you just don’t get out of something in a can,” said Dani Johnson, a barista at New Leaf Espresso. “We’ve gone through several batches of the concentrate. I’m certainly making a lot of them.”
Bottles of the syrup are also available directly from the Wander Cat Cola website. Outside of Somerville, a handcrafted cola can be found Saturdays at the North Fairhaven Open Air Market on the South Coast.
Taste of Somerville, 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Boynton Yards, 101 South St., Ward 2, Somerville. Rain date: Thursday. $65.
New Leaf Espresso, inside a Razors Barbershop at 308 Highland Ave., Spring Hill, Somerville
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