Our Story
A Gut Feeling. A Great Drink. And One Very Dramatic Don.
It all started with two friends, one wild idea, and a salad. Yes, a salad. But stay with us, this gets fizzy real fast.
Meet Nikhil and Manal. College buddies, flavour fanatics, and lifelong sufferers of bad beverage choices. Nikhil, a closet beverage nerd with a not-so-closet gut issue, had been whipping up delectable beverages, and after the purchase of a soda machine- some sodas at home for years (his apartment’s kitchen looked more like a lab, honestly). Meanwhile, Manal, a serial foodie who'd happily cross continents for the perfect bite and flavour was on a mission of his own: find a soda/soft drink that didn’t taste like lab chemicals or betray his digestive system.
India’s shelves were full of sweet, empty promises. So the duo kept searching, until one fateful afternoon in a foreign land- halfway through a salad and a side of sci-fi movie nostalgia- they cracked it.
“What if there was a super-drink? Like a ‘tasty mocktail meets a gut-health pill from the future’ kind of drink?”
Cue dramatic lightning. (Okay, maybe it was just backlit lettuce on their salad platters, but you get the vibe.)
That day, they didn’t just dream up a drink. They dreamt up a damn revolution.
Armed with Nikhil’s bubbling soda skills and Manal’s gourmet escapades, they started mixing, tweaking, and tasting. Not for the market. Not for the masses. For themselves. For their gut health. For their cravings.
And what they landed on was nothing short of a miracle in a can: deliciously low in sugar, only 3-4 grams, super rich in dietary fiber (thanks to them experimenting with every possible ingredient that promised some amount of fibre in it), big on flavour, and good to your gut. Inspired by the vibrant tradition of Mexican agua frescas- those fruit, flower, seed, and cereal-laced gems- they built something clean, cool, and totally criminal (the good kind).
They named it Don Chico’s.
Because it made complete sense.
Because Don is power, and Chico is cheeky. Much like the two distinct personalities the two founders have (we’ll leave it to your imagination to guess who is what). Much like the soda they had concocted- cheeky flavours and powerful functional benefits (Also: Chicory root, our star prebiotic makes a sneaky cameo in the name. Coincidence? Not really.)
So here we are.
Don Chico’s isn’t just a soda. It’s a rebellion in a can. Built for people who crave indulgence without guilt. Who want fizz with function. And who believe that your gut deserves better than syrupy lies in a bottle.
And the best part? This is just the beginning.
The Don has much more to say.