ZZAI started with a simple question: why doesn't America know how good these drinks are?
Real drinks. Real stories.
ZZAI is sparkling West African flavors made in the USA. Hibiscus, kola, botanical citrus, and tamarind, the real flavors of the everyday table, in a can worth keeping.
Why we made it
A drink in every important room.
Zobo — hibiscus the way our grandmothers brewed it. Chapman — the party spirit of Lagos, poured at every celebration. Obì — kola, the original cola, served in every important room you'll ever sit in. TamTam — mango and tamarind from the schoolyard. These flavors raised us. Now we're sharing them.
Chapman was the drink that made you feel, for a moment, like the most important person in the room. Zobo was the one my siblings and I pooled our change to buy from a street hawker walking home from school in Lagos — one cold cup between all of us. That was it. I've been chasing that first sip ever since. ZZAI is not a reimagining of these flavors. It is the flavors. The same ones that have always known how to make a moment feel real.
Zainob Fashola
Founder, ZZAI · Passaic, NJ
Queen Moremi · Ife
Eyo Masquerade · Lagos
Queen Amina · Zazzau
The Igbo ElderWhat we believe
Made with intention.
Four principles that shape every can — from sourcing to sweetening to the table it lands on.
Real ingredients
Hibiscus, kola, blood orange, cucumber, tamarind, sourced and extracted naturally. We don't reformulate down to a price.
From West Africa
Recipes from the table — Zobo from holidays, Chapman from Lagos rooftops, Obì from elder gatherings, TamTam from market stalls.
Made in the USA
Formulated in 2025 and made shelf-stable, so the can on your shelf tastes exactly the way we made it — on day one and on day ninety.
For the bar and the table
Complex enough to stand in for a cocktail, gentle enough to share with everyone at the table. Non-alcoholic, no high-fructose corn syrup.
How we got here
From the table, to the can.
Then
Already everywhere that mattered.
Chapman at every Owambe. Zobo from the streets of Lagos. Tamarind straight from the pod. Kola at the elders' table. These flavors didn't need packaging.
2011 — 2021
Two runs at it in Nigeria.
First a wine business — the market was ready, then Nigeria's economy wasn't, and a government embargo cut off access to capital. Then a made-in-Nigeria spirits brand rooted in local ingredients: tests run, equipment bought, and by the end of 2021 a mini production facility ready to go.
2022
Everything paused.
Circumstances brought me back to the US. I stepped back, rested, and started paying attention to what I was missing. The flavors I had taken for granted my entire life in Lagos were nowhere to be found here. The question kept coming back: why not?
Early 2025
The answer became a decision.
After years of building toward something in Nigeria, the mission shifted. The flavors I grew up with deserved to be here, and I built the team to do them justice: an expert flavor development partner translated these generational recipes into shelf-stable sparkling beverages without losing what made them worth drinking, and Rutgers University Food Innovation Center ran blind taste panels and market research that confirmed what I already knew. The flavors speak for themselves.
March 2026
Recipes locked.
Formulation complete. Every SKU tested, refined, and ready. The flavor in the can tastes like the flavor we grew up with. That was the only standard that mattered.
April - May 2026
The community said yes.
ZZAI launched on Kickstarter and funded at 129% of goal, earning a Project We Love designation. Proof that the people who grew up with these flavors, and the people discovering them for the first time, were ready.
June 2026
Into production. Into rooms.
Cans go into production. ZZAI exhibits at the Summer Fancy Food Show, New York City — our first time on a national trade floor.
Late June - mid-July 2026
First shipments begin.
As production inventory lands, the drinks that lived on street corners, in family kitchens, and at celebration tables across West Africa start arriving at your door. Sparkling. Exactly as they should be.
July 2026 onward
Onto the shelf.
ZZAI lands in premium specialty stores and co-ops across New York City. Our first store sells 84 cans in a single weekend, before we've run a single ad, and doubles its order. Every in-store demo sells out 48 cans within two hours. The flavors travel differently by neighborhood: TamTam leads in Brooklyn, Zobo in Harlem. We stay deliberately small while we learn what each shelf needs.
What customers say
They taste it once, and call it the real thing.
“Expected a watered down version of my childhood faves and I'm so impressed by how good these drinks are. Do not change your formulas please!!”
“This took me back to my Lagos days! Had to fight my husband off the last can.”
“The Zobo tasted just like the authentic Zobo I grew up drinking as a kid. One of my sons, though, absolutely loves the Chapman.”
5.0★ average across all published reviews.
