HYDERABAD: The pop of a goli soda bottle, the cardamom-flavoured Kismi bar, the never-ending Mango Bite, the fun of slurping Pepsi-Colas (Chuskis) and swag of ‘smoking’ Phantom cigarettes — these are all back in the city. Only a 90s kid would know how much fun these treats were. In just Rs 10, one could get a whole lot of candy and soda. The best part was that these treats were unique, local and have now turned into souvenirs of the 90s. CE speaks to the makers and sellers of these nostalgic treats, who are bringing these back in all-new avatars.
These old treats encapsulate memories of the good ol’ times, says Arun Ruben, who runs Fat Cat Kitchen in Yapral. Walk into his restaurant and the first thing you notice is the jars of Phatom ‘cigarettes’ and Mango Bites, apart from a refrigerator stocked up with Goli Soda and Chuskis.
Arun’s unique selling point is memories. “When people come to Fat Cat Kitchen, they think about their college, their first date. The memories from these treats help people transcend into the good old golden days,” he says.
His restaurant is an old school-themed one, that brings feelings of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. “I pay a premium for procuring nostalgic treats like goli sodas, coin candies, Kismi toffees, Phantom ‘cigarettes’, Magic Pops and everything that was popular two decades ago, just so people re-live their past,” he says.
Tejitha Yalamanchili, who started cloud kitchen Streetco and sells Chuskis, says: “Whenever we buy water-based ice-creams, they come with a stick and melt quickly. These stick ice-creams cannot be carried home. The idea of starting Streetco sprouted from a childhood memory. I remember carrying these Chuski ice-creams home re-refrigerating them and enjoying them later,” she says.
The idea was to help people carry ice-cream home without worrying about it melting. “We make them using natural flavours and colours,” she adds. Swami Pemmadi, who runs a beverage store, Antique Goli Soda, in Jawahar Nagar, used to love goli soda as a child. “Now, 15 years later, I wanted to revive this trend by introducing new flavours such as Rose soda, Nannari Sharbat soda and Lime Lemon soda.” As most of his customers are students, Swami says all his goli sodas are priced at Rs 20. “I believe this is the reason why we end up selling 300-400 goli sodas every day,” he says.