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Karma Cola and The Lucky Taco unleash a kicking aftertaste with Chilli Cola

The love child of New Zealand’s latest “brandmance” is nine months in the making and it’s turning up the heat, with brand neighbours Karma Cola and The Lucky Taco joining forces to create a Chilli Cola in celebration of Dia De Los Muertos – The Day of the Dead.

The product will be available for a limited time only, from 14 October till 1 November at Moore Wilsons and Farro Fresh.

Karma Cola co-founder Simon Coley says all sorts of flavour combinations were tested to find the collaboration’s sweet spot.

“We started by just mixing Karma Cola with The Lucky Taco’s habanero sauce, then we thought about making a margarita by adding lime and salt but we ended coming back to our two basic products side by side, they work so well together.”

While the new product is officially a limited offer, with only a few thousand bottles made, Coley says the experiment might develop further if the response is positive.

Karma Cola and The Lucky Taco share similar business philosophies, with care given to a products’ flavour and quality so working with The Lucky Taco is a logical step, Coley says.

“You see a lot of brands doing things like this, finding like-minded outfits to work with is a great way for us to add magic to what we’re doing and reach a bigger audience.”

The Chilli Cola is set to be a delight for the taste buds, with the heat providing a kicking aftertaste to the sweet drink.

“Chilli seems to be flavour of the month, I’ve seen a few craft beers with chilli in them. Putting chilli in drinks is so hot right now,” Coley says.

The cola’s artwork is a collaboration between The Lucky Taco co-founder and creator of its food truck’s friendly skull Otis Frizzell and artist Beck Wheeler, the illustrator behind the Karma Cola angel and devil.

Karma Cola is not the only iconic Kiwi drinks brand to unleash a bit of heat on the market. Earlier this month L&P released its own Mexican-inspired Chilli and Lime flavour to coincide with its rebrand.

Brand collaborations in New Zealand have the potential to be wildly successful, with the Whittaker’s and Lewis Road Creamery chocolate milk making global headlines in 2014 for its unprecedented success.

When Spark teamed up with Spotify to give customers complementary access to the platform on selected mobile plans, the number of Spark customers using Spotify increased by about 125 percent in 12 months.

And New Zealand brand collaborations don’t just benefit customers, some create new technologies. Last year, Gull New Zealand and DB Breweries combined forces to create a world first – commercially available biofuel made from a by-product of beer. 

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Caitlin Salter is a freelance writer who contributes to various publications at ICG Media.

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