A customer at the re-opened Sidra Pino store buys a taste of his childhood.Photo: Courtesy

Demand high for return of beloved local soft drink

ByYucatán Magazine
A customer at the re-opened Sidra Pino store buys a taste of his childhood.Photo: Courtesy

Merida, Yucatan — A three-hour sale ended two hours early when all 200 boxes of Negra were snapped up by nostalgic Meridanos.

The locally bottled soda had been off shelves for 15 years, but apparently many residents never forgot the taste of Pino Negra.

The original recipe has never been found, but cantina owner Said Farah Ceh spent over a year trying to capture the banana-and-vanilla-flavored soda.

Farah Ceh even bought the old Sidra Pino store, on the other end of the block of his Cardenal Cantina, where it’s sold by the bottle.

Even before doors opened this morning, there was a line of customers waiting to pay 700 pesos, roughly US$35, for a taste of childhood.

Farah Ceh said he was bottling the soda in small batches while testing the public’s appetite for the Sidra Pino brand. No further store sales were announced.

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