The NACS Debut

NO CAP! Soda Pop is rolling into the 2026 NACS Show in Las Vegas — running October 6–9 — with the first in-person retail presentation of its SOUR PUNCH collaboration, a four-SKU line of zero-sugar, zero-caffeine, zero-calorie sodas built around the candy brand's sour-sweet flavor DNA. The brand will occupy Booth N1171, positioning the launch squarely in front of convenience buyers during the channel's biggest annual trade event.

The four flavors in the SOUR PUNCH collection — Sour Blue Raspberry, Sour Strawberry, Sour Green Apple and Sour Watermelon — are already available through the brand's direct-to-consumer site and rolling out at grocery banners including Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions and Kroger chains such as Fry's, Smith's and Ralphs. On the forecourt-adjacent retail side, Chevron ExtraMile and Jacksons are among the first c-store partners carrying the line.

Momentum in the Channel

The NACS showcase arrives on the back of a notable performance benchmark. According to the brand, NO CAP! ranked as the No. 1 modern soda by both dollar sales and units sold at an unnamed national convenience retailer with more than 2,000 stores, based on that retailer's latest 12 weeks of SPINS data. The brand also cracked the top 10 across all carbonated soft drink brands at that chain — landing at No. 8 — less than six months after first gaining distribution there. For a company founded in August 2024, that velocity puts it on the radar of category buyers evaluating emerging dispensed-beverage and packaged-cold alternatives.

"This collaboration represents exactly what we want NO CAP! to be — bold flavors, brands people already have an emotional connection with and products that are genuinely fun to discover," said Vinny Wilson, co-founder of NO CAP! Soda Pop. "We're excited to get these flavors in front of retailers and show them what's coming next."

Licensed-Brand Play

The SOUR PUNCH drop is the third licensed collaboration NO CAP! has executed, following previous partnerships with ICEE and Albanese Gummis. The strategy is consistent with a broader pattern in the modern soda and better-for-you carbonated soft drink segment, where challenger brands are leveraging nostalgia-forward candy and snack IP to cut through a crowded cold vault and drive trial among younger convenience shoppers. Zero-sugar positioning — increasingly a baseline expectation in the c-store cooler — rounds out the platform.

For c-store operators evaluating new carbonated soft drink placements, NO CAP!'s early velocity numbers and multi-banner grocery co-distribution make it a candidate worth examining at the booth. The brand's willingness to bring recognized candy co-brands into the soda set gives category managers a familiar consumer hook without the marketing lift of building brand awareness from scratch.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.