Why Kraft Dinner launched a new KD Cream Soda collaboration with a Toronto company - Toronto Star

Solley’s Craft Soda teamed up with Kraft Heinz on a low-sugar beverage. Here’s how the subtle, cheesy brew actually tastes.

Star food reporter Karon Liu, right, and Solly’s Craft Soda owner Adin Wener check out the display of his new KD Cream Soda at Summerhill Market in Rosedale.

That’s what Adin Wener, co-founder of Toronto soda company Solly’s Craft Soda, wants you to do before deciding whether the latest KD collaboration belongs in the fridge or the garbage.

The collaboration between Kraft Dinner and Wener’s company launched on Sept. 23. Not surprisingly, the initial social media response has been a mix of disbelief and morbid curiosity, much like the reaction to the CNE’s annual food lineup.

“I just want people to judge it after they’ve tried it,” said Wener, who is also the co-founder of Henderson Brewing Company in the Junction. “There’s a lot of preconceptions. Just make sure it’s cold when you have it.”

It’s why Wener asked me to meet him at Summerhill Market in Rosedale on a Friday morning. With permission from store management, I grabbed a can of KD Cream Soda from the refrigerated shelf, cracked it open in front of the KD display and took a drink while Wener waited for my reaction.

I’ve had my share of stunt sodas over the years, including Jones’ poutine-flavoured soda, which was unfortunately very faithful to the flavours advertised. I’ve also had Burdock Brewery’s kimchi water that was fine. Mountain Dew had a Flamin’ Hot flavour a few years ago that was a forgettable lemon-lime with a mild burn. So where does Solly’s soda stand?

The predominant flavour is cream soda with relatively restrained sweetness rather than carbonated cheese sauce. After a few sips, a very faint savoury, slightly cheesy aroma and aftertaste emerges, but only if you’re paying attention. It’s subtle enough that I could see the soda working alongside food rather than competing with it. 

I finished the can and ended up buying four more for friends and family to try. At Summerhill Market, one of the stores in the GTA currently stocking it, they were $3.99 a can or $10 for four cans. 

Wener initially reached out to the Kraft Heinz Company a year ago at the encouragement of his youngest son (and Solly’s sales manager), Jordan. The idea was to do a collaboration to stand out among the increasingly saturated craft soda market.

In Ontario alone, smaller brands such as The County Bounty Artisanal Soda Co., Barbet, Muskoka Springs and City Seltzer compete alongside larger names like Brio, Clearly Canadian and The Pop Shoppe. 

Solly’s KD Cream Soda was designed to mimic the packaging of a standard Kraft Dinner box.

“The parameters we defined for ourselves was that it had to have KD qualities,” Wener said. “We’re not going to put that into the taste, but we decided early on to go with that cheese smell. There’s no cheese in the soda.” 

That distinction was important to Wener. He didn’t want Solly’s, which is named after one of his sons, to become known for putting out a gross-tasting novelty product.

“I’m putting my family’s product on the line, so it had to taste good,” he said.

Solly’s also had its own requirements: low sugar, 35 to 45 calories, prebiotic ingredients and all-natural flavours.

Because Wener didn’t want his soda to taste carbonated can of sugar and cheese powder, he opted for a more neutral cream soda base and then worked with the team at Kraft-Heinz to layer some essence du fromage in to it.

“You work with a flavour house to recreate the cheesiness of KD, but then you have to have this balance where it’s drinkable and has some residual sweetness and tastes like a cream soda.”

Adin Wener, owner of Solly’s, pours out a can of his KD Cream Soda.

Solly’s KD Cream Soda is the latest in a string of collaborations Kraft Dinner has done with other Canadian food companies. In May, Etobicoke bakery San Remo released a KD cheesecake. Beavertails announced it was topping its poutine and hotdog with KD, while Booster Juice’s KD smoothie was one of the most talked-about food offerings at this year’s CNE. Like the soda, the smoothie was also very muted in cheesiness.

“Initial surprise is part of the fun,” Kelly Fleming, Kraft Heinz’s Canadian chief marketing officer, wrote in an email when asked why the company pursues these kinds of collaborations rather than pairing KD with products such as potato chips or crackers, where cheese flavour would be more expected.

For Wener, the collaboration is also a significant milestone for a small soda company.

“It’s a huge checkmark for our little startup soda brand, which can give a lot of confidence to consumers and retailers across the country that we could work with one of the largest food companies in the world,” Wener said. “There were tons of checkmarks and quality control marks we had to hit. Kraft-Heinz wasn’t going to put their signature product on something that doesn’t hold up.”

In addition to Summerhill Market, the soda can be found at Fiesta Farms, Henderson’s flagship store in the Junction, as well as restaurants at Pearson Airport such as The Hearth and Fionn McCool’s (it’s also on Solly’s own webstore). On a larger scale, it’s hitting Walmart shelves nationwide as well as London Drugs on the West Coast in October.

So those hoping for a can of effervescent cheese sauce will be disappointed that the soda doesn’t go to that extreme. But on the bright side, it’s a perfectly fine and drinkable soda that will score you some cool uncle points when you give one to your niece.

Karon Liu is a Toronto-based food reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: karonliu@thestar.ca.